Please consider supporting Cabinet with a donation. Thank you.
huu nguyen & Kaila Defritas
About huu nguyen
huu nguyen is a cultural worker and circle keeper. A mamma of two and a tía/auntie to many. The wife of a tender and loving Taurus. And a daughter of Vietnamese refugees. huu was born in the central part of Viet Nam. Raised in Salisbury, NC. Radicalized in Chicago. Academically trained with a Ph.D in pharmacognosy (concentrating in medical ethnobotany), her passion is to decolonize Western medicine by reinserting the contributions of traditional botanical knowledge and healing practices/rituals of BIPOC to “modern” medicine. As a contramestra in Capoeira Angola, a cultural and ancestral practice that emerged over time in response to the violence of the slave system in Brazil, her vision is to share its liberatory practice for mutual freedom and healing. She is currently the director of youth organizing and programming at Palenque LSNA, where she organizes using healing-centered engagement and restorative justice practices. She lives on the south side of Chicago, with her two daughters and husband, and enjoys walking on her hands.