Arts & Entertainment
Vietnamese Association of Illinois Reflects on Past, Looks to Future Ahead of 50th Anniversary Celebration
Vietnamese Association of Illinois Lunar New Year celebration in 2024. This weekend, the organization is celebrating its 50th anniversary with an event featuring musical group Saigon Jazz Revival and Vietnamese singer Carol Kim. (Courtesy of Vietnamese Association of Illinois)
Vân Huynh first got involved with the Vietnamese Association of Illinois as a volunteer more than 10 years ago, teaching English and translating newspaper articles people would bring in.
Huynh, who now serves as the association’s executive director, said she got to practice her Vietnamese and fulfill a yearning she had to feel connected to the Vietnamese community.
The Vietnamese Association of Illinois has served as an anchor for the Vietnamese community in the Chicago area for the last 50 years. The organization will hold a 50th anniversary concert celebration on Saturday featuring New Orleans-based musical group Saigon Jazz Revival and Vietnamese singer Carol Kim, who has been called Vietnam’s “Queen of Soul.” The event is already sold out.
The association was founded in 1976 by the first wave of refugees from Vietnam, a year after the fall of Saigon that effectively ended the Vietnam War.
“A year after the first wave of Vietnamese refugees resettled in Chicago, almost immediately, people got together and were like, ‘We need to help folks who are going to come after us,’” Huynh said. “They created an organization with this vision that refugee support was going to be led by refugees.”
It’s the same spirit of mutual aid that has continued to guide the organization’s work, even as the number of Vietnamese and Southeast Asian serving organizations have dwindled over the last half century, according to Huynh.
Today, the organization operates on a $10 million budget and provides programming such as an after-school program for K-8 students, an adult education program for those learning English or taking their U.S. citizenship test, a homecare program for seniors, immigration services, cultural events, community organizing and mutual aid.
A mutual aid distribution event hosted by the Vietnamese Association of Illinois circa 2023. (Courtesy of Vietnamese Association of Illinois)
More than half of the clients that the organization serves are Vietnamese, but they have also seen an increase in the number of refugees and immigrants being served from countries like Cameroon, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Syria and Iraq, according to Huynh.
The organization also provided assistance to Spanish-speaking migrant families during Chicago’s migrant crisis, when migrants were being bussed into Chicago from the U.S. southern border by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
“We have the infrastructure to support immigrants and refugees, and so when people come to us, of course we’re going to help them,” Huynh said. “I think that has to remain a part of the work that we do, to support other communities as they come to the United States, too.”
An estimated 40,000 people of Vietnamese descent live in Illinois, of which, about half live in Cook County, according to 2021 American Community Survey data.
The Vietnamese Association of Illinois is located near Uptown’s Asia on Argyle cultural corridor, also known as “Little Saigon.” While the area is still anchored by seniors and families who have lived there for generations, they have also seen many changes amid the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic and as many families moved to the suburbs, Huynh said. Residents that Huynh speakswith say they want to see the area revitalized with the vibrancy that used to exist in the ‘80s and ‘90s.
Other issues facing the Vietnamese community in Chicago involve affordable housing, access to public benefits and services and immigration enforcement, according to Huynh. Young people have also taken anti-war stances after seeing firsthand the impact war can have throughout generations, Huynh said.
“At our 50-year mark, we’re thinking a lot about legacy and how to preserve history,” Huynh said. “The experiences of the early waves of refugees is very different from experiences of young people … Oftentimes, what I see in the Vietnamese community is there’s this constant struggle of wanting to remember the war and then wanting to forget the war, simultaneously. For young people it’s like, ‘What are our stories beyond just the war?’”
The Vietnamese Association of Illinois’ 50th anniversary concert celebration at Live Bash aims to connect the energy and nightlife of pre-1975 Saigon with Chicago’s rich jazz history and traditions.
“A century ago, musicians carried southern Black American music — what became known as jazz — from New Orleans to Chicago, where it continued to evolve through new collaborations and new communities,” said creative director Marion Hoàng Ngọc Hill in a statement. “Saigon Jazz Revival is devoted to that same spirit of musical migration and reinvention.”
The night also aims to honor the Vietnamese refugees and immigrants who carried the community forward after being displaced by war, and to celebrate the next generations leading it into the future, according to Huynh.
The theme of the night: “Two Homes, One VAI.”
“It’s not just one story, but multiple stories,” Huynh said. “In these occasions when we’re able to mark the 50th anniversary, that gives us an opportunity to bring in a lot of different people to share in their experiences, rooted in joy and a vision for the future, rather than only looking at the past.”
WTTW News arts coverage is supported by the JCS Arts, Health & Education Fund of the DuPage Foundation.
Contact Eunice Alpasan: [email protected]
