“It’s important to be proud of who you are, as a Hmong person, to know your history, to know your roots, because that’s what will really empower you to speak up for your people...” Mai Der Vang, recipient of the 2016 Walt Whitman Award and author of the debut poetry collection, Afterland (Graywolf Press, 2017), speaks about her family’s experience as Hmong refugees in America.