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Bad Activist is a multimedia musical performance dramatizing the true story of singer-songwriter/ activist Mai Khoi (dubbed “the Vietnamese Lady Gaga”) and her journey from pop stardom to purpose. Performed by Khoi herself, it incorporates storytelling, live video, archival footage, and original animation in a bold evocation of her past, present and future hopes.

Mai Khoi is an award-winning Vietnamese singer, composer, and activist. Her compositions and vocal performance represent the meeting of diverse musical traditions (Western and non-Western, acoustic and electro-acoustic, etc.) and confound listener expectations with experimental and, at times, highly improvised arrangements. In 2010, she rose to stardom after winning Vietnam’s most prestigious award for songwriting. As a popstar, Khoi released eight albums (in genres of Vietnamese pop and dance) and made regular nationally televised performances. At the height of her fame, her engagement with activism brought her into conflict with Vietnam’s authoritarian government and transformed her artistic practice. Her artistic transformation is evident in Mai Khôi Chém Gió, a genre-splicing dissident trio she founded in 2016 that combines protest music with free jazz and lost musical traditions of Vietnam’s hill tribes. She then went on to participate in Seaphony, a project that aims to create the first pan-Southeast Asian orchestra comprised of ethnic minority musicians, as a conductor, arranger, and composer. In recognition of her work at the intersection of art and activism, she was awarded the Václav Havel Prize for Creative Dissent. In 2019-2020, Mai Khoi was Artist in Residence at SHIM NYC. In 2021 she was Artist Protection Fund Fellow at the Global Studies Center of Pittsburgh University. In 2022 Mai Khoi was awarded Roosevelt Four Freedoms for Freedom of Speech. In the US, Mai Khoi has performed at Joe’s Pub, National Sawdust, and Lincoln Center. 

Please come to my website www.mai-khoi.com to get any pictures that you’d like to use for the promotion, or more information about Bad Activist like trailer and credits.

Topics: Guest Speaker