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:

Paaj ntaub became my voice as a second-generation Moob Leeg Moospheeb American to people who grabble with understanding who HMoob are. A stateless people who contest dominate knowledge, history, and culture. My works responds to the violence, trauma, memory, home, and HMoob knowledge to bring forth conversations that goes unnoticed within marginalized communities. It recenters HMoob arts within our knowledge because of it’s history surviving from colonization, institutionalization, and commoditization. In the face of another, the work transforms to creates a home in spaces of violence, invisibility, the liminal, across worlds and boarders.