Born in Binh Gia, Viet Nam in 1988, Ly Vũ Hoàng immigrated with her family to the United States at the age of two-and-a-half. She is the daughter of a warm and humorous mother, who taught her to listen, to trust her intuitions, instincts, senses of smell and touch, and to give without hesitation. She is also the daughter of a strong father figure, who helped her to recognize that persistence and commitment are just as important as talent or the ability to find beauty in our surroundings. She is a younger sister to someone who showed her the concept of responsibility and care and is also an older sister to two younger siblings who inject the definition of love in her life. She is a life-partner to an incredible someone who possesses so much inner/outer strength, wild courage, integrity, and kindness who continually shows her what honest, healing love truly is.
Raised in sunny Southern California near the heart of Little Saigon district, Ly Hoàng sought the moisture and beauty of cloud-covered Bay Area for her college years. Here, she was exposed to social activism and experienced the strong undercurrent movements of the truths she found within them. The profound messages and undertones she discovered in these movements became an important part of her identity and visions, as is evident in many of her artistic works. The department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley and the people she met there are a great and moving influence for Ly. Even more, the resilient people in our different communities of color are a constant reminder of the power and beauty in collective global struggle. They continue to serve as sources of inspiration for her works. Thank you, Oakland, for your spirit of resistance. Thank you, Little Saigon, for your spirit of survival. Thank you, Viet Nam, for your memories of a homeland.
Ly Vũ Hoàng currently resides in Southern California pursuing her lifelong passion as a full-time artist, art educator, and artivist. After teaching for years, she carved out enough space in the day-to-day grind to paint everyday now--and what a dream it is... She is developing her community art program: "Dignity Arts & Expressions" to bring the creative arts to our collective communities and also in hopes of serving displaced and underserved youth through the power of healing/empowering art. She is also working on a short-story collection of poetry/prose rooted in Vietnamese-American consciousness, a 7-day "Invitations to Healing" meditation art book with reflections, as well as a young adult/children's illustrated inspiration book to publish. Ultimately, Ly is fiercely continuing her lasting love-affair and passion for producing art itself in non-conventional forms while teaching it as a social/emotional/political/spiritual tool of social empowerment and healing for the community. Her art, in its rawest forms, are an extension and translation of her emotions, her imagination, and her visions for the possibilities of a more peaceful world, not void of pain, but ultimately driven by love and hope.
