COMPTON, Calif. — Growing up in the Vietnamese Community - Diep Tran felt like she didn’t belong in the box society wanted her to fit into. 

“I don’t live a traditional life so why would I need to be tied to these ideas of what should be,” said Tran, R&D Chef at Red Boat Fish Sauce.

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Tran says she felt like she had to hide who she was and the fact that she’s a part of the LGBTQ+ community whenever she went home to celebrate Tết, which is Vietnamese Lunar New Year.

“I wanted to have an inclusive Tết that just included more people than what it has historically included,” said Tran.

So instead of waiting for the Vietnamese community to fully accept her, Tran created an annual get-together called the Banh Chung Collective. It’s where women, people of color and members of the LGBTQ+ community come together to celebrate Lunar New Year and make bánh chưng. 

“It’s like the community I always wanted since I was a child. I felt like I’m a little different than everyone else. There’s a lack of access for me and so this is way for me to engage in Tet the way that I wanted to,” said Tran.

Bánh chưng is the Vietnamese sticky rice cake. It is rich and filled with pork, shallots and mung beans. It’s wrapped in banana leaves and boiled until it’s tender. The original recipe dates back to the 1600’s. 

“Bánh chưng is always like you have to do it this way. You can’t deviate, but the thing is people deviate all the time. Grannies came here and they didn’t have banana leaves so they improvised with aluminum foil and that’s not considered less than. It’s considered as an adaptation,” said Tran.

Her small collective grew attracting many guests who bring family and friends that they consider to be their chosen family. Tran takes her annual party on the road starting with Alma Backyard Farms in Compton, New York, San Francisco and will end in Dallas.

Alma is a non-profit organization that exists to re-claim lives of formerly incarcerated people, re-purpose urban land into productive farm plots, and re-imagine disenfranchised communities throughout Los Angeles as a place of empowerment.

From one city to the next, Tran hopes to inspire people to not wait for society to pull out a seat for them, but instead form their own tables and seats for people who accept them as they are.