VAALA Staff

vaala staff Ysa D. Le
VAALA Board President
ViFF 2005 Festival Co-Director
Ysa D. Le starts involving with the art activism in 2000 when she volunteers for VAALA (Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association), a non-profit organization. Since then, she has produced and co-produced many events such as Dang Thai Son Piano Recital; Little Saigon Book Fair I; F.O.B.: A Multi-Art Show; Cinema Symposium 1 and 2; and most recently, Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2003 and 2005.
Since 2001, Ysa has been hosting “Vong Chan Troi Van Hoc Nghe Thuat” (“The Art Horizon”) program on VNCR 106.3 FM weekly reporting art events in the community and interviewing the artists. She received the Arts and Culture (In-Language) Award from New California Media in 2003 for her article on Mimi News reporting the revival of the traditional performing art Cai Luong in the Vietnamese community.
Graduated from University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in 1994, Ysa currently works as a pharmacist at St. Joseph Home Care Pharmacy, Orange, California.

vaala staff Tram Le
VAALA Board Vice President

Tram Le Tram co-founded Club O’ Noodles (CO’N) which is not only the first Vietnamese-American theater troupe in the U.S., but also a pioneering group within the Vietnamese community that experiments with modern performance including comedy, drama, and performance art. She was the Producing Artistic Director (1999-2001) and a key performer to the troupe from its inception in 1993 to the present. She has produced, written, performed, and/or hosted numerous CO’N productions.
In 2002, as a Board member for the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA), she was Project Director and Curator for the multiart exhibition, F.O.B: A MultiArt Show, an inspiring exhibit with 40 artists of different mediums challenging the different labels, including the pejorative word, “fob,” that are put on Vietnamese aritists. This introduced to the community a new way of not only looking at artists, but also artworks and questioning conventional notions of art.
In 2003, she spearheaded the first ever Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) in the world. It was a successful event with thousands of people attending 8 days of screenings, workshops, symposiums, and galas to honor over 40 international filmmakers and their works. Tram is currently pursuing her M.A. in Asian American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

vaala staff Thuy Tran

Thuy N. D. Tran has a B.A. in Art History with dual minors in Anthropology and Museum Studies from UCLA and is a MA/PhD fellow in Art History at Arizona State University. Her present thesis research focuses on art by 1.5-generation Vietnamese American artists, exploring perceptions of cultural identity and national history.
Her most recent project was curating VAWAFest: Art Exhibition showcasing the works of contemporary Vietnamese American women artists (2004). She was also curator and participating artist for The Difference Between Us exhibition on racism in America at UCLA (2000). She has also worked on various art exhibitions as curatorial intern for Phoenix Art Museum (2003), as a Getty curatorial intern for UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center (1998) and as a Getty educational intern for Pacific Asia Museum (1996).
She also has a long volunteering history as officer for the Vietnamese Student Union (VSU) and the Vietnamese Language & Culture (VNLC) organizations at UCLA -- from Tet Festival Coordinator (1997-1998), to Language Tutorial Coordinator (1998-1999), to Director of VNLC (1999-2000). Her other volunteering experience also involved Venice Art Walk (1999), Lotus Festival at Echo Park (1996), UCLA Vietnamese American Student Conference (1997), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Festival at UCLA (1997), and as Vietnamese Reaching Out to Aid the Community Project of UCLA (1996-1998).

vaala staff Vivian LeTran
VAALA Board

Vivian LeTran is a bilingual writer, editor and art critic based in Los Angeles. She has a particular passion for covering the arts, pop culture and diversity issues. She worked as a features staff writer for The Los Angeles Times, writing extensively about the visual and performing arts and about "Little Saigon" in Orange County—home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. Born in Vietnam, LeTran grew up in "Little Havana," a Cuban-American neighborhood in Miami, Fla., and graduated from UCLA in 1995 with honors in English Literature. She won the 2006 New American Media Award for a series on politics and the Vietnamese-American community in Orange County. As a National Press Foundation Fellow, LeTran worked as a foreign correspondent covering the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. She was named 2004 Poynter Institute for Media Studies Fellow and received the USC Western Knight Center Annenberg School of Communications Fellowship for online journalism.

vaala staff Jenni Trang Le

Jenni Trang Le graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology. She has spent the last six years focused on theatre, community work, and most recently, film. During her undergraduate years, she was very involved in the Vietnamese Student Union VSU), and in 2001 wrote and directed Culture Night. Most recently she was the Associate Festival Director for the second biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2005. She currently sits on the VAALA board where she continues to support fellow artists.
Jenni performs, markets, and produces for Club O’ Noodles (CO’N), a Vietnamese American theatre troupe where she holds the title of Vice President. She has performed and written for CO’N since 1999 (“Stories From a Nail Salon”, “Laughter From the Children of War”, “Lovestories”, “Club O’ Noodles Show”). Le works for Van Son Entertainment where she stage manages live concerts including a show in Tokyo, Japan in 2004, and coming next, in Manila, Philippines in June 2005.
From January through March 2005, Jenni held a position as Assistant Acting Coach and Vietnamese Liaison for a feature film entitled, “Holly,” which was filmed on location in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Jenni finds an outlet for her poetic creativity through Mai Piece, a spoken word tria featuring AnhDao Le Do, Taylur Thu Hien Ngo, and herself. Together they run a monthly open mic in the heart of Little Saigon, where artists (young, old, new, and seasoned) are encouraged to experiment, support each other, find inspiration, and in a sense, find their own voice.

vaala staff Taylur Thu Hien Ngo

Taylur Thu Hien Ngo is an arts and community advocate for non-profit organizations KPFK, VAALA, and Planned Parenthood. With the group Mai Piece, she co-founded One Mic in January 2004, the first open mic to bring multi-generation writers and musicians to Little Saigon – hailed as the “Harlem in Bolsa” by OC Weekly. Taylur has received the Freeman Scholarship to study in Viet Nam, Rosenthal Fellow, and recently served as Guest Artist for USC. Taylur is now VAALA Youth Committee Co-Chairperson.

vaala staff Do Le Anh Dao

Do Le Anhdao is a bilingual and bicultural writer, performer, and activist. Do was born in the once beloved capital of Viet Nam: gritty and exquisite Sai Gon. The complexity of her birthplace signifies her possession of a Vietnamese heart and diverse characteristics as an immigrant of generation 1.5. Her writings in Vietnamese and English show her love and inspiration for both languages and cultures. She graduated from UCLA and now lives in Las Vegas. She takes poetic refuge in Mai Piece, a spoken word and music collective. Do currently dedicates her time to working as a women’s rights advocate for the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence. She aims to develop a love for the highway landscape from Las Vegas to Orange County, which she travels monthly to host One Mic, an open mic in the heart of Little Saigon. When Do is not driving, writing, hosting, or advocating, she can be found working on Grift Sense, a two-person act about con-artistry and fraudulent mind-reading in which she performs with her boyfriend, Apollo the Pickpocket.

vaala staff Viet Le

Viet Le is an artist, creative writer and curator. He has received creative fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center (MA), Banff Centre (Canada), and PEN USA. He received his MFA from UC Irvine, where he has also taught, and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at USC. His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work has been featured in Asian Pacific American Journal, Corpus, Amerasia Journal, Flaunt, the anthologies "So Luminous the Wildflowers" and "Blue Arc," among others. His latest curatorial projects included "Miss Saigon with the Wind" (Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA) and "Charlie Don't Surf: 4 Vietnamese American Artists" (Centre A, Vancouver, Canada).

	Ysa D. Le VAALA Board President ViFF 2005 Festival Co-Director Ysa D. Le starts involving with the art activism in 2000 when she volunteers for VAALA (Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association), a non-profit organization. Since then, she has produced and co-produced many events such as Dang Thai Son Piano Recital; Little Saigon Book Fair I; F.O.B.: A Multi-Art Show; Cinema Symposium 1 and 2; and most recently, Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2003 and 2005. Since 2001, Ysa has been hosting “Vong Chan Troi Van Hoc Nghe Thuat” (“The Art Horizon”) program on VNCR 106.3 FM weekly reporting art events in the community and interviewing the artists. She received the Arts and Culture (In-Language) Award from New California Media in 2003 for her article on Mimi News reporting the revival of the traditional performing art Cai Luong in the Vietnamese community. Graduated from University of Southern California, School of Pharmacy in 1994, Ysa currently works as a pharmacist at St. Joseph Home Care Pharmacy, Orange, California.

	Tram Le VAALA Board Vice President Tram Le Tram co-founded Club O’ Noodles (CO’N) which is not only the first Vietnamese-American theater troupe in the U.S., but also a pioneering group within the Vietnamese community that experiments with modern performance including comedy, drama, and performance art. She was the Producing Artistic Director (1999-2001) and a key performer to the troupe from its inception in 1993 to the present. She has produced, written, performed, and/or hosted numerous CO’N productions. In 2002, as a Board member for the Vietnamese American Arts & Letters Association (VAALA), she was Project Director and Curator for the multiart exhibition, F.O.B: A MultiArt Show, an inspiring exhibit with 40 artists of different mediums challenging the different labels, including the pejorative word, “fob,” that are put on Vietnamese aritists. This introduced to the community a new way of not only looking at artists, but also artworks and questioning conventional notions of art. In 2003, she spearheaded the first ever Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) in the world. It was a successful event with thousands of people attending 8 days of screenings, workshops, symposiums, and galas to honor over 40 international filmmakers and their works. Tram is currently pursuing her M.A. in Asian American Studies at University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA).

	Thuy Tran Thuy N. D. Tran has a B.A. in Art History with dual minors in Anthropology and Museum Studies from UCLA and is a MA/PhD fellow in Art History at Arizona State University. Her present thesis research focuses on art by 1.5-generation Vietnamese American artists, exploring perceptions of cultural identity and national history. Her most recent project was curating VAWAFest: Art Exhibition showcasing the works of contemporary Vietnamese American women artists (2004). She was also curator and participating artist for The Difference Between Us exhibition on racism in America at UCLA (2000). She has also worked on various art exhibitions as curatorial intern for Phoenix Art Museum (2003), as a Getty curatorial intern for UCLA/Armand Hammer Museum of Art and Cultural Center (1998) and as a Getty educational intern for Pacific Asia Museum (1996). She also has a long volunteering history as officer for the Vietnamese Student Union (VSU) and the Vietnamese Language & Culture (VNLC) organizations at UCLA -- from Tet Festival Coordinator (1997-1998), to Language Tutorial Coordinator (1998-1999), to Director of VNLC (1999-2000). Her other volunteering experience also involved Venice Art Walk (1999), Lotus Festival at Echo Park (1996), UCLA Vietnamese American Student Conference (1997), Asian Pacific American Heritage Month Festival at UCLA (1997), and as Vietnamese Reaching Out to Aid the Community Project of UCLA (1996-1998).

	Vivian LeTran VAALA Board Vivian LeTran is a bilingual writer, editor and art critic based in Los Angeles. She has a particular passion for covering the arts, pop culture and diversity issues. She worked as a features staff writer for The Los Angeles Times, writing extensively about the visual and performing arts and about "Little Saigon" in Orange County—home to the largest Vietnamese population outside of Vietnam. Born in Vietnam, LeTran grew up in "Little Havana," a Cuban-American neighborhood in Miami, Fla., and graduated from UCLA in 1995 with honors in English Literature. She won the 2006 New American Media Award for a series on politics and the Vietnamese-American community in Orange County. As a National Press Foundation Fellow, LeTran worked as a foreign correspondent covering the International AIDS Conference in Bangkok. She was named 2004 Poynter Institute for Media Studies Fellow and received the USC Western Knight Center Annenberg School of Communications Fellowship for online journalism.

	Jenni Trang Le Jenni Trang Le graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles with a Bachelors of Art in Anthropology. She has spent the last six years focused on theatre, community work, and most recently, film. During her undergraduate years, she was very involved in the Vietnamese Student Union VSU), and in 2001 wrote and directed Culture Night. Most recently she was the Associate Festival Director for the second biennial Vietnamese International Film Festival (ViFF) 2005. She currently sits on the VAALA board where she continues to support fellow artists. Jenni performs, markets, and produces for Club O’ Noodles (CO’N), a Vietnamese American theatre troupe where she holds the title of Vice President. She has performed and written for CO’N since 1999 (“Stories From a Nail Salon”, “Laughter From the Children of War”, “Lovestories”, “Club O’ Noodles Show”). Le works for Van Son Entertainment where she stage manages live concerts including a show in Tokyo, Japan in 2004, and coming next, in Manila, Philippines in June 2005. From January through March 2005, Jenni held a position as Assistant Acting Coach and Vietnamese Liaison for a feature film entitled, “Holly,” which was filmed on location in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. Jenni finds an outlet for her poetic creativity through Mai Piece, a spoken word tria featuring AnhDao Le Do, Taylur Thu Hien Ngo, and herself. Together they run a monthly open mic in the heart of Little Saigon, where artists (young, old, new, and seasoned) are encouraged to experiment, support each other, find inspiration, and in a sense, find their own voice.

	Taylur Thu Hien Ngo Taylur Thu Hien Ngo is an arts and community advocate for non-profit organizations KPFK, VAALA, and Planned Parenthood. With the group Mai Piece, she co-founded One Mic in January 2004, the first open mic to bring multi-generation writers and musicians to Little Saigon – hailed as the “Harlem in Bolsa” by OC Weekly. Taylur has received the Freeman Scholarship to study in Viet Nam, Rosenthal Fellow, and recently served as Guest Artist for USC. Taylur is now VAALA Youth Committee Co-Chairperson.

	Do Le Anh Dao Do Le Anhdao is a bilingual and bicultural writer, performer, and activist. Do was born in the once beloved capital of Viet Nam: gritty and exquisite Sai Gon. The complexity of her birthplace signifies her possession of a Vietnamese heart and diverse characteristics as an immigrant of generation 1.5. Her writings in Vietnamese and English show her love and inspiration for both languages and cultures. She graduated from UCLA and now lives in Las Vegas. She takes poetic refuge in Mai Piece, a spoken word and music collective. Do currently dedicates her time to working as a women’s rights advocate for the Nevada Coalition Against Sexual Violence. She aims to develop a love for the highway landscape from Las Vegas to Orange County, which she travels monthly to host One Mic, an open mic in the heart of Little Saigon. When Do is not driving, writing, hosting, or advocating, she can be found working on Grift Sense, a two-person act about con-artistry and fraudulent mind-reading in which she performs with her boyfriend, Apollo the Pickpocket.

	Viet Le Viet Le is an artist, creative writer and curator. He has received creative fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center (MA), Banff Centre (Canada), and PEN USA. He received his MFA from UC Irvine, where he has also taught, and is currently pursuing his doctoral studies at USC. His artwork has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and his work has been featured in Asian Pacific American Journal, Corpus, Amerasia Journal, Flaunt, the anthologies "So Luminous the Wildflowers" and "Blue Arc," among others. His latest curatorial projects included "Miss Saigon with the Wind" (Highways Performance Space, Santa Monica, CA) and "Charlie Don't Surf: 4 Vietnamese American Artists" (Centre A, Vancouver, Canada).