“A love poem dedicated to the woman of my life”
Music by Matthew Vista
Singing by HoHoua Xiong www.youtube.com/user/hohouaxiong
Audio Editing: William Wong
Video Editing: Antony Marshall
Shout outs to UC Davis SAFE Southeast Asian Furthering Education for taking part in the video
They say “Those who cannot learn from history are doomed to repeat it”
So it must be the case that he who writes history
Wanted a round two
Cause all I see when I watch the news
are headlines that match
the titles in my high school history text books
Worlds and War and Western thinking
run on repeat like broken records
Eurocentric Euphuisms like West expansion
Exploration, Manifest Destiny, and Spreading Democracy
tactfully translated from truth as
Slave trade, colonists, imperialism
Exploitation of all your natural resources and a bad excuse for US Military
Americans play red, white skin and blue superman savior mentalities
Third world nations being left with nothing
But pillaged lands, broken homes & false promises of American dreams
History textbooks are written like a
A bad version of Lord of the Rings
and I’ve been bored since the first book
and we haven’t even talked about world history
American Propaganda
Last year’s communist
Is this year’s terrorist
The blatant basatardizing of brothers of color
To beat them down
so maybe history doesn’t repeat itself
it just seems to rhyme a lot
and we’re just caught up in the bad remix
If you don’t write your histories and tell your stories
Someone else will
And I’m not saying it’s the man
And that someone
is usually really white
Really old
And Really male
Someone need to tell my young students that
Vietnamese people
My people
My History is more than 2 textbook pages about a war
We’re a culture, a peoples, a way of life
Someone needs to tell my Hmong student
That his people’s history of helping the US CIA
In Secret War
And why its still a god damn secret
And no one knows about it
We need to tell our own stories
and if hypocritical historians can
ridiculously rant on this racist
run-down of history
than I can do it too
from now on
the migration of Southeast Asians to America
since the fall of Saigon
will now be known as
“Manifest beautification”
Cause goddammit we look good
When we talked about
Generalitistic construct that justifies a reverse racism
Called “Melting Pot of America”
Will now be called “Pho-ism”
Cause a little bit of Pho makes
Everything better
And mother is the real P.O.W.
Not prisoner of war
But through living through a refugee camp for 8 months
She was in a prison of warriors
We will write our histories
We will make our remixes
And this poem is the beginning of my mix tape
“Don’t Really” Fong Tran Poetry Original
Its like my life and my friends lives have been put on a super timeline!
Excited to host a workshop Saturday and Sunday of the Catalyst Foundation’s Culture Camp!
Talented Vietnamese professionals from all over the nation, Empowered Young People and Vietnamese Food! I’m super JUICED!
“I Hate Being Vietnamese” by Fong Tran
Vid Credits go to Dou Her
It is finally here. Since the beginning of the slam season in August of last year, poets have been competing every month to earn a spot in the semi-finals. 18 poets made it into semi-finals and after two days of competitions, we are down to our top 8!
The poets competing in finals are as follows:
Fong Tran
Buddy Sahagun
The Poet “i”
Jazz Sufi
The Saint
Katelyn Lucas
Rob Zenz
Leo Bryant
Finals will consist of a total of 9 poets. Where is that 9th poet coming from? Well, right before the finals competition, we will have a one round, last chance slam. Whoever receives the highest score in that slam will automatically be placed in finals. Sign-ups will be first come, first served on the list. Preference will go to poets that have competed previously in semi-finals.
And if all that isn’t enough to get you in the seats, our hostess for the evening will be none other than the Oakland Poetry Slam Host/Coach Nazelah!
We are not only making history in the city of Stockton, but we are putting the Valley on the map in the slam community. Please support this event because not only will it be a fantastic night of poetry, it will also be a fundraiser for the 2012 Pierced Ear Poetry Slam team and getting them to Nationals in Charlotte, NC.
See you there!
Admission - $8
Click following link or photo: http://www.facebook.com/events/128257107303202/
”Ripples” by Fong Tran
dedicated to Matthew Shepard
and Trayvon Martin
The real circle of Life! This really explains everyone’s life path if or if we don’t choose to walk it
Speeching towards the end of this VId! It was an honor to represent at the Iu-Mienh Student Educational Conference!
Click this Link:http://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/24/4362655/uc-davis-multicultural-poetry.html
Sac bee Article about me, my poetry, my life and the love of my life: my mama. Its a privilege to have this coverage and I thank all the folks that continue to support. I am product of your love
The reincarnation of Batman. Stockton-born, Sacramento-raised, UC Berkeley Graduate, Second Generation Southeast Asian Vietnamese American brother raised and judo-trained by a single mother and 4 ANH CHI EM's. Bat-mobile Driven by Social Justice/Community Liberation & mi MAMA!! Sacramento Community Organizer & Youth Advocate by day. Spoken Word Artist & Social Butterfly by night. Fong is a bodacious poet of UC Davis SickSpits Poetry Collective. His poetry emphasizes on giving voice to marginalized peoplez and sharing stories of the beautiful struggle that we call life. 
