My (not so) little brother is getting married! We threw a bridal shower in honor of bride to be in our new home. We ended up having to do some rearrangements and moved the party inside due to weather. The living room became the dining area, furnished with some low tables I built just for this occasion. The other bridesmaid did a wonderful job with the decorations. It was a great time and looking forward to them tying the knot.
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I was recently asked to share my visual story in response to the questions “where are you from?” and “where are you going?” for The Where Project, which was a bit nerve wracking (ok really nerve wracking, my stomach might have turned quite a few times). I did enjoy it once I finally formulated the story I wanted to tell (huge relief), which has been a work in progress for some time. I am a HUGE fan of the Where Project, curated by my friend the amazingly talented Vichet Chum, and it was nice to be included in a different way. My previous roles have been as their event photographer for their other installments, but I recently started a new gig so could not make it out to this one, which was for the better, I was really anxious about being present while my slides were being shown. I’m ok with sharing it here, hiding behind the internet does take that edge off.
If you have a chance, please check out The Where Project, and keep an ear out for their future installments!
Dixon Place presents The Group Lab’s “The Where Project.” This round’s guest storytellers are Tiffany Nichole Greene, Alex Ubokudom, Lakisha May, & Ben Charles with music from Matthew Ellis Murphy and photography and work from Chansoda Roeun.
The Where Project is a two act storytelling event. Artists, writers and performers share stories in response “Where are you from?” in the first act and “Where are you going?” in the second act. In answering these questions with dynamic, heartfelt storytelling and original music, The Where Project hopes to cultivate and share meaningful, hilarious, human stories that capture where we are right now.
Join us for drinks and stories!
$12 in advance, $10 student & senior tickets, and $15 at the door
Buy tickets here: https://
Fall is just around the corner… This past weekend Karla and I went in to the city to see Dengue Fever live at Le Poisson Rouge. Love seeing them perform! They put on a great show and we finally got to meet the super talented and beautiful Chhom Nimol. We also ran in to some friends at the concert, a nice surprise to be able to catch up with them over drinks after the show.
We had seen Dengue Fever perform at this same venue back in April of 2013 during the Khmer New Year as part of Season of Cambodia (a festival highlighting Khmer arts and culture through out NYC). It was a wonderful experience then because, not only did they rock out the show, we made new friends in the audience and even got to hang out with author Loung Ung of First They Killed My Father (which is being adopted in to a motion picture directed by Angelina Jolie). Long Ung’s book really opened my eyes to the experience of surviving the Killing Fields, so I’ve always been a fan. So honored when she was standing right next to us and didn’t mind me being a little star struck, instead she joined us in rocking out to the show. There really are not a lot of Cambodians in NYC, so the few Cambodian concert goers that night were clustered in the same, front, right standing row, and we all sort of gravitate towards each other trying to find solidarity in our similar background.
In our quest of connecting with other Khmers in the audience, we ended up befriending this lively Cambodian family who grew up in NYC. It was a loud and crowded club, but this woman opened up and told me this amazing story about how she and her siblings came to be where they were. After losing their parents in the genocide and escaping the khmer rouge, they were sponsored by a church organization that resettled them to a small apartment in the Bronx. Here is this family of young kids, post trauma, on their own in NYC, who don’t know the language and don’t even know where to get groceries or understand how to get around. So every day her brother would stand outside waiting on the side of the street, which caused the neighbors to worry that he might be a drug dealer or something else. Luckily, this man in the building took the time to knock on their door rather than calling the cops and what he found was a family of young refugees who were left on their own. When he realized that, he decided to take action and adopt them. Here they are now, over 30 years later, in NYC listening to a band that idolizes Khmer music and reviving the sounds that were almost lost to an era of violence. I was so deeply touched and inspired by the magic of that night.
Back to this same venue and Dengue still put on a phenomenal show.
Multiple day wedding for the Roeun family! My brother finally made it official and married his long time girlfriend this past weekend. Several family members came in from out of town to share in this day. So nice to see how big our family has gotten.
The bride and groom did a traditional Khmer ceremony on Friday, multiple costume changes and all at the bride’s home. I served as the family photographer for the day, Karla served as one of the bridesmaids. There was a live traditional Khmer wedding band that accompanied the different parts of the ceremony. It was absolutely beautiful to see the different wedding acts.
Then on Saturday followed the big American style wedding and reception with over 400 guests in attendance. Karla and I were honored to both be bridesmaids for this one. A lot of dancing, a lot of people, such a crazy fun night. I only wished my father was alive to come and join in the celebration. It was really nice to see my oldest brother Pek fulfill the role of my father and accompany my mother alongside everything.
We celebrated our friend Erin’s (Rane) birthday with a trip to Two Roads Brewery in Stratford this weekend.
Very cool brewery and highly recommend a visit if you’re interested in science, or beer, or just the science of beer! Definitely take the tour, it’s fairly inexpensive, you’ll learn a lot, and a plus, they give you beer to try! I love how they turned around the old historic US Baird building in to this beautiful factory and pumped so much life back in to it. It’s really impressive that they just started brewing a couple years ago (still considered a start up), but they already have expansions on the way and putting out some great craft beers.
We ordered a flight and found that Karla and I are partial to the Honeyspot Road White IPA, it had a nice clean crisp taste with a smooth sweet aroma to it. So so good on a hot summer day. Enjoyed it with some unhealthy fried goodness and serious layered baked potatoes from The Spud Stud food truck, parked outside for your convenience. (Check out the Two Roads website for their food truck schedule)
Great visit, and from their website, looks like they have lot going on, so if you like good brews, definitely check them out.
It was really hard to take good pictures with beer in hand, and beer on brain = tipsy.
Grab a beer and have a seat at Two Roads
Huge vats!
The ladies!
All kinds of brews!
The Honeyspot hits the spot!
I suggest you try them all.
Factory tour
Samples for everyone!
the malts!
What do you see in there?
The foam is a good thing.
wanna try some veggie mite…
almost my last name, almost…
Supporting the local brewery with Two Roads gear from the shop.
sporting our gear!
Yeaaa growlers of beer!
growler monster!
And one for the Road… errr, Two for the Road…
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A swanky food-centric birthday party got me photo gigging at Blue Hill At Stone Barns. Such a gorgeous place on an absolutely lovely day. A very big Happy Birthday to our friend Tim! And a big thank you to Tim and Christine for the honor of documenting the day. We had such a great time with his band of merry friends. The food, the setting, and the company were all amazing.
Three photoshoots, a graduation in NYC, a graduation party, a birthday party, a visit to Lasdon Park and Arboretum (for my super tree loving gf) and the start of our gardening project. Memorial Day weekend was a busy one… and bittersweet. The start of summer, good times and barbecues, the busyness of the weekend, life is so full, all juxtaposed with the anniversary of my father’s passing, marking five years.
I really enjoyed the weekend.
I went in to NYC and saw my longtime friend get her master’s degree and spent the day enjoying in that celebration. We strolled around in her old neighborhood in the upper west side, which is also where Karla worked for a time period in the city. It was nice to reminisce with her and that area of NYC.
I saw a former student of mine, all graduated from college get engaged at her graduation party, I couldn’t be happier for this young woman, nor more proud.
At the birthday party, I was hired by a friend to capture the memories. I was honored to be able to document that for her. The party had a lot of people I grew up with, all of us from similar backgrounds of being first generations here. It was a beautiful day and lots of fun.
I had a photoshoot with a one year old and her parents, how incredibly adorable and happy they are to be starting their family.
I had another photoshoot with one of my long time best friend and her graduating high school senior son… all adult-like and grown-up he is, brought tears to my eyes.
I spent a morning strolling the beautiful grounds of an arboretum with my wonderful partner and really take in the natural peaceful surrounding of it all. I loved the quiet walk, the sun shining, and the beautiful trees. It was nice that we took some time to be in nature away from people. I just felt very fortunate to be able to share these moments with some one I love and adore so much.
On Memorial day, I started on the build of our garden project. Then we marinated some meats and had a nice barbecue over at Nancy and Skip’s. Sat outside in their yard, played soccer with Holly, then finished the evening with some more cocktails and a movie.
Over the weekend, we would also stop in for visits at my moms, which is the hardest part. Missing my dad is a norm that I learn to live with, there will always be that emptiness, but, you eventually learn to make peace with it because that is a part of life. However, the loneliness and heartache I see it cause my mom, I completely empathize… that’s the part that hurts the most. I see life move on for everyone, for myself… but for her, it’s still a lost as everything moves on around her.
United Khmer Foundation hosted Alejandro Gonzalez-Davidson, co-founder of the Cambodian NGO Mother Nature, which campaigns against the construction of the Stung Cheay Areng Dam in Koh Kong province in Cambodia. Alex was making his tour in the U.S. to raise funding to support the fight in the Areng Valley, spread word of the destruction going on, and to help him remove his deportation status from his adopted country, Cambodia.
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