Alan Pham is a final-year medical student at the University of Sydney. Originally born to Vietnamese refugee parents in Houston, Texas, Alan first started performing spoken word as a means of Asian-American rights advocacy and educational awareness. In 2009, he competed in his first Australian Poetry Slam, making it to the NSW state finals. Last year, he competed in the national finals as the NSW state champion. He has also performed as a featured poet at a Word in Hand poetry slam held at the Friend in Hand hotel. He writes as a means of advocacy and education about issues deeply important to him, his family, and his community. He believes that, in essence, spoken word poetry is the art of blending the content of a piece with a performance that mimics the soul. He writes to move people beyond words, to bridge a gap of understanding with poetic planks, to pull them down the rabbit hole and into his world.