Stories We Carry: Diaspora Storytellers Shaping American Culture

Presented by Citrus in partnership with Columbia University’s Weatherhead East Asian Institute through its Vietnam Arts in Action initiative and the Columbia Journalism School
Food provided by Saigon Social
11:30 am — Reception with light refreshments
12:00 pm — Introduction and opening remarks
Introduction:
Professor Lien-Hang T. Nguyen, director, Weatherhead East Asian Institute
Opening remarks:
Tony Bui, filmmaker and Adjunct Professor, Columbia University

Hosted by:
Tony Bui and Kenneth Nguyen, host of The Vietnamese podcast
Stories We Carry: A conversation exploring how diaspora storytellers shape American culture. Anchored in Vietnamese narratives across film, literature, and performance, this gathering calls us to examine the responsibility of storytelling in America today.
Speakers:
Dustin Nguyen is a Vietnamese American actor and director whose career spans more than three decades. He currently stars in A24's upcoming series Superfakes, following roles in Apple TV+'s Dope Thief (created by Ridley Scott) and the martial arts drama Warrior. In 2023 he was a lead in The Accidental Getaway Driver, which premiered at Sundance. His work continues to bridge Hollywood and the global Vietnamese diaspora.
Dužan Duong is a Czech Vietnamese filmmaker born in Hanoi in 1991 and raised in the Czech Republic. In 2025 his debut feature Summer School, 2001 premiered at the Karlovy Vary Film Festival. He is a self-taught filmmaker and co-founder of the Czech production company AZN kru.
Hien is a Budapest-born Vietnamese singer, producer, and sound designer based in Brooklyn, NY. Blending soulful vocals with ethereal electronic textures, she creates left-field pop shaped by a life across cultures and languages. Her EP Bloom (2021), funded by the New York Foundation for the Arts, received support from Nowness Asia and Billboard Indonesia.
Kevin Nguyen is the author of the novels New Waves (2020) and My Documents (2025). He is a features editor at The Verge and lives in Brooklyn, NY.

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Host or Publisher Weatherhead East Asian Institute