2019: The Year According to Pao Houa Her

To commemorate the year that was, we invited an array of artists, writers, filmmakers, designers, and performers to share a list of the most noteworthy ideas, events, and objects they encountered in 2019.

Pao Houa Her was born in Laos. She fled Laos with her family when she was a baby, crossed the Mekong on her mother’s back, was fed opium to keep from crying, lived in the refugee camps in Thailand and landed in America on a silver metal bird in the mid 1980s. She is a visual artist in Minnesota who works within multiple genres of photography. Her received her BFA from the Minneapolis College of Art and Design and her MFA from Yale University.

I.
LULU WANG’S THE FAREWELL

This movie resonated with my family and I because in 2018 my grandmother died from kidney failure. One week prior up to her death, my family was brought together to celebrate her life one last time. The Farewell is an accurate of depiction of that event.

2.
THE AMAZON RAINFOREST FIRE

“Fire is also used as a tactic to drive indigenous people who live in the rainforest off their lands. Violence against indigenous people in Brazil also rose under Bolsonaro, who also campaigned on rolling back indigenous rights. The number of land incursions, illegal natural resource extraction, and property damage in indigenous areas doubled in the first nine months of the administration compared to the year prior.”

3.
THE FIRST PICTURE OF A BLACK HOLE

More importantly, it was a woman who discovered this black hole!!!

4.
LIL NAS X’S “OLD TOWN ROAD”

Lil Nas X redefining country music with “Old Town Road.”

5.
OCEAN VUONG’S ON EARTH WE WERE BRIEFLY GORGEOUS

This book is everything I’ve ever wanted say to my mother but couldn’t because I didn’t have the words.

6.
CHINA’S MUSLIM INTERNMENT CAMP

The lack of outcry from the world is shameful.

7.
SHIRIN NESHAT: I WILL GREET THE SUN AGAIN AT THE BROAD

This show “offers a rare glimpse into the evolution of Neshat’s artistic journey as she explores topics of exile, displacement, and identity with beauty, dynamic formal invention, and poetic grace.” Her work is so relevant to today’s social and political climate.

8.
JENIA FIDLYAND’S ENTRANCE TO OUR VALLEY

This is such a beautiful and poetic photobook.

9.
CHILDREN AT THE BORDER IN CAGES

It’s 2019 and our government is still putting children in cages in America.

 10.
LIZZO

Lizzo’s music is moving and empowering because she doesn’t fit the mainstream white, blond, slim womanhood that is put forth by the industry. Hers is the confidence all girls of color aspire to have.