Queering the Perspective Béla Belissima

There is no other word than inspirational to introduce today's guest: Prumsodun Ok (he/him), an artist, dancer, writer and founder of Cambodia's first gay dance company "Prumsodun Ok & NATYARASA". In the studio, he teaches classical Khmer dance and focuses on re-telling ancient Cambodian tales with a contemporary spirit incorporating queer expression.


In our conversation, Prum talks about his identity as growing up gay and Asian-American in the USA and then migrating to Cambodia to build a new life through dancing and rediscovering his ancestrial roots. Prum goes in detail into the description of a few Cambodian tales and how they can be reinterpretated via the lens of queerness while still remaining a part of Cambodian culture and heritage.


This is the very last episode of this Season 4: (South) East Asia Edition. We hope you enjoyed this season and all the background information on the countries we visited and people/communities we met along the way. It certainly has been a journey and we feel so grateful and fortunate to have had the opportunity of learning from our guests and sharing their voices with the wider podcast community.


If you want to learn more about the Classical Khmer Dance and how Prum is "queering" this art form, check this blogpost on our website


This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

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if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here

In today's episode, we visited the LGBTQIA* center A Place To Be Yourself in the city of Siem Riep and talked with four of the community members: Kimmouy, Mouy Heng, Khunyeam and Lyhuor about their genderfluid identity.

We speak about gender roles growing up in Cambodia, struggles and joys in transgressing them and different beauty standards. Towards the end of our conversation, we address the importance of standing up for each other, supporting one another in their identity discovery journey and how to center gender euphoria over negative societal attitudes.

If you want to learn more about beauty standarts and how to challenge them through queerness, check this blogpost on our website

This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

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if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here

Our last guest during our visit of the SafeSpaceBTB community, is the fashion designer Koemyean Hin (he/him). We met him at the Phare Ponleu Selpak Artistic Centre where he works as an art teacher.


In our conversation, we speak about his path to fashion and the role it played/plays in his life and identity. We then talk about his role at the artistic centre which provides (artistic) education for 1000+ children per year and the attitude and awareness of the students towards LGBTQIA* people in general.


If you want to see more of the work of Koemyean Hin, follow his Facebook pageand check this blogpost on our website


This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

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if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here

Today's episode is once again a double trouble episode with the Sonik and Somphor, two young members of SafeSpaceBTB , as our guests


Our coversation is very personal and vulnerable as the two tell us about their life as queer youngsters in Battambang (Cambodia). We talk about their upbringing, the relationship to their family, friends, school, university, social surrounding, community lovelife etc. etc.etc. allowing us a glimpse into their lived reality in the good, the less good, the joys, the pains and most importantly the resilience and once again the importance of community.


If you want to learn more about the value of queer community and safe spaces in check this blogpost on our website


This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

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if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here

In this second episode from our visit to Battambang (Cambodia) we talk with B. Pov, the mother of SafeSpaceBTB community (see #38 for more information on the community organization) and today it is all about language!


B. Pov talks to us about a specific queer language which is an adaptation of the Khmer language spoken in Cambodia. She explains to us the origins of the language as well as the importance and further development of it during the brutal Khmer Rouge regime (1975 - 1979). Towards the end of the conversation we speak about her own story, her role as a trans elder in Battambang and the hopes she has for the LGBTQIA+* community in Cambodia at large.


If you want to learn more about the lessons on queer survival during the Khmer Rouge regime check this blogpost on our website.

This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

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if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here

In this very first Cambodia episode, we talk with the founder of the LGBTQIA* community organization SafeSpaceBTB (Battambang). We were fortunate enough to get to know this vibrant community and spend a few days there (more on that to come in the next weeks ;)). With Thida, we talk in this initial episode about the early beginnings of SafeSpaceBTB, how they organize themselves and Thida tells us about some of the artistic and educational projects they have been involved in recently.

If you want to learn more about the SafeSpaceBTB community organizing as well as getting an overview on queer rights in Cambodia in general, check this blogpost on our website.

This podcast is partially funded by Heinrich Böll Stiftung Phnom Penh, Cambodia & Heinrich Böll Stiftung New Delhi, India in collaboration with SafeSpaceBTB

------
if you would like to be part of the podcast community, you can now join our telegram group for frequent update on new podcast developments

feel free to reach out if you have any feedback, questions, suggestions for future topics/guests via Instagram or e-mail: belissima@riseup.net

I am your host Béla Belissima, non-binary soul from Berlin on the journey to dismantle our cis-heteronormative world and look beyond all binaries. Re-writing our narratives and telling our own stories. Thanks for being here