By Kristopher Hanson, Staff writer Long Beach Press Telegram
LONG BEACH — Between 1975 and 1979, Cambodia's "Killing Fields" claimed the lives of an estimated 4 million men, women and children under the brutal Khmer Rouge regime in control of the small southeast Asian nation.
Among those who escaped the horror were many who came to Long Beach. Now, a cultural project featuring the experiences of Cambodian-American women through musical performances, a photographic exhibit and lecture is under way in Long Beach.
Through art, the project tells the stories of women who experienced the Cambodian holocaust.
A play at the Found Theatre, 599 Long Beach Blvd., features the story of a young girl who flees Cambodia under the horrors of the Khmer Rouge and is adopted by a family at a Thai refugee camp. The family eventually makes their way to America, where they find life can be as difficult as it was in Cambodia.
"Journey Across the Mine Fields to America" runs through Sunday.
Based on an ancient Cambodian cultural tradition called Lakhon Yike (pronounced yeekay), the performance includes drums, dancing and singing. Chantara Nop, a local survivor, wrote the play.
On March 4, a photographic exhibit titled "Courage and Resiliency: Cambodian-American Women in America," opens at the Long Beach Main Library with a 2 p.m. reception featuring the oral history of 10 women documented with 47 photographs. The library, at 101 Pacific Ave., will provide gallery space and free admission for the exhibit through April 30 during regular library hours.
On March 7, Poly High School will welcome Svang Tor, Senior Clinician and Consultant with the Harvard Program in Refugee Trauma (HPRT). Tor is also a Cambodian-American survivor who is featured in the exhibit from Harvard. She will speak to students from 9:30-11:30 a.m.
Finally, April 20, Harvard Psychiatry Professor Richard Mollica, who oversees the HPRT, will speak at Long Beach City College.
To contact the Found Theater, call (562) 433-3363 or visit www.foundtheatre.com. For more information about the project, call the National Conference for Community and Justice at (562) 435-8184.
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