Project 4 - “Zoo Lawm or Recovery” - Excerpt

“Zoo Lawm or Recovery” is a trilogy of three performance videos created over seven years that are interpretations of my queer and generational traumas. Each title is in my father’s native language, Hmong. As my family fled communist Laos at the end of the Vietnam War to America they faced unbearable psychological, emotional, and physical traumas. Their pain and joy live in my body, mind and soul. There lives manifest in my work and in this three part series. The first video “Quav Yeeb or Addiction” is about my struggle with substance abuse set in the spiritual realms of the Hmong after-life. I produced, designed costumes, co-choreographed and co-wrote the script as well as produced and wrote the music. “Hlub Tus Kheej or Self- love” is an exploration of the afterlife in a self-directed, self-filmed, self-edited, and self-produced performance video set to a song I co-produced and wrote. Finally, “Kaj Siab or Joy” is the reincarnation of my existence on earth: a one shot, completely improvised queer genre bending dance in my hometown Fresno, California where a majority of Hmong refugees live. This film is set to a cover song of Fleetwood Mac’s “Go Your Own Way” which I produced.