“alternative routes” – a celebration of queer southeast Asian creativity and curiosity, curated by the Paper Lantern Project

2025 marks the 50^th anniversary of the first Southeast Asian settling in Minnesota, making it home. It also marks the 50^th anniversary of the end of the Wars in Southeast Asia. The 50^th anniversary of the end of the Vietnam War or the American War in Vietnam. It’s also the Year of The Snake—a year of transformation.

We’ve been viewing this moment in time as a portal. We reflect on what it means to have been in this state for 50 years. We think about our families’ journeys to get here. We wonder what they sacrificed in making this place a new home.

We also think about what the next 50 years will look like for our community. As an Asian/Asian American Pacific Islander Gender and Reproductive Justice Mutual Aid fund led by queer Vietnamese-Americans and children of boat people refugees, we’ve been acutely tuned in to this time, as we observe what is happening in the country our families worked so hard to make home. We hear the echoes of the past as we look to the future, sometimes in fear as we watch the erasure and attacks on our Queer and Southeast Asian identities. But we also know that our Queer Southeast Asian identities are born in brilliance and resilience. We use these traits and our radical imaginations to envision new futures.

We centered this in our current art show at Xia Gallery, Alternate Routes: A Celebration of Creativity and Curiosity, which was named after a quotation from Ocean Vuong, “Being queer saved my life. Often, we see queerness as deprivation. But when I look at my life, I saw that queerness demanded an alternative innovation from me. I had to make alternative routes; it made me curious; it made me ask, ‘Is this enough for me?’”  Our community took alternate routes getting to this country and making it home. We also look at ourselves taking alternate routes from our families as we life authentically in our queer identities, celebrating who we are. We take this time to reflect on the roots we have placed as we continue to make this place our home and the chosen family we’ve built to hold us.

This show is a celebration of these pathways, a celebration of our Queer Southeast Asian community, a celebration of our lives and ourselves at this moment in time, 50 years after our people first arrived. The pieces we are showcasing represent our passions, our family lore, and our activism. Our artists, who are across the Southeast Asian diaspora and queer identities, have shared with us and with you what makes home at this moment, and their hopes for the next 50 years.

We often refer to ourselves as future ancestors and hold this role seriously as we work to create a world our descendants can be proud of. We hope to offer a portal to them as well. Showing them that we existed, loved, and thought of them as we continue to make our home an even better place for future generations.