CHRYSANTHEMUM is a poet, performance artist, and public historian. She serves as Co-Director of the Providence Poetry Slam, one of the oldest slam venues in the US. Her honors include the Ruth Lilly and Dorothy Sargent Rosenberg Fellowship from the Poetry Foundation, a Kundiman Fellow, a Lambda Literary Justin Chin Memorial Fellow, and a recipient of the MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation. In 2024, she was named Lambda Literary’s inaugural Poet-in-Residence.
In 2016, Chrysanthemum became the first trans woman finalist of the Women of the World Poetry Slam. Her teams were champions of the Rustbelt Poetry Slam and the first-ever FEM Slam. Her writing has appeared in Poem-A-Day, The Nation, Them, and Button Poetry, among others. Born to Vietnamese parents in Oklahoma City, she now calls Providence home.
A member of the volunteer team that organizes the Providence Poetry Slam, Rhode Island’s longest-running poetry slam and open mic venue, Chrysanthemum has had the privilege of mentoring youth poets and representing her home venue at the National Poetry Slam, where she placed fifth in 2015.
Following her experience attending Rachel McKibbens’ Pink Door Writing Retreat, she organized the Vanishing Point Writing Retreat to connect Asian diasporic poets through collaborative, peer-led instruction,
With long-time collaborator Justice Ameer, with whom she served as an Artist-in-Residence at Williams College, she wrote and produced the two-woman show ANTHEM at the American Repertory Theater's OBERON.
Chrysanthemum has performed poems and led writing workshops across the country, including Harvard University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Asian American Writers' Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Skirball Cultural Center, Cantab Lounge, and Nuyorican Poets Cafe. She appeared on PBS and on video for The New York Times,
She is an alumna of the Oklahoma Summer Arts Institute at Quartz Mountain, which she attended in 2011 and 2013 as a teenager studying photography. Chrysanthemum is currently completing her debut collection of poems, which explores contradictions, deletions, and distortions in trans history.
(Once known as Chrysanthemum Tran)
Chrysanthemum is represented by Tyler Tsay at The Speakeasy Project for booking inquiries.
Find Chrysanthemum
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PBS | True Colors: LGBTQ+ Our Music, Our Stories”
Alongside Justice Ameer, Chrysanthemum discusses sisterhood, found family, and the pursuit of locating oneself in queer history in “True Colors: LGBTQ+ Our Music, Our Stories”, a PBS special hosted by Amy Schneider.
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Them: "When Remembering Stonewall, We Need To Listen to Those Who Were There"
In this essay for Them, Chrysanthemum confronts the discrepancies between the historical record and the modern mythology surrounding who started the Stonewall Riots.
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The Nation: "How Do You Create Community Out of a Rainbow of Difference?"
In this essay penned with Justice Ameer, Chrysanthemum reflects on messiness, the challenges of chosen family, and the importance of not working alone in the fight for queer liberation.
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Women of the World Poetry Slam: "Biological Woman"
In celebration of women who’ve come before her, Chrysanthemum offers a poem after Maya Angelou’s “Phenomenal Woman” on the finals stage of the Women of the World Poetry Slam, an annual global poetry slam tournament.
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On the Road
Chrysanthemum has perfomed poems and led writing workshops across the country, including visits to Harvard University, Yale University, University of Chicago, Asian American Writers' Workshop, Brooklyn Academy of Music, Skirball Cultural Center, the Cantab Lounge, and East Meets Words.
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The New York Times Video | The Stonewall You Know Is a Myth. And That’s O.K.
In this New York Times video for Stonewall’s 50th anniversary, Chrysanthemum provides perspective on how myths of LGBTQ+ historical figures persist online, calling for the community to embrace the messiness.
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Vanishing Point Writing Retreat
Through a MacColl Johnson Fellowship from the Rhode Island Foundation, Chrysanthemum organized the Vanishing Point Writing Retreat to further the development of and connection between diasporic Asian artists who are queer, trans, women, and non-binary.
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"ANTHEM"
Blending poetry, music, song, and media arts, ANTHEM is a debut show produced, written and performed by Chrysanthemum and Justice Ameer for the American Repertory Theater's OBERON. "Moments of rare joy and celebrations of survival are part of the premise", writes WBUR.
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Button Poetry: "On (Not) Forgiving My Mother"
With over 70,000 views on Button Poetry, Chrysanthemum’s poem about legal legibility for Vietnamese trans women led her to victory at the Rustbelt Poetry Slam, alongside Franny Choi, Rachel Rostad, and Paul Tran.
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The Offing: "On Using the Trans Panic Defense"
Originally published in The Offing and anthologized in Bettering American Poetry, this poem dissects the trans panic defense used by a United States Marine in legal proceedings for his murder of Jennifer Laude, a trans woman in the Philippines.
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Get Lit Anthology: "Behold! A Spectacle"
Originally published in The Offing, Chrysanthemum’s poem was featured in the Get Lit Anthology, a curated curriculum that pairs classic poetry with spoken word.
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Button Poetry: "Transplant"
Exploring her fraught relationships with trans visibility and Asian American visibility through her childhood memories of Photoshop, this poem earned Chrysanthemum recognition as “Best Poet” at the College Unions Poetry Slam Invitational.
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Muzzle Magazine: "Binge"
Published by Muzzle Magazine, Chrysanthemum’s poem meditates on the non-linear relationship between passing and gender-affirming medical interventions.
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Button Poetry: "Cognates"
Excavates the French colonial history in the Vietnamese word pê-đê, a derogatory term meaning effeminate, gay, or queer, this poem first debuted at the Women of the World Poetry Slam in Brooklyn, where Chrysanthemum became the first trans woman finalist of the tournament.
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Providence Poetry Slam
The Providence Poetry Slam is Rhode Island’s longest running poetry slam and open mic venue. Having represented ProvSlam at the National Poetry Slam and mentoring youth poets, Chrysanthemum is a humble part of the volunteer team that organizes and hosts shows every first and third Thursday at AS220.
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Mural in Rochester, NY
As former attendees of the Pink Door Writing Retreat held in Rochester by Rachel McKibbens, Chinese-Canadian filmmaker, public artist and poet Jess X. Snow painted a mural that features Chrysanthemum and an excerpt from her poem “Biological Woman”.
