Civis has commissioned a new multimedia performance work by lê thi diem thúy. The triptych sets out to explore three different time frames in U.S. history: the Reconstruction era, drawing from the congressional debates over the Civil Rights Act of 1875; the Civil Rights era, homing in on 1968, mobilizations and conflagrations at home and abroad, in Vietnam; and our still unfolding present. These three eras raise urgent questions regarding war and peace, sovereignty, freedom, the social fabric, and belonging – crystallizing the meaning, practice, and viability of our constitutional democracy in ways that are especially alive and pressing. The work is titled ‘The persons of a distant people’ recasting a fragment from a deleted passage in Thomas Jefferson’s first draft of the Declaration of Independence.
Lê thi diem thúy is a poet, novelist and solo performance artist. She left her native Vietnam by boat in 1978 with her family and settled in Southern California. lê writes about the experiences of Vietnamese refugees living in the United States, in her words, the “floating casualties of history.” By focusing on the experiences of individuals within historic events, she confronts conventional history and memory. Her well-received first novel, The Gangster We Are All Looking For (2001), chronicles the life of a Vietnamese girl growing up in California with memories of being a boat refugee and of a brother who drowned in Vietnam as well as an alcoholic father.
By focusing on the experiences of individuals within historic events, lê confronts conventional history and memory.
Lê is the recipient of fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation (2004), the Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study (2002-2003), and was named a Ford Fellow in Literature by United States Artists (2008). Her solo performance work includes Red Fiery Summer and The Bodies Between Us, which have been performed throughout the United States at venues including the Whitney Museum of American Art, the Vineyard Theater, and the New WORLD Theater at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Abroad lê’s work has been included in the international Women Playwrights Festival in Galway, Ireland. She is a graduate of Hampshire College.
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