Edward Txoov Xyooj has a B.S. in Textile and Fashion Design with a certificate in Asian American Studies with a HMoob Studies Emphasis at UW-Madison. His works are inspired from his research and work on paj ntaub as well as other HMoob arts like lug txaj los sis kwv txhiaj. In 2025, he received the CMDC Chipstone undergraduate fellowship to research and preserve knowledge on paj ntaub in which he interviewed and learned from elders in Wisconsin and Minnesota. Through his work he hopes to bring forth conversations about what the HMoob American experience is, experiences of marginalized or stateless communities, and preserve paj ntaub for the younger generations.

Artist Statement:

Growing up invisibilized as a second-generation Moob Leeg Moob Moospheeb American paaj ntaub became my voice and home. My work begins and is a response to questions of displacement, violence, trauma, and memories by centering HMoob arts as the site of embodied cultural knowledge. I use txuag ntawv (paper cutting), lug txaj (song poetry), suab nkauj suab paaj nraug (music), and paaj ntaub techniques (applique, reverse applique, batik, and embroidery), motifs, and materials to embody and investigate what it means to be HMoob and stateless. Each mend in my work serves as home-making for me; as I, American born continually live in places of violence, where HMoob are often invisible and where home is contested in the everyday. Pieced together, my work seeks to claim connection, care, and place through making.