Organizer: The New York Public Library and Vietnamese Boat People

Type/Location: In Person / New York, NY

Description:

Join the New York Public Library for a talk by Vicky Nguyễn, NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent, anchor of NBC News Daily, and author of Boat Baby: A Memoir. Tracey Nguyễn Mang, founder of Vietnamese Boat People—a podcast and nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora through innovative storytelling programs—will moderate the discussion.

About the Book:

Starting in 1975, Vietnam’s “boat people”—desperate families seeking freedom—fled the Communist government and violence in their country any way they could, usually by boat across the South China Sea. Vicky Nguyen and her family were among them. Attacked at sea by pirates before reaching a refugee camp in Malaysia, Vicky’s family survived on rations and waited months until they were sponsored to go to America.

But deciding to leave and start a new life in a new country is half the story…figuring out how to be American is the other. Boat Baby is Vicky’s memoir of growing up in America with unconventional Vietnamese parents who didn’t always know how to bridge the cultural gaps. It’s a childhood filled with misadventures and misunderstandings, from almost stabbing the neighborhood racist with a butter knife to getting caught stealing Cosmo in the hope of learning Do You Really Think You Know Everything About Sex?

Vicky’s parents approached life with the attitude, “Why not us?” In the face of prejudice, they taught her to be gritty and resilient, skills Vicky used as she combatted stereotyping throughout her career, fending off the question “Aren’t you Connie Chung?” to become a leading Asian American journalist on television. She delivers a uniquely transparent account of her life, revealing how she negotiated her salary in a competitive industry, the challenges of starting a family, and the struggle to be a dutiful daughter.

Funny, nostalgic, and poignant, Boat Baby is a testament to the messy glue that bonds a family. Vicky Nguyen offers an optimistic story full of heart that illuminates the promise of what America can be.

About the Speakers:

Vicky Nguyen is an NBC News senior consumer investigative correspondent and anchor of NBC News Daily. She reports for The Today Show, Nightly News with Lester Holt and NBC News Now. She graduated as valedictorian from the University of San Francisco. Vicky lives in New York with her husband and three daughters. Her parents are always nearby.

Tracey Nguyen Mang is the founder of Vietnamese Boat People (vietnameseboatpeople.org), a podcast and nonprofit organization dedicated to preserving and sharing the stories of the Vietnamese diaspora through innovative storytelling programs. She was born in Vietnam and came to the U.S. in 1981 as a refugee with her family. Tracey has over twenty-five years of strategy and corporate social responsibility experience and is currently in real estate with West of Hudson Real Estate.

Registration:

To attend the event in person, please register here.