So I have finally had a chance to sit down and process the Cambodian Music Festival. To be honest, I am still riding a wave of highness from the weekend, feeling that the universe is too good. Below is a short essay in the form of thank you that explain the enormity of the Cambodian Music Festival. First, thanks must go to organizers, Seak and Brian Smith. This Cambo-power couple have single-handedly changed the course of the Cambodian American narrative and have demonstrated to a community what a dream combined with incredibly hard work and passion can do. They are an example of an ideal couple in the Khmer-est of terms; they support each other and believe in each other’s dreams while living by a code of compassion and honor. That is power and they have lent their power to us. Next, my thanks must go the incredible list of artists who absolutely killed the stage. This weekend really changed my life in knowing how many of us share the same dreams for Cambodia, how many of us just want to answer the Khmer Rouge legacy of DESTRUCTION and UNIFORMITY with CONSTRUCTION and DIVERSITY. To my fellow artists, Bong Seak asked us at the beginning of the weekend how we can come together and do something greater than ourselves. I think our path together has only just begun as I am more than excited to throw myself into collaborations and creative ways of entertaining and educating our generation and our future generations. What an honorable path to follow and I am honored to share this path with you. What amazed me is how good-hearted and genuine every single artist was. You humbled me 1000 times; it felt like we were all family working towards some bright future that gave us pleasure to dream about. All weekend, we called each other CMF family. There is something in store for all of us, and I for one plan to follow this path with each and every one of you. I find our response to the Khmer Rouge legacy to be a true form of reconciliation of our dark past. And I’m just so glad that I’m not alone. Meeting all of you will be unforgettable and I plan on telling my grandchildren once upon a time we were pretty darn legitimate folks that loved to love and loved to party. Third, I must give thanks to own family and team for supporting me despite the never-stable-status of an artist’s life. This next album is built by my family’s ideas from mother to brother and father to aunties to friends and collaborators. Without my family, this music would be nothing. The inspiration would be nothing. They are my source, my root, and the more that I blossom into a woman the stronger they seem to grow. I am blessed to have such an amazing Khmer strong family. The roots that they provide me will keep me growing forever. Without my friends and mates, I would be an insecure pile of tears unable to do anything ever. Fourth, I must thank the incredible Khmer audience that came to support the Cambodian Music Festival. So often in our own history, we have seen Khmers tear each other down, disrespect each other, hate each other out of jealousy, and give up on trying to have patience with a community that is so traumatically affected. At this festival, the hearts and minds of the people that attended were completely open-- there was no trauma, no anger, no injustice. There was only love, compassion, pride, belief, open-mindedness, happiness, and empowerment. If this is not a testament to the fact that music and art can destroy the barriers of society, then I beg you to show me another example. The relationship I had with you, my audience, for this particular show gave me 1 million years of power and confidence. You made me believe that we can all come together. You made me believe that those thoughts I have privately to myself in the middle of the night when I’m questioning what it means to be Khmer are worth sharing. You made me believe that we can rise up and overcome. And last but not least, I raise my hands together and somphas (bow to) the artists who came before us, the ones that we lost, that ones that we kept, and the ones we may never have known. Once upon a time, Khmer music artists in Cambodia got together and supported each other to make new and modern music for its youth. They gave the youth the power to believe, to dance, to rebel, to re-identify themselves, and to have a jolly good time. Then they were silenced. And yet, the power of their spirit had to have been so strong for this generation to hear their call to continue on. I have often wondered who is calling to us to help rebuild our nation, our people and our society. There is a calling so strong that each of us have experienced at least once. I know now that their voices are a part of that calling that is unexplainable. We will answer that call and this generation just might be the most beautiful underdog generation of Cambodians you may ever meet. I am grateful for that and I thank the wonderful people who kept their spirit alive for us. So to end this gigantic statement, I wish only to say this. CMF changed the course of Cambodian music and that is a fact. What did it do? It showed us the path that is ahead of us and the context within which that path is located, thereby focusing our minds and narrowing our goals. Here is that context in basic terms. The problem: a dark communist path nearly destroyed our existence, our culture and our people with a twisted ideology of destruction and uniformity. Although the Khmer Rouge are gone, their ideology still affects us today as we have seen Khmers continually tear each other down for every single thing we do “wrong.” The solution: The next Khmer generation could quite possibly rebel against the Khmer Rouge legacy by adopting a newer and better code to live by, which is (re)construction and diversity. We could end the cycle of violence against each other and respond to it by opening our hearts and minds to the diversity of Khmer identity, by allowing all of the influences of the world help us to become multi-talented and multi-faceted peoples. We could honor our Buddhist values by applying “compassion” and “acceptance” towards each other. And last but not least, we could end the cycle of violence towards each other, and we could begin a cycle of healing one another towards a future that only holds an understanding of a simple statement, ONE LOVE. -- Laura Mam
Posted on: Wed, 13 Aug 2014 04:34:05 +0000
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