Vi Tran

I’m a preacher’s kid and the son of butchers. I was born in the shadow of Sai Gon, Vietnam and raised in the cattle country of southwestern Kansas. I’m equal parts sea salt and wheat fields.

As a storyteller, actor, singer-songwriter, composer, and playwright, I utilize a variety of methods and disciplines to examine topics as varied as the unpacking of inherited cultural trauma among refugee populations living in diaspora to the dismantling of the toxic masculinity within the mythos of the Hemingway Hero.

My work, including my autobiographical Vietnamese American folk musical, The Butcher’s Son, straddles the dichotomy of Americana and the foreign Other. Using potent and empathetic storytelling about difficult subject matter but with the accessible and plainspoken straightforwardness of my southwestern Kansas roots, my work presents a path to healing, hope, and unity in an ever-divided society.