![]() ![]() At that time, I had just started to get involved in activism. Most of the songs in Bad Activist I wrote a few years ago. What went into the storytelling process? Because writing lyrics, no matter what, can be really difficult - and your show covers so much ground! In the next stage, to develop the project, we will have more musicians, more instruments, and are calling for more support. That project is still going on, and there will be another version of Bad Activist with a full band and richer music, so this is just the beginning. ![]() And this is actually just the demo - we want to make it into a feature-length movie/performance. Since then, I had an idea - why don’t I combine the story and my music performance together? We are a small team, but we produced Bad Activist very quickly. I was invited to share my story about being censored at a conference and received a lot of good feedback. I had the first idea to make Bad Activist a few years ago. Can you elaborate on the process of creating it and how you got started? How long have you been working on it? The performance and storytelling in Bad Activist is truly so powerful. Mai Khoi’s courage and activism have gained media attention in The Intercept, as well as several media outlets in Pittsburgh where she currently resides as a resident at City of Asylum. ![]() Ultimately, she delivers her message: everyone and anyone who cares for freedom of expression and democracy must become an activist in their own way and on their own terms. In her show, she chronicles the moments that have defined her political awakening, from seeing her father taken away to re-education camps to her own struggle to overcome the misogyny of the Vietnamese pop machine. She previewed her performance for the University of Pittsburgh over Zoom last Spring, which you can still watch here. It’s a multi-genre musical in which Mai Khoi narrates her journey from pop stardom to runaway dissident, revealing how her political voice was awakened - only to be silenced by the Vietnamese government in her fight for democracy. We spoke to her about her most recent work, her autobiographical rock opera titled Bad Activist. Last Spring, Sampsonia Way Magazine had the pleasure to sit down with Mai Khoi over Zoom to talk about her activism in Vietnam and her time as an Artist Protection Fund fellow in residence at the University Pittsburgh. ![]()
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