Meet Nyingv Jae

We had the good fortune of connecting with Nyingv Jae and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Nyingv Jae, can you tell us more about your background and the role it’s played in shaping who you are today?
I was born in Oakland, CA to young, teenage parents. My roots run deep in the Bay as it’s home to all four generations of my family since the moment they stepped foot on American soil as indigenous Khmu and Iu Mien refugees from the U.S. Secret War in Laos. Throughout the first two decades of my upbringing, I was raised in the East Bay and lived in Richmond, CA until my very first move from home at 21 as the first in my family to attend university.

I grew up in an intergenerational household primarily run by badass matriarchs (great grandma, grandma, and mom) and a grandfather who’s been a pastor and painter for most of his life. Being the eldest of three children, all assigned female at birth, I was made aware of my role and responsibility as a reflection of my family at a very early age. Much of my beginning years as a college student and young adult saw me struggling greatly to self-determine my direction and purpose in life without first prioritizing the expectations of others. In many ways, the same unconventional women who raised me also passed down the pattern of projecting their uncertainties onto me. My inner compass has definitely seen rough waters, navigating through many U-turns and detours along the way. Even as this was the case, I kept dreaming big while being led by my curiosity and creativity, with art always playing an active part in my journey. I know now to trust that ultimately those who love me, want the best for me– and what’s best for me is something I get to choose for myself. Thinking back to all the visions I had for myself as a child, I’m so proud (and still in awe most days) to be living this life I used to pray for.

As a Khmu and Iu Mien person, community and collectivity have also been core to the survival of my elders and ancestors across centuries, and as a result, these values were inherently instilled in me, too. Whether through community art exhibitions and storytelling projects to communal workshops and learning spaces, these values continue to guide my work, offerings and practice as an interdisciplinary artist and cultural worker.

Can you open up a bit about your work and career? We’re big fans and we’d love for our community to learn more about your work.
As many creatives are, I am a wearer of many hats. Most recently I wrapped up a year as a California Creative Corps fellow with the 18th Street Arts Center. Through this fellowship I co-launched my first major community art and storytelling project alongside my Cold Rice Collaborative co-founder and sibling, Asia Saechao where we gathered a cohort of 13 gender-expansive Iu Mien, Hmong and Khmu artists from across California to explore and express their visions of home, safety, and belonging. I am still coming down from the enormity of such a pivotal moment in my life and my work as this project had been a long-time dream, years in the making. Learn more about the project and artists: https://www.coldricecollaborative.com/projects/the-creative-cohort

From a wider lens, my path as a creative has been colorful, a bit chaotic, messy and imperfect. While I always knew I was meant to be an artist, it wasn’t until the final year of my 20’s that I began to really identify as such. With the art industry not exactly having the best reputation of being financially lucrative, it took a long time for me to justify pursuing art as my life’s work. Despite enduring years of very vocal familial disapproval, limited support/guidance and vehement doubts about art being a worth my time, labor, energy, I’ve returned to it again and again as a necessity. As I uncover more on my cultural lineages, I am shown that whether through sword-dancing or communal storytelling, singing or weaving, art has sustained my communities and our spirits since ancient times — and I cherish my creativity as a sacred inheritance.

I used to think the sole purpose of my voice, my art, my energy was for loud, forceful resistance. So many things about the world feel backward, unjust and so deeply harmful to me, my loved ones and community. Pushing up against endless layers of invisibility as a fat, nonbinary indigenous Khmu and Iu Mien person, it became hard to imagine life beyond the constant rage and pain of feeling like there would never be safe spaces of belonging for me or folks like me. With time, many ruptures and lessons learned, new chronic illness diagnoses, and an overall inevitable inner calling to slow down, I recognized how unsustainable, self-punishing and one dimensional it was expecting myself to only show up this way. It became apparent how much my untouched grief kept me from truly connecting to my creativity. When I began to process and offer myself healing, I started to see that resistance also came in the form of reclaiming my imagination as a tool to shape the worlds I dreamed of and bring to life what I wish existed.

Nowadays, I pay attention to my yearning and curiosities as a glimpses into where I should invest my creative energy. I no longer feel the immense pressure of having one sole purpose and remind myself often that I can do whatever I want and grow in whichever ways I wish. In a world where there’s so much emphasis placed on being sure and always having the answers, I consciously choose to experience the joys of wonder, experimentation, play and remain open to where my spirit and my ancestors call me next.

If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
While I currently reside in Sacramento, my heart and spirit are still tied to the East Bay and if my best friends know me, they know how fierce my love is for my first home. Engaging all of my senses is incredibly important to how I connect with space and place. I’m also an adventure-loving Sagittarius with a passion for curating beautiful, immersive experiences, so this question is right up my alley.

I would start in Pinole with a quintessential Filipino breakfast from Sue’s Place or a delicious dim sum spread from King Valley. With full bellies, we’d put on some of our favorite music and take the backroads through the rolling, green oak-dotted hills of El Sobrante, singing our favorite songs. From there, we’d make a stop at the local cannabis dispensary, Artist Tree where we’d find local art among premium flower selections to keep our moods light and our appetites awake. Come early afternoon we would pay a visit to the Richmond Art Center and the NIAD Art Center, both gems of creative spaces showcasing work of a vast array of local artists including queer, trans, BIPOC, and disabled creatives. When our tummies grumble for dinner, we would take 23rd Street to That Luang Kitchen for their rich, steaming bowls of the best Kao Soy for each of us, and orders of chicken laab, Lao sausage and pungent papaya salad to share family style. We can’t be in the East Bay without a cruise through the hills from Richmond through El Cerrito into Kensington and Berkeley. To end the night, we would stop at a view point on Grizzly Peak and watch the Bay turn into a sea of sparkling lights as the fog rolls in.

Some other notable East Bay gems are: Rosie the Riveter National Historic Park, the Albany Bulb, Los Grullenses Taco Truck on Rumrill, Blake Garden, Tokyo Fish Market, the Ashby Flea Market, Half Price Books, Vien Huong Restaurant, the Oakland Museum of California and Oakland First Fridays

Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
My community is so abundant with love and I truly would not be who I am without their unrelenting support and belief in me. More specifically, my chosen family who I met during my years in Portland, OR really loved me into my fullness.

The beautiful queer/trans women, femme, and gender expansive Southeast Asian + BIPOc artists, creatives, leaders, each such beaming lights in our community, all bold enough to do the work of bringing the worlds we deserve into existence. What an honor beyond words to share this lifetime with them.

A special shout-out to my fellow fire-sign artist baddie, Tori Ntxoo Hong who put me onto Shoutout LA! We met during peak pandemic at such a vulnerable and formative time in our lives and clicked instantly. They’ve been a fierce grounding presence for me and a constant example of what it looks like to trust in our biggest dreams to guide us. Tori reminds me that my main purpose as an artist is to show up in the world as myself because to do so is an offering of eternal gratitude to my ancestors and a gift to all those I have the blessing of connecting with.

Website: https://nyingv-jae.com/

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/nyingv.jae/ 

Image Credits
Personal photo – no credit — Image 1: Vy Pham Images 2 + 3: Megan Quinlan Artwork Images 4 + 5: Nyingv Jae (2023), Nyingv Jae (2024)