Smithsonian Vietnamese American Heritage Exhibit

Hey! We went to the Smithsonian Museum Vietnamese American exhibit and had a good
time. By destiny NCT and JL met Anhthu Lu, a community activist for curriculum change in
Virginia, on the Metro platform. She was on her way to Smithsonian to see the exhibit on its
last day too. We were joined by a million others coming to see the cherry blossoms. At the
exhibit we were joined by Nguyen Dinh Thang, director of Boat People SOS and John and Cait
Le of Silver Spring and their children. By more serendipity we met Minh-Chau Dinh, the
daughter of a good friend of NCT and her fiance at the exhibit too.

Afterward, we went to the Huong Que restaurant in Falls Church, guests of Truong Anh Thuy,
Canh Nam Press. I was privileged to meet Khai Q. Nguyen, the editor and publisher of online
"Vietnam Review" -- a professional publication of Vietnamese news in Vietnamese language.

This is what we came to see: our contribution to the exhibit of the photograph of Nguyen Chi Thien
being interrogated in prison at the end of his 12-year ordeal following his arrest outside the British
Embassy in 1979.

  Nguyen Dinh Thang, director of Boat People SOS
                                                                                                          Anhthu Lu, community activist
                 Nguyen Chi Thien, survivor of twenty-seven years in re-education camps

http://www.machsong.org/STEP2007/index.html

May 24-26 2007 George Mason University
Boat People SOS in collaboration with George Mason University Center for the Advancement of Public Health
presents the first-ever National Conference of Vietnamese Trauma Survivors and Seniors - former allies of the
United States left behind at the end of the Vietnam War!

Held at George Mason University’s Johnson Center from May 24-26, 2007, this conference will unite Vietnamese
trauma survivors and seniors from all over the country to promote access to health, mental health, and support
services. With the support of scholars, issue experts, and service providers, Vietnamese trauma survivors and
seniors will identify their own needs and develop a joint action plan to address those needs.

Thank you, Vu Pham, for the tour
of your exhibit, and this nice
souvenir photo. JL

This image of Nguyen Chi Thien
is originally in color. It is here for
those who would like to publish
it in black and white.
Date: March 31, 2007
Place: Smithsonian Institution,
Washington D.C.
credit: photos by Jean Libby

It was a beautiful day in Washington, the last day of the
exhibit, which opened January 19, 2007. Vu Pham,
Vietnamese American Heritage Project curator, had never
seen the cherry blossoms blooming. Here's proof to take
back home!

Getting my groove back as a former wedding photographer,
the Philadelphia friends of Vu, Mai and Chris, are also shown
in the cherry blossoms splendor at Smithsonian.

Keep scrolling! More
cherry blossoms to
view. Next ones taken
hanging from the
window of Thang's car.

Dr. Thang Josie, Cait and John Le, Thien Nguyen, Jean
Libby

Khai Q. Nguyen (editor and publisher of Vietnam Review),
Thuy Truong (Canh Nam Publishers), Thien Nguyen, Jean
Libby (editor and publisher of VietAm Review)

Khai Q. Nguyen, Vietnam Review Nguyen Chi Thien

Thank you, Thuy Truong, for a lovely
dinner at Huong Que Restaurant, Eden
Center, Falls Church, Virginia

all photos taken March 31, 2007

Vu H. Pham, Ph.D. is a Partner of
Spectrum Knowledge, Inc., a
research, consulting and training
organization. He currently serves as
a Researcher in the Paul Merage
School of Business at the University
of California, Irvine, as well as the
Asian American Studies Center at
the University of California, Los
Angeles. Previously, he held a
Research Fellow position through
the University of California Office of
the President. He has been
featured on national and
international multimedia venues,
such as CNN, MSNBC, Voice of
America, The Los Angeles Times,
KSCI International Television, Asian
Week, Radio Free Asia, The Orange
County Register. His experience
includes having worked with
companies as large as those from the
Fortune 500 to those in
governmental and non-profit
sectors. Having completed his
doctoral degree from Cornell
University, Dr. Pham’s specialties
include the areas of culture,
organizational development and
leadership.

He combines training, data-driven
research and consulting to assist
clients with identifying and assessing
organizational challenges, as well as
providing effective solutions. Dr.
Pham’s clients range in industries
that include: Aerospace and
Defense, Technology, Financial
Services, Accounting, Advertising,
Healthcare, Retail as well as
Museums and Cultural
Organizations. He has also worked
with individual clients to optimize
their career success. He has been a
keynote speaker on multiple
occasions and presented at
numerous workshops, conferences
and retreats internationally and has
published in both academic and
mainstream publications. Beyond his
professional work, Dr. Pham has
participated in generating over a
million dollars for non-profit groups
and donates countless hours to
them.

His other honors include being
selected as the head of a
Smithsonian cultural project and
museum exhibit, a Role Model for
KSCI International Television’s “Our
Role Models” series, “Entrepreneur
of the Year” in California’s 49th
Assembly District, as well as being an
Andrew W. Mellon Fellow, a Foreign
Language and Area Studies (FLAS)
award recipient, a Chancellor’s
Scholar at UC Irvine and an Honoree
at UCLA. He serves on the Los
Angeles Asian Heritage Month
Committee and on the Board of the
California State University, Fullerton’
s Center for Employee and
Workforce Research.

People and even robots often mix the names of our two online journals:
Vietnam Review and VietAm Review

Mr. Khai's was first, and is better. It is mostly in Vietnamese, and mostly about Vietnam.