Enduring Spirit of Vietnam – Portland
April 16 @ 6:00 PM - 9:00 PM
Free
| Join Vietnam Society, World Oregon, OVEEVA, PLACE, and Broadway Books for a conversation with Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and Peter Steinhauer
📅 Date: Tuesday, April 16, 2025 Vietnam Society is pleased to present Enduring Spirit of Vietnam: a talk between award-winning Vietnamese author, Dr. Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai and celebrated artist photographer Peter Steinhauer on honoring the past and fostering hope for the future. Over the past decades, Peter and Quế Mai have used their arts to foster peace, empathy and healing. The two artists will engage in discussions on how the arts have played a powerful role in promoting peace and building bridges for new generations. Quế Mai will perform her poetry in Vietnamese and English. Peter will share his perspectives and photographs of Vietnam from the past 30 years, which captures his admiration for Vietnam’s beauty and deep respect of the Vietnamese people’s resilience, survival and creativity. The two artists will answer questions from the audience, and the talk will conclude with book signings. Que Mai will sign her new poetry book “The Color of Peace”, and novels “The Mountains Sing” and “Dust Child”, and Peter will sign his book “Enduring Spirit of Vietnam” which received the award “Best Photography Book of the Year” in 2007 by Photo District News (PDN). The “Enduring Spirit of Vietnam” Talk will travel to major U.S. cities, including Seattle, Portland, Washington D.C., Chicago, and New York. Special Photo Exhibition📅 Date: April 5th – 26th, Artist Talk on April 17th Accompanying the talk is a special photographic exhibition “Spires — Cathedrals of Vietnam’s Red River Delta”, a selection of Peter Steinhauer’s latest project which captures majestic cathedrals built during the French colonial period of the 19th and early 20th centuries. These edifices were not merely architectural imports, but adaptations blending French Gothic and Romanesque styles with Vietnamese design sensibilities. Each photograph invites you to a space where spirituality meets artistry. Regrettably, many of these architectural marvels now face neglect, deterioration, or intentional dismantlement. Their fading presence erases unique chapters of architectural brilliance, diminishing visual testimonies of a bygone era of cultural amalgamation. Through this project, Steinhauer seeks to immortalize their elegance, narrating the profound stories embedded in their sacred silhouettes before they blend into the annals of history. About the SpeakersNguyễn Phan Quế Mai Born and raised in Việt Nam, Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai is the author of thirteen books in Vietnamese and English, most recently the global bestselling novels The Mountains Sing and Dust Child, and the forthcoming poetry book The Color of Peace. Her writing has been translated into more than twenty-five languages and has received the PEN Oakland/Josephine Miles Literary Award, the International Book Award, the BookBrowse Best Debut Award, the Lannan Literary Fellowship in Fiction as well as Runner-up for the Dayton Literary Peace Prize. She was named by Forbes Việt Nam as one of 20 inspiring women of 2021. She has a Ph.D in Creative Writing from Lancaster University in the United Kingdom. For more information: www.nguyenphanquemai.com Peter Steinhauer Peter Steinhauer is an artist photographer, and he lived and worked in Asia for twenty years, beginning in Vietnam in 1993. His photography focuses on architecture within urban landscape, man-made structure, and natural landscape. His prints are in the collections of the Carnegie Museum of Art, the Hong Kong Heritage Museum and a growing number of private and corporate collections worldwide. He is a recipient of numerous international photography awards including a finalist for the 2014 and 2017 Lucie Awards, Ford Foundation grant for his multiyear work in Vietnam, three Communication Arts Photography Annual Award of Excellence awards, among others. Steinhauer’s Enduring Spirit of Vietnam was awarded Best Photography Book of the Year 2007 by Photo District News (PDN). For more information: www.petersteinhauer.com 🔗 Register here: Event Link Find out ongoing information on our website (www.vietnamsociety.org) and on our social media @vietnamsociety. |