From Pol Pot to Hip Hop: Cambodian Festival California: Celebrates the “Rhythm of the Refugee” in Oakland

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_yTIUV0Cqtw

RJ Sin - Sad Child (Live Performance)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mInWx4WOZko

Friends of Peralta
The Oakland Local
Mon, 16 Apr

Oakland's Cambodian community and music lovers of every ethnicity are meeting at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park on April 21st to ring in Cambodian New Year and honor a people, their music, and their stories under the banner Rhythm of the Refugee: A Cambodian Journey of Healing.

92-year-old Nhep Prok, one of the sole surviving master musicians of pre-Pol Pot Cambodia, will play with his youth ensemble and virtuoso apprentices. “Our music cannot die with me,” says Nhep Prok, “My duty and purpose is to pass it down. Khmer music saved my life.”

Alongside Nhep Prok and his students, a new generation of Cambodian hip-hop artists, Ratha “RJ” Jim and Ratana “B” Jim, will sizzle the stage. “B” performs “Khmurf,” a unique dance style combining the Khmer Monkey Dance with Oakland’s homegrown TURF (Taking Up Room on the Floor). Festival-goers will also see up-and-coming Cambodian star Raymond Sin, singing Cambodian pop and karaoke. There will also be Cambodian games galore for kids and adults, and Cambodian food and crafts for sale.

Background:

On April 17th, 1975, the Khmer Rouge Regime rose to power in Cambodia in the aftermath of years of U.S. carpet bombing. By the end of their rule they were responsible for the deaths of over 1.7 million Cambodians. In 2012, the Khmer Rouge’s top officials are finally on trial for war crimes. An estimated 95% of Cambodia’s artists, dancers, and musicians were executed by the Khmer Rouge, which targeted all culture and learning as part of the old order. It is no small wonder, then, that the dancers and musicians featured at this year’s Cambodian New Year in Oakland command special respect, both from Cambodians and lovers of world music and culture.

For many Cambodians in diaspora, the trials mean facing a history almost too painful to recall. In interviews featured in Rhythm of the Refugee, Phannara Khun recalled atrocities committed against her family:

“In 1977, they killed my dad by cutting open his stomach …Two weeks later they beat my brother to death with a wooden club…In 1978, my sister and her husband were tortured until they died. Then they threw my one-year-old nephew into the air and shot him. ... I cried and cried and passed out. Because my mother cried, they executed her too. People in the village hid me and I survived…”

Festival-goers can tour the exhibit Rhythm of the Refugee between performances. It tells stories both harrowing and heartening, and displays photographs, stories, and cultural objects from the Cambodian community. In the words of Sambo Ly, the head of Cambodian Community Development Inc, “The painful experiences that I endured as a teen during the war are inexpressible. Every day I am thankful for the second chance at life.” This spirit of joy and renewal will abound on April 21 at Peralta Hacienda.