Johnny Yoeun is a longtime community organizer and activist in Chicago. He was involved with the Cambodian Association of Illinois (CAI) since age 12 and eventually was put in charge of a multicultural youth program. Yoeun is now director of Chicago APIA Hip Hop Summit, where he organizes related music and dance events: “I decided to start organizing in my community to bring more awareness to it and how art and music can be use as tools for change.”
Music has been an outlet for Yoeun throughout his life, whether a source of creative inspiration, an escape, or the means for identification and unity. Through his work, Yoeun is attentive to the cross-influence of musical culture between Cambodia and Khmer America; he notes that is was Khmer Americans and other overseas Cambodians such as praCh, Khmer Kid, and DJ Cream who sparked awareness of hip hop in Cambodia itself. In this way, he sees less of a disconnect between the two groups, especially with the advent of online networking.
Yoeun did notice disparities between his behavior at home and in public while growing up, however. He was reflective about different norms in American and Cambodian culture, for example, in terms of showing respect to adults. But he has credited that difference for allowing him to realize that other perspectives are just as valid as one's own. Another gap he points out is the one between older and younger generations of Cambodians in the United States. While he definitely holds much respect for the elders, whom he feels has already done so much to serve the community, he asserts that “[w]hat might have worked for them, for their age group, may not work for this generation.”
“There is more to being Khmer American than being children of survivors of the genocide in Cambodia. This generation has a lot to offer,” Yoeun said. Indeed, Khmerican can help prove those claims by capturing both the struggles and accomplishments of our community. But more than that, he wants Khmerican to have a strong presence offline as well, building direct relationships with people. There is room for strengthening the national and even international connections, he believes.
This grassroots approach and experience are a welcome broadening of the Khmerican team; Johnny Yoeun has signed on as our first journalist to hail from the Midwest.
EC
2 comments:
Hip Hop Organizer huh, pathetic! wonder why most khmer kids talk and walk as black. Khmerican got themselves a group of losers with a huge ego.
he looks like a Nigger!! Nigger Khmers alway want to be black!
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