Vlai Ly – Medium

Vlai Ly

Vlai Ly

Discovering What it Means to be Hmong American

In honor and dedication to my Grandmother, See Vang, (May 2nd, 1921 — July 13th 2021)

3 min readSep 26, 2021

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Discovering What it Means to be Hmong American

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

Khi Tes: The Strings That Bind Us All Together

There is an idea that there is no real concept of “self” within the Hmong culture — that we live our lives as a collective whole. And when…

4 min readMay 31, 2019

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Khi Tes: The Strings That Bind Us All Together

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

Kuv Twb Tuag Lawm. I’m Already Dead.

The only sense of clarity was found at the end of empty liquor bottles and beer cans that pushed his memories away. But even their…

8 min readApr 12, 2019

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Kuv Twb Tuag Lawm. I’m Already Dead.

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

Find Yourself Through Dance

To dance is to free ourselves from the trauma of everyday life.

4 min readMar 14, 2019

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Find Yourself Through Dance

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Vlai Ly

Xijiang Woman Cleaning the Village

We have to figure out early on what kind of stories we want to tell, and whose stories we want to tell. I often draw parallels between my…

2 min readJan 26, 2019

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Xijiang Woman Cleaning the Village

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Vlai Ly

Anathemas, Atrocities

1 min readJan 26, 2019

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Anathemas, Atrocities

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

January Prompt: Resolutions, Metamorphosis

“Near the end of its growth cycle, the caterpillar consumes many times its own weight in a single day. Then, the caterpillar finds a…

2 min readJan 2, 2019

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January Prompt: Resolutions, Metamorphosis

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Vlai Ly

Becoming a Better Version of Ourselves

-Thoughtful decision making during difficult times.

5 min readDec 19, 2018

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Becoming a Better Version of Ourselves

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

A Mother’s Work: My Mother’s Life at 50

Our first home was a tiny duplex right on the outskirts of Six Corners, one of the most impoverished neighborhoods in Springfield…

6 min readDec 17, 2018

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A Mother’s Work: My Mother’s Life at 50

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Vlai Ly
in
maivmai

The Possibilities of Who We Will Become

But here I was, holding a beautiful anthology of work written by my own people whose words revealed to me the possibilities of who I can…

3 min readNov 16, 2018

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The Possibilities of Who We Will Become

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Vlai Ly

Vlai Ly

Taking photos and writing poems + stories in Massachusetts. Hmong American. Editor-in-Chief for maivmai. TELL YOUR STORY.

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