Each year at our Black April Commemoration at San Jose City Hall, we host a reception prior to the program where share the history and experiences of the Vietnamese Americans through shared visual art, audio recordings, photography and more. While we can’t join together in 2020 for the 45th Commemoration, we’ve compiled some of the collections and exhibits submitted by community members or organizations for you to explore and experience. A deep appreciation to our community friends and partners for sharing their work with us, especially during this shelter-in-place period.
Join Us – 45th Black April Commemoration – Facebook Live on April 30, 2020 at 6:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m.
2020 Collection
1 – “Cơm Gia Đình / Family Dinners” a project by VAR (Link Here)
The Vietnamese family dinner is usually the heart of the family; where everyone comes together after a long day to share a meal. Everyone is expected to contribute to the dinner, from food prep, cooking, to setting up and clearing the table. For many families, this time is also about cultural retention – how do we pass along our family history and traditions through our meals at the dinner table?
For our 2018 Black April Commemoration, VAR collected a few family recipes along with the family’s refugee and immigration stories. For our 2020 commemoration, Kavi Vu, storyteller, spoken word artist and videographer from Atlanta, Georgia, created a video capturing the recipes, the story, and the memories behind one family’s recipe of bún riêu.
2 – “South Vietnam: Memories and Perspectives” a project from ICAN (Link Here)
This project by ICAN aims to bring the Vietnamese American community together, capturing the history and creating a legacy that would honor the older Vietnamese American generations and anchor the younger generations, and helping our children and grandchildren remember how their ancestors came to America. “South Vietnam: Memories and Perspectives” engages members of the Vietnamese community in the San Jose area to record and share their stories in the form of written passages and images to ensure that future generations have access to the unique and under-represented perspectives of refugees and immigrants from South Vietnamese individuals: their lives, cultures and journeys through the Vietnam War and its aftermath, the exodus, and the acculturation process in America. ICAN would like to thank their partner agencies such as Viet Voters, Viet-American Mental Health Network, Vietnam Voluntary Foundation (VIVO), United Vietnamese American Neighbors (UVAN) and others. We hope you, and many other groups and individuals would lend a hand in writing these historical chapters of our Vietnamese-American community.
- Story 1: My Pet Cow / Con Bò Của Tôi
- Story 2: Visiting My Husband in the Reeducation Camp & pt.2 / Thăm Nuôi Chồng Trong Trại Cải Tạo
- Story 3: The Road to Freedom pt.1 & pt.2 / Con Đường Tìm Kiếm Tự Do pt.1 & pt.2
3 – VAR Reading List & Vietnamese Culture Children’s Activity Book
4 – Ephemeral / Một Thoáng Qua by Alex Nguyễn (Link Here)
