Send Paige to Việt Nam with QT Việt Cafe!

I’m excited to share that I’m fundraising for QTViệt Cafe’s Give OUT Day - the only nationwide day of giving for LGBTQ+ organizations and share why I love QT Việt is near and dear to my heart. (QTViệt Cafe is a creative cultural hub dedicated to Queer and Trans Việt (QTViệt) liberation through ancestral practices, the arts, and intergenerational connection.) 

When I was in college, I was homesick not necessarily for Los Angeles, but for my family and Vietnameseness. I’d listen to Vietnamese folk music in the residential hall and others knock on my door, “Paige, are you feeling okay? I heard some really sad music.” I couldn’t stop laughing. Vietnamese music is really sad, our history is riddled with war stories, death, and long lost lovers. But it’s also normal? Our stories are heavy and that’s why we also have such dark humor. I’ve never laughed harder than when I talk to my Papa and QT Việt friends. 

[My papa at Guitar Center!] 

Anyway, one day I found this poem on Youtube. It quickly became my favorite poem. I performed this poem for my midterm where I had to recite a story from memory. I remember feeling so powerful performing these words. I can still feel the weight of the room, my classmates holding onto every single word. “Mẹ ơi, will you let me love in Vietnamese? Will you pray for a return to traditions… or cradle me into your wisdom?” This poem articulated what I could not as a young person — my own desires for my family to witness who I am and the ways I love intimately. This poem articulated so many parts of me together: my love for hip-hop, queer people, Việt food, Việtnamese language while also holding the complexities and challenges of being a daughter to my parents. It’d be years later until I’d meet Irene at a Queer conference and tell them the impact of their poem in my life. 

Fast forward to 2021 when I first started DJing, I received some judgment, skepticism, and general apathy. Why are investing so much time, energy and money into that? I could tell people didn’t see what I did with DJing — the power of bringing people together through the healing medicine of music and dancing. It was challenging confronting that I was growing apart from some people in my life. Luckily, this is around the time I met Trang working at AACRE and I joined the legendary QT Việt Cafe for their Circle of Artists and Healers 2nd cohort.

[Paige at the dojo!]

During this year’s QT Việt Retreat, I was riding in a car with Jeannie, Trang, and Hai. They were some of the first friends I told my plans about returning to school and my research proposal as a hip-hop scholar. “PAIGE! WHAT!” Hai started screaming. “OKAY DJ-SCHOLAR!” Trang echoed. “We’re so proud of you,” Jeannie shared. I was overwhelmed with their loving response. They wanted me to grow and succeed. Even if it met I’d be far away or doing something so different from our organizing community. QT Việt Cafe allows each of us to shine without conforming to one singular understanding of politics, organizing, queerness, or Vietnameseness. After, Hai asked if I’d want to DJ more QT Việt parties and dreamed up possibilities of DJ MIU as the QT Việt Resident DJ and travel DJing when we did QT Việts on The Road next summer, visiting QT Việts across the diaspora. Jeannie, Trang, and Hai believed in me, saw importance in the work I was doing in my music, and wanted me to shine as bright as I could. 

[Trang trying out my DJ set-up!]

I share all this because I love being Vietnamese, I love being Queer, and I love my QT Việt community. They are worlds where my imagination runs with possibilities for creation and capaciousness. They are places where nuance, complexities, and contradictions exist. I am able to hold many worlds within these ways of living. I have learned to love more deeply, intimately, and abundantly with my QT Việt community because they have given me so much love and light. 

[QT Việts at the Summer Party in early June!]

Now, as a collective, we want to visit Việt Nam together! I’ll be on the second trip to Việt Nam in December when school is on break. I am excited to visit with my QT Việt friends because we can experience our travels to the homeland in a way that is affirming to all parts of ourselves. I want to meet with Việt queer transancestors, my own direct ancestors’ graves, my family, and meet Việt queer trans folks living in Việt Nam. Can you help me on my journey to get there?

I want QTViệt Cafe to reach 500 unique donors and collectively raise $50,000 by June 28th, so I’ve set a personal goal of raising $1,000  for our trip. 

Suggested donation amounts: 

• $200 to reppin’ the 2 years I’ve been part of the QT Viet Circle of Artists and Healers cohort. 

• $175 hours spent at the DJ dojo Beat Junkies Institute of Sound!

• $98 reppin’ my birthday year! 

• $60 reppin’ the first DJ paycheck I received from QT Viet for a party playlist.  

• $25 reppin’ my new age! 

• $1 cause a dolla always makes me hollaaaa  

Thanks so much for reading my story! Hope you can support our work!