Keynote
ALEX LUU
Alex Luu is a critically acclaimed solo performance artist, workshop facilitator/teacher, and independent filmmaker who graduated from UCLA’s School of Film/Television. Luu has been performing & facilitating/teaching the MY OWN STORY (MOS) workshop nationally since 1989 and 1997, respectively.Luu’s autobiographical “performance theater” work addresses themes such as identity, racism, body image/politics, family dynamics and the overall under representation of People of Color (especially Asian American males) in mainstream media & culture.
Based in Los Angeles, Luu combines performance art, monologue, and physical movement in a kinetic no-holds-barred style and presentation that is at once hilariously over-the-top and heartrendingly poignant. Luu’s one-man show “Three Lives” and other performance works have garnered critical acclaim from publications such as Los Angeles Times, Boston Globe, South End News, Asian New Yorker, LA Weekly, Orange County Weekly, AsianWeek, Chinese Daily News, Rafu Shimpo, and Eugene Weekly.
In addition to performing nationally, Luu facilitates/teaches MY OWN STORY (MOS), an autobiographical writing/storytelling/performing workshop for adults and college/high school around the country. Luu has been artist-in-residence and guest artist professor at numerous arts & community organizations and colleges with his “Three Lives” show and MOS workshops. His most recent artist & lecturer residencies include Berklee College of Music (Boston), Boston Mayor’s Office of Arts & Tourism, and the Asian American Studies Dept at UC Davis.
KIEU-LINH CAROLINE VALVERDE
Kieu-Linh Caroline Valverde is Associate Professor of Asian American Studies at the University of California, Davis. She received her B.A. in Political Science and Ph.D. in Ethnic Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Her teaching, research, and organizing interests include: Southeast Asian American history and contemporary issues, mixed race and gender theories, social movements, Fashionology, Aesthetics, Diaspora, and Transnationalism Studies. She authored Transnationalizing Viet Nam: Community, Culture, and Politics in the Diaspora (Temple University Press 2012). Professor Valverde founded Viet Nam Women's Forum (1996-2006), a virtual community with hundreds of women internationally that mobilized for change in Viet Nam. Professor Valverde was a Luce Southeast Asian Studies Fellow at the Australian National University (2004), Rockefeller Fellow for Project Diaspora at the University of Massachusetts, Boston (2001-02), and a Fulbright Fellow in Viet Nam (1999). As a passionate advocate for the arts, she curated the exhibit Áo Dài: A Modern Design Coming of Age (2006) for the San Jose Museum of Quits and Textiles in partnership with Association for Viet Arts, and consults for the annual Áo Dài Festival held in San Jose, California (2011-present). She is currently co-curating an upcoming exhibit for the Vietnam National Museum of Fine Arts to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the end of the Second Indochina War.