cát nguyên is a queer, non-binary storyteller, experimental poet, and performance artist. They are a diasporic dreamer and living manifestation of the U.S. War in Vietnam. Through their art, cát nguyên converses with love, grief, inter-generational trauma & healing, queerness, de-colonization & migration. cát nguyên's unique performance style, cảm diễn (emotional embodiment) and ngâm thơ (melodic poetry recitation) conjures a dramatic spell of poetry, movement, and sound, and is inspired by Vietnamese spirituality, folklore & ancestral wisdom, and experiments with elements of Vietnamese traditional music, theater & narrative forms. cát nguyên is the founder of Saigon Poetry Fest, and Lơ Lớ Library.