Description
In these poems and short prose pieces Chath pierSath describes in vivid detail his refugee journey, resettlement in the United States, return to Cambodia, and continuing effort to find meaning and fulfillment in his adopted country. His bold compositions document the damage done to the Cambodian people by political fanatics and the after-effects in a nation still struggling to regain its balance. Through the author's eyes, soul, and mind, we experience his challenges and often joy as he embraces American freedom and, in the spirit of Walt Whitman, celebrates his life as a gay man, exploring "the body electric" and the ensuing ecstasies and at times despair. This is the voice of the new American who sounds much like the classic newcomer to the U.S., the immigrant who gets the job done as sung in Hamilton. He adds his stories to the big bag of American culture in a fresh voice that resonates around the globe, for he is truly an international artist. Through his intense personal history, as well as his leadership in social work and independent ethnography, Chath has channelled community and identity into all of his creativity -- Rain Taxi. As Buddhists, the dead who are not properly buried are doomed to suffer in the hell realm as hungry ghosts. Through literary expression, pierSath reunites social bonds and allows for souls to be reincarnated -- Mary Thi Pham and Jonathan H. X. Lee, Southeast Asian Diaspora in the United States. . . Chath explores memory and illusion, many of the works being derived from his own journals looking at family, love, disappointment and even hate. . . excavating memories and juxtaposing them with historical moments . . . The cyclical nature of history, that is perpetually written and erased, is often in the hands of power -- and here the artist re-claims a small part. -- javaarts.org, review of Khmer Lessons art exhibition.
