Southeast Asian American Poetic Reckonings: Settler Colonialism and Refugee Placemaking

• In Event: Hmong Americans and Creative Placemaking in the Empire

Abstract

This paper connects the legacy of settler colonialism in the U.S. and the aftermath of “decolonizing” Southeast Asia by delving into my own sense of place and the poetry of Lan Duong, Mai Der Vang, and Khaty Xiong. With the three poets writing extensively about growing up in California and with me being situated in Colorado, we all reference land that is inextricably tied to White Anglo expansion of the American empire. Complicating the idea of “Poetry of Place,” I parse out the many claims to this land and how these poets, who map their loss of homeland to geographies of the U.S., critique the larger claim of Manifest Destiny while also holding themselves accountable for occupying unceded lands as resettled refugees.

Author

• Aline Lo, Colorado College