Writing Samples.

(Poems will open in new window)

I choose to write because I am compelled to tell my story. My performance work is built around my writing and the stories I am learning to claim. I write poetry, spoken word, monologues and performance pieces. Writing allows me to own my complicated and vulnerable self. Writing saved my life when I felt worthless and unloved. Writing is part of my process of healing. Writing gives me insights into my political, spiritual and artistic soul. Writing has expanded my vocabulary and set aside my insecurities about “speaking good English.” Writing allows me into a safe space to deal with racism, sexuality, home and violence. Writing allows me to be angry and tender. It has become an essential means to document my family’s stories. My writing has allowed me to connect with other people as well as have private conversations with myself. Most importantly, my words give me special superhero powers such as the ability to re-imagine a better world and the ability to love my fragmented selves and to stitch them into a more complicated and whole individual. I have had no formal training in writing but that has not hindered me. My life experience and culture around me has taught me to write. Writing has helped me find community.

Visiting Loss

I wrote this prior to returning “Home” to Cambodia. This is performed with a dress I made from Khmer and English words. Pieces of my poetry about absence are attached to the dress and are ripped off the dress by the end of the performance.

Taurus on the Cusp of Phoenix Rising

a creation myth I wrote about the need for women to stop sacrificing ourselves

The Day After

I developed this piece as a Cento – 100 lines compiled from lines of Hate Crime reports filed shortly after 9/11.

Excuse Me, AmeriKa (click here for Audio)

Read the poem or listen to the audio from Broken Speak. This performance poem is for anyone who has ever been asked, “Why are you so angry?”

Not Your Fetish (click here for Audio)

Read the poem or listen to the audio – from Broken Speak. This performance poem is co-written and co-performed with Emily Chang. This is our response towards men who have “Asian fetishes” and a white culture which constantly appropriates and commodifies our culture.

Beneath Ripening Skin (click here for Audio)

Read the poem or listen to the audio – recorded live at MAASU 2000 Conference ( Ann Arbor), with Nadia Kim. This poem is dedicated to the memory of Lola Lucia Alvarez – an amazing and brave Filipina woman who died while still speaking out about WWII “comfort” women. She is one of nearly 200,000 women stolen from all over Asia and placed into sex camps by the Japanese military during WWII.

Litany for a Hidden Apsara

This poem was written during my return to Cambodia after nearly 25 years. It is inspired by and dedicated to the children of Cambodia who are 50% of the population. I was thrilled to have developed and performed this piece in Phnom Penh. You can also watch the video clip here.

S-21 Requiem

I wrote this after visiting Tuol Sleng Genocide Museum in Phnom Penh. In 1975, Pol Pot’s security forces and turned Tuol Svay Prey High School into a prison known as Security Prison 21 or S-21. All the classrooms were converted into prison cells and torture chambers. S-21 was the largest detention center set up by the Khmer Rouge. As many as 17,00-20,000 people including women, children, entire families and foreigners were brought here to be questioned, tortured and executed. S-21 detainees were often taken to nearby extermination camps now known as the Killing Fields. Only 7 people survived the horrors of S-21. The halls are haunting. Emptiness fills the air. Floors and walls are stained with loss. Take a minute to watch the performance video that this poem was incorporated into.