Chath PierSath

Chath Piersath born in (Kop Nymit, Svay Sisophon District, in Battambang Province is a noted Cambodian American poet, painter and humanitarian. He creates both large and small portraits of people from his memory, often representing the social and economic disparity among Cambodians. [ [http://saklapel.org/gallery/Chath%20pierSath/ SaklapeL | Chath pierSath ] ]

Chath Piersath, crossed the Thai-Cambodian border in 1979 at the end of the Khmer Rouge with members of his family on the way to Aranyaprathet Refugee Camp. With the aid of his brother and aunt, he and his sister emigrated to the United States in 1981, and lived first in Boulder, Colorado. He graduated from the World College West in California, majoring in in international service and development. [ [http://www.khmervoice.com/old-KV-files/chath.htm Chath Piersath ] ]

Much of his poetry deals with his macabre memories of the Khmer Rouge atrocities and the massacres of the Killing Fields; his poem "A Letter to My Mother" appears in Children of Cambodia's Killing Fields: Memoirs of Survivors, compiled by Dith Pran and edited by Kim DePaul. It was published by the Yale University Press in 1997.

He has since returned to Cambodia where he has done humanitarian work, volunteering for the Cambodian American National Development Organization. A recent exhibit at the Java Cafe in Phnom Penh addressed those living with HIV and AIDS.

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