dao is fundraising on Indiegogo to complete/release/publish WE WERE MEANT TO BE A GENTLE PEOPLE, an innovative music/literary EP-CHAPBOOK project. CAMPAIGN ENDS ON JUNE 15, 2012. You can help by making a contribution or simply spreading the word...
Please visit our page on Indiegogo to contribute or learn more.
THANK YOU for your support!!



'We Were Meant To Be A Gentle People' EP & Chapbook Project


WHAT MAKES IT MEANINGFUL

There is a tradition of sung-poetry in Vietnamese culture called "ca dao." Music and poetry/storytelling have for many centuries been a part of my people's mode of expression. As a writer of books, I have occasionally encountered a sense of limitation in being able to fully express what I feel is important about the world and the circumstances of it I've been placed amidst; it seems there is a vulnerability and immediacy of ethos that is conveyed differently (orally) with music than with words on a page. With this hybrid music-literary project, where I seek to combine both written and sung voices, I hope to reenact - in a fashion adapted to our current tools and era - some of the old tradition of "ca dao."

Through this, I hope to voice thoughts, impressions, emotions about the inheritance of Vietnam, her war and diaspora, and about being born into her late-century circumstances.

As I mention in the video above, I believe there are still things unspoken about the Vietnam War and especially about the aftermath of war. The story of the Fall of South Vietnam has yet to be widely told from the perspective of the South Vietnamese, for instance. I have been a child of this war, all of my life seeking to understand and learn how to reconcile the implications of this inheritance. I believe I am not the only one with this story, however. I am just one voice amongst many, in a transitional generation - in the Vietnamese diaspora, we are called the "1.5 generation." And I believe it is time now for us to tell our stories and try to bridge the gulf that lingers, not too very far, behind us.


WHY THIS REQUEST FOR FUNDING

I have previously published two books of fiction, Grass Roof, Tin Roof (a novel) and The Gentle Order of Girls and Boys (a book of four novellas). These books have been well-received, and I am grateful that they have found their way out into the world. I have self-released two solo albums, which were also well-received, though to a modest range of audience. Though I have worked very hard at my craft and at the constant, challenging practice of being a writer and a musician, I do not make my full living doing these things I love. I supplement my work as an artist by teaching and freelance writing.

For the past 5 or so years, I have been at work on this project of songs and stories related to Vietnam. At the same time I have been just living the life in front of me - work, family, homeschooling my son for his elementary school years, moving from place to place, seeking the right spot to put down new roots. Sometimes the work of making art is slow-going amid all the other work--inner and outer--we must do in our lives....READ MORE HERE.






(( prose | songs | wanderings ))