REFUGENIUS STORY
About
CNN’s “United Shades of America” host W. Kamau Bell called her work “revolutionary.” Governor Mark Dayton recognized her and others with a “Lao Artists Heritage Month” Proclamation. She’s a recipient of a 2019 Sally Award for Initiative from the Ordway Center for Performing Arts which “recognizes bold new steps and strategic leadership undertaken by an individual...in creating projects or artistic programs never before seen in Minnesota that will have a significant impact on strengthening Minnesota’s artistic/cultural community.”
Photo by Melissa Vang
Saymoukda is the first Laotian American and Minnesota artist to receive a direct invitation to The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts as an artist in residence at The REACH as part of their Social Impact program.
Her work has been presented by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center (NY), Theater Mu (MN), Lower Depth Theater (LA), Asian Improv Arts (IL), and elsewhere.
As a cultural producer, she’s partnered with major institutions to activate spaces where Southeast Asian voices and bodies have often been ignored. For example, in 2019, she curated a 1-night takeover of the Minneapolis Institute of Art with Southeast Asian artists wherein the first floor was ‘transformed’ into a typical Southeast Asian house party complete with food, raunchy comedy, and social activities spread across the ‘house’.
Saymoukda’s community contributions include serving on the City of Saint Paul Cultural STAR Board and Governor Tim Walz's State Poet Laureate Program Design Committee and Interview & Selection Committee.
In her spare time, she provides free 1-1 consultations to artists on their artist grant and fellowship narratives, assists artists with identifying and understanding various funding opportunities, and connecting artists to funders. Saymoukda regularly serves as a panelist for local and national grant programs, serves as an auditor of grant programs, and serves as a designer of new grant programs. She’s worked with United States Artists, Science Museum of Minnesota, and the Knight Foundation, for example. She’s an avid advocate for arts funding.
Recent honors include a Jerome Hill fellowship, a Bush Fdn Leadership fellowship, and being the first Minnesotan artist to be invited as an artist in resident at the Kennedy Center REACH. Other awards include grants and fellowships from the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation, Jerome Foundation, McKnight Foundation, Bush Foundation, Andy Warhol Foundation, MAP Fund, Loft Literary Center and dozens more.
Photo By Xu Yang
Photo by Matthew Boerst
She’s currently a Mellon Fdn Playwright in Residence at Theater Mu, a Jerome@Camargo Artist in Residence in Cassis, France, a Playwrights Center Core Writer, a Lanesboro Arts Artist in Residence, a Forecast Public Art grantee, and a member of the Governor’s Roundtable of AAPI Leaders.
Her upcoming plays include commissions from Theater Mu (MN 2026), InterAct Theatre Co. (PA 2026), and the University of MN Immigration History and Research Center (MN).
Hire Me!
Commissions
I'm available for commissions specializing in short to full-length plays, poetry, and essays.
Consultations
I help artists and creatives identify, navigate, and apply for artist grants and fellowships. To learn more, go to Springboard for the Arts Artist Career Consultation.
Speaking
I’m often invited to give keynotes/talks or moderate conversations around identity, the Southeast Asian diaspora, creative writing, the artist’s life, philanthropy + arts funding, my lived experiences, taking up space as a storyteller, and more.