Vietnamese Protest Singer Mai Khoi Makes Joe's Pub Debut March 5

Vietnamese pop star-turned protest singer Mai Khoi makes her Joe's Pub debut on March 5 at 7:00pm with "Just Be Patient," a storytelling show and song cycle (performed in both English and in Vietnamese with English translation) in which she weaves autobiographical stories around her original songs.

In this performance, she tells about blazing trails as an artist-activist living under an authoritarian regime and shares the risks and rewards of speaking truth to power through music. Drawing on a wide variety of influences, from traditional Vietnamese folk to blues, soul, and rock, Mai Khoi has been compared to Pussy Riot and dubbed the Lady Gaga of Vietnam.

Some of the hardships Mai Khoi has faced include having had her concerts raided, facing retaliatory eviction from her home, being detained and interrogated by the police, and following the premiere of the documentary "Mai Khoi and the Dissidents" this past fall at DOCNY she is now unable to return to Vietnam. Despite this, Mai Khoi continues to use her music and voice to fight censorship and advocate for human rights and freedom of expression in Vietnam and around the world.

For more information visit https://publictheater.org/programs/joes-pub/

The title for this show - "Just Be Patient" - is inspired by Mai Khoi's meeting with President Obama on May 24, 2016 in Hanoi, Vietnam. While not using the words "just be patient" explicitly, his saying that the United States and his administration "respect[s] the sovereignty and independence of Vietnam" and that it is "up to the Vietnamese people to determine how their society functions and the nature of their government" essentially told Mai Khoi, and the other activists in Vietnam, to just be patient as their government worked towards greater freedoms and the upholding of human rights.

Mai Khoi is the current musician in residence with the Safe Haven Incubator for Music NYC (SHIM:NYC), an artist-at-risk residency program recently launched by Artistic Freedom Initiative and Tamizdat.

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