Mai Zong Vue

Mai Zong Vue is a storyteller, folk singer/performer, cultural trainer, and educator. Her work has been well-known to the WI Arts Board since 1997, when she began conducting field work in the Hmong community and led a group of Hmong artists to participate at the Wisconsin Folklife Festival in Madison, a celebration of Wisconsin’s sesquicentennial of statehood.

Mai Zong composes and sings Hmong folk songs, which she taught herself how to sing and write while in college. Her repertoire includes a range of melodic styles and improvisational social commentaries in the lyrics. After college, she produced three albums of Hmong folk song and performed at Hmong community events.  Folk singing became a tool for Mai Zong to use in her community education and advocacy with Hmong parents and community. She’s passionate about Hmong traditional arts, and has performed several times at Folklore Village, the Midwest Folklore Festivals, and International Music Conference. 

Mai Zong has been a tireless advocate for the impoverished for the past 35 years, especially the Hmong people and refugees. She began to advocate for her family, extended family, and then the Hmong community in the 1980’s. Her advocacy and grass-roots activism led to the development of Hmong and refugee women non-profit agencies in Wisconsin and Georgia to provide human service; health and women’s empowerment and leadership services for refugee women; Refugee Family Strengthening Program (a domestic abuse program) in Wisconsin; the Hmong Studies position at UW-Madison; the Hmong Language and Culture Enrichment Program; and The Hmong Institute.

Mai Zong serves as the COO of the Hmong Institute (THI), a Madison-based non-profit organization dedicated to empowering community through education, health, and preservation of Hmong heritage. She is passionate about Hmong arts and culture, especially to ensure that Hmong arts are alive and enriching the lives of Wisconsinites.

Where can we find your work?

Learn more about Mai Zong Vue’s work at The Hmong Institute.