March Prompt: Women’s History Month, Lub Hli Poj Niam.
At maivmai, we invite you to share stories about the influential womxn (Hmong/non-Hmong) you know—or may have read about—who have made an impact in your life.
She can be an overachiever in the public or private sphere, a shero at home or at work. Her contributions can be political or economic, affecting just her family and clan, taking place in the local community, and/or changing the world at large.
Tell us about their lives, the journeys their spirits have made both here and in the hereafter. What legacies have they carried, carved, and passed down to you? What about them inspires you to want more, do better, and fight harder?
Our womxn writers may also contemplate these questions about themselves. We encourage our male writers to think about the womxn in their lives.
These stories by and about womxn might also dwell on Hmong (and other) womxn’s words, roles, and spaces as well.
Poj niam, poj laib, poj nrauj. Hluas nkauj, nkauj ntsuab. Me ntxhais, me nyab, me maiv.
What or how do we call, name, and invoke Hmong womxn in positive, negative, growing, and changing ways? Can we reclaim the Hmong womxn we have disowned? In what ways do we love, hurt, and conceal these Hmong womxn? What contributions do Hmong womxn bring to the table during Women’s History Month and beyond?
Additionally, what is a “woman’s place”? How do we define “women’s work” and “girls’ jobs” as opposed to “men’s real work” or “boys’ things”.
And finally, what kind of futures do we imagine incorporating Hmong womxn’s and girls’ histories, successes, and achievements? Women’s History Month, although celebrating and focusing on womxn is also about the successes and future victories in the greater quest for equality and justice for all.
