I Was Threatened with Jail and a Lifetime Ban for Making My Music. Here's Why I Still Make Art.

I Was Threatened with Jail and a Lifetime Ban for Making My Music. Here's Why I Still Make Art.

Mai Khoi is a Philadelphia-based Vietnamese musician and composer whose work blends jazz with Vietnamese musical traditions. In Vietnam, civic space is considered closed, meaning people face severe restrictions on freedoms such as expression, assembly, and association, particularly when they criticize the government. After years of censorship, surveillance, and threats connected to her music and activism, Mai Khoi was forced to leave the country…