Telling Our Stories Our Own Way w / Vichet Chum

(S5, EP 7) Trigger Warning: Episode will contain topics on personal Anti-Asian violence.  Queer Khmer American playwright Vichet Chum joins me as part of Season 5's "Our Becoming: An LGBTQ Asian Experience" for this week's episode.  This episode was recorded back in April 15th during Khmer New Year's.  We talk about the ongoing anti-Asian violence and his family's own experience with anti-Asian racism as a child. We discussed the controversy with VICE News and the Tuol Sleng Prison photo controversy, and how cultural appropriation and colonizing harms our Khmer community to learn history and begin the healing process.  Vichet shares his excitement over his upcoming plays that he's working on, and the goals that he seeks to amplify the Cambodian-American experience.  Check out this episode and follow Vichet on IG @vichetchum .

Bio: Vichet Chum is a Cambodian-American playwright and theater maker, originally from Dallas, Texas and now living in New York City. His plays have been workshopped at Steppenwolf Theatre, the Magic Theater, the Alley Theatre, the UCROSS Foundation, Fault Line Theatre, Crowded Outlet, Second Generation Productions, Weston Playhouse, Cleveland Public Theatre, All For One Theater, Amios, Florida State University, Merrimack Repertory Theatre and the New Harmony Project. He received the 2018-19 Princess Grace Award in Playwriting with New Dramatists and is a current board member for the New Harmony Project. Vichet was a part of the 2019-20 Resident Working Farm Group at Space on Ryder Farm, the 2020 Interstate 73 Writer's Group at Page 73 and the 2020 Ars Nova Play Group. In the 2022/23 season, his plays High School Play: A Nostalgia Fest will have its world premiere at the Alley Theatre and Bald Sisters will have its world premiere at Steppenwolf Theatre Company. He is a proud graduate of the University of Evansville (BFA) and Brown University/Trinity Repertory Company (MFA). He’s represented by Beth Blickers at APA. vichetchum.com