Catzie Vilayphonh

Catzie Vilayphonh is a multimedia artist with a background in writing, spoken word poetry, photography and filmmaking. She runs Laos in the House, a project that promotes storytelling in the Lao American refugee community, and is a founding member of the group Yellow Rage who were featured on HBO’s Def Poetry Jam. Through her work, Catzie provides an awareness not often heard, drawing from personal narrative. She has worked on various artistic projects with partners such as Mural Arts Philadelphia, Asian Arts Initiative, Smithsonian APIA Center, The Moth, Philadelphia Assembled and Legacies of War.

Throughout her artistic career Catzie has been a recipient of awards from Pennsylvania Council on the Arts as well as the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation. She has been a 2012 Creative Capital finalist, a four-time Leeway Foundation honoree, and was named a 2016 Woman Non-Profit Leader by Philadelphia City Council. She is a co-founding chair of the national Lao American Writers Summit, and was recently appointed to the Mayor’s Commission on Asian American Affairs.