Old colonial missionaries reported that Dega Montagnards in Vietnam never developed a writing system of their own. Modern-day anthropologists wrote that when Dega Montagnards finally gained literacy, the texts they wrote were destroyed. If history is made durable by the survival of the written records, as Montagnard Americans in the twenty-first century, a radical act against our historical erasure is to write our stories now.

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Apocalypse Never: Writing Our Origin Stories & Imaginative Futures as Montagnard Americans is a special writing workshop designed as a space for the exploration of Montagnard American identities and to engage our narrative through creative writing as an act of reclaiming our past and present. This workshop was designed for teenage to adult Montagnard Americans who are creative or interested in the exploration of a Montagnard diasporic identity. Taught by award-winning and New York-based Montagnard American writer and university instructor H’Rina DeTroy, this workshop aims to reject dominant narratives of our indigenous, ethnic minority identity and explore the multitudes within us.

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Through writing, reading, sharing, and discussion, we will center the Montagnard American narrative, your experience, within a historical and contemporary cultural context. We will explore literary and sociological texts about minority, immigrant, and refugee experiences and history.  Creative writing prompts and exercises will help you generate new writing. In addition to reading short texts, you will be expected to develop this new material into two short creative writing pieces for group feedback. At the end of the workshop, you will revise one piece into a longer submission for instructor feedback and advice. 


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Part of this class will also explore themes of personal empowerment and development. Participants will get the most out of this workshop by being open, curious, and committed to creative challenges. The aim is to allow for the formation of new narratives about ourselves and our community. Designed for writers of all levels, the priority of this workshop is for everyone to contribute to the creation of a fun, safe, and supportive environment for all voices and experiences.

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Read more here: https://dvan.org/2021/03/apocalypse-never-writing-our-origin-stories-and-imaginative-futures-as-montagnard-americans/​

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