Helping your community advocate for themselves: Huynh Pool’s tips and tricks

We spoke to some incredible activists in the community about their work and what they’d recommend checking out at this moment in time. Don’t miss the powerful picks in this series from artist and advocate Huynh Pool.

Connecting through meaningful conversation

Huynh Pool is an artist, advocate, mom and board member at Hội Phụ Huynh, which supports the Vietnamese Dual Language Immersion program at PPS. “I’m thankful to my parents for teaching me Vietnamese as a kid,” she says. “When we came over here in the early 90s, they didn’t know much English. [I heard] English in school but when I came home it was mostly Vietnamese. That was the driving force in allowing me to be the connection toward and within the Vietnamese community. ... I can spot when someone has a language issue and they don’t understand, so they don’t know how to best advocate for themselves. And oftentimes I step in.” Whether she’s at events or in line to get medicine, meaningful conversation is at the heart of her activism. “Connecting with my community is actually having that meaningful talk, that conversation, being helpful.”

Her interest in digital art and animation began early. She remembers being captivated by the way films told stories, sharing “I’ve always felt this passion for art. ... How do they make it go? How do they tell this story?” Huynh uses knowledge from her career to help her community learn about marketing, AI and more. Her new short film, The Sculptor, will show at Open Signal on January 24, 2026. It was tailored for her daughters, who ask her where babies come from and where people go when they die. The film presents an artistic interpretation of “how life is crafted, and how the crafting affects the life that was given.”

For Pool, activism is “a means of intentional effort to make a change.” As the mother of two daughters, she relates activism to gathering knowledge, critical thinking and a responsibility to the future generation. “Children are the most vulnerable individuals in our community,” she explains. “How can we as a community, as adults who have been through things with experience, make this world a better place for the younger generation?”

Huynh Pool’s recommendations: 

Books that inspired graphic novels

“Graphic novels are great, but it's always good to see if a graphic novel actually came from a novel with words. Reading the words fully captivates and it helps you in your mind create a scene that isn't already made for you.”

If you want to look for a novel version of a graphic novel, head to our catalog and search for the title!

Real life stories

“In this moment in time, I feel it's very important to highlight real life stories of experiences ... We don't know where we come from, or what things happened, unless we knew that there was someone who documented it at that time.”

Explore these stories of real-life trailblazers for younger readers!

How to guides

Pool also recommends checking out hands-on guides on how to make things from the library. “I feel and I observe with my kids that when you see a video, you get this immediate gratification that it's right there at the touch of my hands. But when you have a book, the book is patient. The book is not going to change. ... Let's not sit and waste our life away on wishful thinking that we could crochet [something] by looking at someone else crochet it, but let's make some ugly loops. ... It doesn't matter if you make ugly crochet. You just have to know what loops go forward and back.”

These excellent recommendations are a fantastic place to get started. Make sure to check out the full series!

Feeling inspired? Want to dive into activism yourself? In February, you can learn how to make change happen in a civics for adults course.

If you’re itching for even more books to read, check out our community care and activism reading list.