For this edition of Lattes with Ladies, I interview the multi-disciplinary Huong Vo about poetry in the pandemic and really choosing what stories you want to read and write.
Huong Vo is poet (both spoken word and on the page), career coach, and yoga practitioner. Her recent poem for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is called Gold Excellence, and you can watch her performance for JAYU SLAMS National Poetry Month called “Don’t Need That Kinda Love” on Youtube. To see what she does next, you can follow her on Instagram at @ohhodgepodge and @careerswithhuong.
HPL: What have you been reading lately?
HV: Lately, I was gifted The Poet X by Elizabeth Acevedo for a belated birthday gift, and it’s so much fun. It’s a young adult novel in verse, so it’s written from the point of view of Xiomara who is, I think, Dominican-American. She goes by X as her poet name. I love how the novel, because it’s in verses, is just pure poetry that you can pull out. It takes me back to how I was, especially since it’s been about 10 years since I graduated from high school. And all the family tension and conflict, especially growing up in an immigrant household and her establishing her boundaries… There’s this one hilarious scene that I could relate to so much where she brings a priest to her house to help be the mediator between her and her mom after they’ve had a huge blow out. Oh my gosh, I totally called up the priest to rat on my dad, like “Hey priest, you think my dad’s a chairman, he’s all good but I’m gonna tell you…” And the priest would literally come to my house and pretty much do counselling for my mom, my dad and me and my brother. Oh, I could just relate to it so much. It’s a different culture but those similarities with Catholicism and immigrant struggles and trauma, it’s been really enjoyable [to read].
I’m starting yoga teacher training this October and it actually has a syllabus of five books that we’re to read. They said feel free to have a head start, and I’ve been just having little peeks into Embracing Yoga’s Roots by Susanna Barkataki. She is an Indian woman living in the States and she’s all about decolonizing yoga and using it as a tool toward justice, healing, and equity which is so important to me as someone who finds yoga extremely therapeutic. I guess you can relate that to the theme of poetry as well, just raw feeling of healing and expression, and reclaiming your voice or your body in that sense. A lot of healing when one is alone during the pandemic. When you’re not distracted and just prioritizing what’s important.
HPL: How would you say your reading has changed since you studied literature at a university level?
HV: I think I mentioned this to you, and you said you noticed this in other people too, but I was very much just slightly traumatized from the academic reading of an English degree. Just the pure volume of things that we had to read and countless essays. To be frank, I’m not sure if it was the right degree for me I was just really stubborn and decided, well, I’ve put in this much time might as well finish it. I find that I try not to take it too seriously now, and just simply enjoy reading. Instead of needing to understand all of the theories or the philosophies behind things or overly analyzing it, having the ability to relate to the writing especially as I am understanding my identity better or being able to heal and take up space.
HPL: We did joke about it but you’re far from the first person who has come on my blog, or I’ve invited to come on my blog, and has politely said “Um, I don’t think I can read again for a while.” And that’s ok!
HV: I think the biggest change, especially now, is you have the freedom to choose. We have the freedom to choose. Especially for me I’ve been focusing on a lot more BIPOC, female writers instead of a lot of old, white dead men for literature. I guess, looking at what drew me to the degree in the first place, when I was in high school, having that enjoyment of being in AP English class thinking, “Yes! Everyone else loves reading and we’re all nerds who have piles of books. We loved discussing characters or metaphors and different places.” As well as for me, I don’t know if you know this but in high school, I used to enter a lot of poetry contests. Then in university because I prioritized more of the rhetorical professional writing [courses] because that would get me marketing jobs—being practical—or more of my business degree or even prioritizing the timing of French classes, I never got to take a creative writing class which I think that would have been more beneficial for me. I don’t even think I took a poetry class which is really sad.
HPL: I had no idea! I think that is a shame but it’s never too late to take a creative writing class. And you certainly don’t have to take one from a university.
HV: For sure! I’ve been taking more poetry workshops that are sometimes open [to the public] that are collaborations from universities or different poets. I took one that was a part of National Poetry Month with Britta B. who is a local Toronto-based poet. It was actually an American university that hosted her and it was free and public so I figured, “Yeah, why not?!” I like finding spaces where [poetry] is appreciated like the Toronto Poetry Slam, that I competed in and I actually made it to the second round in my first time, or the JAYU had a poetry slam which was for National Poetry Month. I was competing with national-level champions, which was so humbling, and to make it into my second round in my first time that is so incredible and to learn so much from them as well was so special.
HPL: You have a real gift for it! I really loved Gold Excellence. Reading it, I can tell you know your way around a poem.
HV: I did learn some stuff from English! [laughs] It didn’t all go away. But it’s about taking back what serves me and I can use it as an outlet and as a voice. Especially with the rising Anti-Asian hate, there is a large Asian diaspora that is waking up to their racial pain, which, hello, I can definitely relate. And being able to have that mindful practice of being able to communicate it. In mental health they say, ‘What you conceal and don’t reveal will fester’ so its all part of that healing journey.
HPL: What made you want to do spoken word now and how does that line up to written verse for you?
HV: I think it really shows my growth as a person. When I wrote poetry in high school it was very private. It took my teachers prying me to get me to compete and enter it in a contest. But even when I was at the awards ceremony and they invited me on stage, they asked, “And now can you read your poem out loud?” I was like, “What. Poetry is to be read.” I was utterly terrified of reading it. As if reading it out loud would diminish the angst and the loneliness of writing it, which were a lot of the feelings that I was feeling at that time. Now as someone with more experience who is able to be more comfortable with myself and with others, and especially live performance, [spoken word] adds another layer of depth where instead of someone reading it in their own voice, you get to experience it along with the artist. In the workshop I took with Britta B., she was saying something along the lines of, ‘Written poetry is on the page and to be read whereas spoken word is something on the stage.’ I’m completely butchering it, but she made it rhyme and made it beautiful. But that’s what I really love about spoken word, where in addition to the beautiful language and metaphors in poetry, you hear the rhythm. You can see how poetry is arranged on the page which is an art itself, but, when you are performing it, you have the tone, you have the pacing, you have the silence, you have the raises in volume, you have that body language of how someone takes up the stage.
HPL: Would you say that spoken word has also began to influence how you read things on the page? And if so, how would you say it is influencing your reading?
HV: When I’m watching the spoken word performances, I’m curious now about almost reverse engineering it. Did this person speak it in their head, or did they write it out and practice it? And what does it look like on the page? I’ve really loved Melissa Lozada-Oliva, her performances with Button Poetry. She is a Latin American immigrant and her collection is called peluda, which means almost like a hairy beast or hairy monster. Seeing her perform it on stage… she has such a unique tone and presence. She swears. There’s a funny poem she has called, “The women in my family are bitches” and she reclaims the word bitches. Seeing it written out, I guess that’s informed my reading where I’m balancing both. I’m someone who is also a very visual learner so yes, I’m watching them in a video or hopefully on stage one day in the future when things open up again, but I also love to follow along with [the poem] in text because I find that text has that permanence or concreteness. I like to look at both. I’m purposefully seeking out people who are maybe dual poets and authors. Now the book The Poet X is novel in verse, so balancing storytelling and poetry.
HPL: Do you remember the book or the sentence or the word that made you want to study English?
HV: Not sure I have a straightforward answer to this. I could share with you my first memory of why I wanted to immerse myself in the English language or write my first poem. As an immigrant—or 1.5 or 1.75 generation person—in ESL classes or as a group in school, I learned that language is power. Language allows you to capture people’s attention or to show your needs. As kids, you get made fun of for having an accent or having lack of language. So, I thought, “Oh, if I master English then I will have this superpower.” I was in ESL until grade 2 and then in grade 3 my book bag was filled with books. I remember writing a poem for Earth Day and my teacher asked me where I copied it from. And I said, “No, I wrote that.” It was a really corny poem about: ‘My mother the Earth is special, she has forests and trees, something, something so special as far as your eyes can see.’ I just remember the joy of writing poetry and also the doubt of one’s teacher thinking I was not yet capable of writing it. I think ever since I’ve always just loved reading. In high school, when I was at the fork-road of ‘should I choose what I want to study’ versus what my parents want—which is the typical immigrant dream of being a doctor… my parents also met in a hospital in Vietnam and my dad is a trained radiologist so there’s a little bit more weight to that—I made a conscious choice of choosing English because I could not fathom being a doctor and touching people and their bodily fluids. I was more in love with words than I was with anatomy, I guess.
HPL: What about the future? I know you did a lot for National Poetry Month. What are your plans going forward? Do you plan to write more poems, read more poems, or read more books?
HV: Definitely. I’ve been getting involved in more open mics rather than competitions because not everything needs to be a competition. I found the community of FreeFlow Showcase where they have featured artists, but at the end of the event they always have an open mic. I’ve found that to be a beautiful community where it’s safe to share. As well, yes, reading. Although I’m sure a lot of people can relate, just the strain after a day on a computer is hard on the eyes, so I guess listening to it is more feasible to me and, in the future, I would love to perform on stage. I remember in University of Waterloo when the Women’s Centre they would pair up with the [Glow Centre] and have poetry slams. I was just in awe of the poets. I was like, “Oh my god, I could never do that!” They were pouring their heart on the stage and they were so vulnerable yet powerful, and now it’s like, “Yeah, I’m going to do that!” Just feeling the energy of the crowd is something so magical for me and I find in my work too as a facilitator, I really miss in-person workshops. Eventually in the future, I’d like to write my own chapbook or poetry anthology. I’ve always been the person in my family to collect stories like the observations I make about my grandparents or the fact that I sought out my great-uncle in France, who is Vietnamese and his family all married French people. I’ve always been curious about the diaspora and culture, and when I was 16 and going to Vietnam for the first time I decided to plot out the family tree and there’s like 70+ people which is crazy. So, I’d love to be able to share some of my family stories and mythologies. I think that would be a way to create my legacy, if I have kids or grandkids, for them to see their family history written out. Especially for people who had to leave a country abruptly or are refugees, you don’t have family heirlooms or a lot of documentation and I think that it’s important to be able to share that with the future generations. There’s a saying that in the first half of your life you run away from your culture and family and in the second half you start seeking it or going towards it. I mean, I’m going to live much longer! [laughs] But as adults we have that ability to choose.