My artistic work examines power: who has it, who doesn’t, and who hoards it. I am interested in the many flavors of power—from cultural to financial—and the ways people can accumulate and lose it. Most of all, I am fixated on how power has deeply impacted my family.

Thus, my nonfiction work interrogates individualistic notions of power that have collective implications. Ultimately, my writing is an act of power itself—to rebut dangerous narratives ascribed to refugees and immigrants, to indict the structures that impact us, and to portray the story of being queer and Vietnamese American without disruption.

Personal Essays:

• “Tom Cat” (2025) in Longreads
• “The Shapes of Silence” (2024) in Longreads
• “When You Feel Overwhelmed, Morally Manage” (2024) in The Offing

Articles:

• “Why We Must Abolish Philanthropy, the $1.5 Trillion Tax Shelter” (Forthcoming) in Alliance Magazine
• “I Manage $100 Million at a Foundation. Philanthropy Shouldn’t Exist” (2026) in Next City
• “What We Learned from Black and Latino Nonprofit Leaders About Countering Racial Bias in Our Grantmaking” (2022) in The Center for Effective Philanthropy
• “Now is the time for philanthropy to invest in promoting college success” (2020) in EdSource

Podcasts:

• Designing Tomorrow (2025)
• Break Fake Rules (2024)