Comics in Cambodia in Review

Chicago-based comics artist Sara Drake's tenure with the IYDCPC in Phnom Penh is coming to a close, and we're busy documenting and reflecting on our accomplishments and creations as 2011 ends. We're currently strategizing a comics archive, to which international comics creators will be invited to submit, a publication (of course!), and future programming.

Have ideas for us? That's why god invented the comments section.

PUC Video Slide Show

My pals at PUC Radio Talk Show put together this amazing video slideshow. I'm honored to have been included with more than a few of my colleagues, particularly as I did, actually, choreograph a dance to this song when I was in my early teens. Perhaps I will offer to perform it next time I make an appearance on this radio program.

Information about PUC Radio Talk Show is easy enough to find on Facebook, but here's a link to host Soma Norodom's awesome blog.

Democratic Kampuchea’s National Anthem

Hear it here.

Glittering red blood which blankets the towns and countryside of the Kampuchean motherland! 

Blood of our splendid workers and peasants!

Blood of our revolutionary youth! Blood that was transmuted into fury, anger, and vigorous struggle!

On 17 April, under the revolutionary flag!

Blood that liberated us from slavery!

Long life 17 April, the great victory! More wonderful and much more meaningful than the Angkor era!

We unite together to build up Kampuchea and a glorious society, democratic, egalitarian, and just; Independent-master; absolutely determined to defend the country, our glorious land.

Long life! Long life! Long life new Kampuchea, democratic and gloriously prosperous; determine to raise up the revolutionary red flag to be higher; build up the country to achieve the glorious Great Leap Forward!

MP3 and lyrics courtesy our pals at DC Cam, as a reminder of the intention of the leaders currently on trial at the ECCC.

Flood relief and Cambodian Grrrl

My publisher, Cantankerous Titles, sent me an email a few weeks ago, up in arms about why the disastrous floods in Cambodia weren't receiving any media attention in comparison to tourist- (and media-) friendly locales like Thailand. Then he did what no big publisher would ever think to: He offered to donate a buck per book to Cambodian flood relief.

Now through February 1, if you buy a book direct from Cantankerous, a little over an eighth of the price will go to an aid organization doing good work on the ground in Cambodia. You can order that right here, or check the reviews, interviews, and excerpts updated here.

Here are a couple background articles, for further reading:

• Relief Is Slow to Reach Cambodia Flood Victims (The New York Times)
• Cambodia floods bring mounting disease toll (Guardian)

Dispatch from the IYDCPC

My Arts Network Asia-funded project, the IYDCPC (Independent Youth-Driven Cultural Production of Cambodia) has been gaining momentum over the last five weeks as Chicago-based comics artist Sara Drake gets up to speed on how things work in Phnom Penh. She's just posted some comics from one of her recent classes to our blog in the comics section, and they are (as you can see above) great. (You can also see some zines from my work in Phnom Penh in the zines section.)

Sara's been working mostly with women at Strey Khmer so far, but has just started teaching a class at Pannasastra University of Cambodia. She's also working to build a public archive of comics to continue fostering the form after her period of residency ends at the end of December.

Here's more about the work we're doing:

Anne Elizabeth Moore’s initiative Independent Youth-Driven Cultural Production in Cambodia (IYDCPC) is an international institute based in Phnom Penh that encourages multidisciplinary creative responses to issues related to popular culture, with a particular focus on media, advertising, marketing, youth, gender, democracy, human rights, and globalization in Southeast Asia. Primary partners work in institutions and organizations in Phnom Penh, and affiliate organizations are brought in on a project-by-project basis. Programming hinges around an international residency program with a cultural producer who comes to the region to work with groups of young people on projects that allow them to creatively reinvision public space, global media, and their society.

You can also read the feature on Sara in Time Out Chicago here.