As part of their symposia series on Korean American Heritage and Cultural Identity, Northwest Folklife Festival proudly presents: Elaine Kim,
Professor of Asian American Studies, UC Berkeley
In the Aftermath: Surviving the War in Korean American Literature and Visual Art
Thursday, February 22, 2001
7 PM
Shoreline Community Center
(18560 First Ave. N.E., Shoreline, Washington)
Free to the public
Dr. Kim is Professor of Asian American Studies and Chair of the Comparative Ethnic Studies Department at the University of California, Berkeley. She serves on the President’s Commission on the Celebration of Women in American History and is the author of numerous publications, including: Dangerous Women: Gender and Korean Nationalism; Making More Waves: New Writing by Asian American Women; and East to America: Korean American Life Stories. Dr. Kim has also produced video documentaries: Slaying the Dragon: Asian Women in U.S. Television and Film and Sa-i-gu: From Korean Women’s Perspectives (about the Los Angeles riots).
“Elaine Kim is a must to hear regarding Asian American and Women’s issues; she is a dynamic and insightful speaker.”
–Matthew Benuska, Deputy Director of Korean American Historical Society
Other Korean Identity Symposia Dates to Watch For:
February 28 – Jay Koh, independent film producer, Korean Heritage on Film
at 320th St. Library (828 So. 320th St.), Federal Way, Washington
March 29 – ChangMook Sohn, WA State Chief Economist, One Person’s Journey
at Mt. Tahoma High School (229 So. Tyler St), Tacoma, Washington
Korean American Heritage and Cultural Identity will be the topic of a series of three symposia hosted by Northwest Folklife and coordinated by its Korean American Community Advisory Council. Members of both the Korean community and general public are encouraged to attend. Presentations are scheduled to take place in Shoreline, Federal Way and Tacoma, each area home to a significant Korean population.
Funded by a grant from the Washington Commission for the Humanities, the series is being presented as Northwest Folklife prepares for the 30th annual Northwest Folklife Festival, May 25 – 28, 2001, in which Korean Communities of the Pacific Northwest will be the featured cultural focus.
Each speaker will be followed by a panel of respondents from the local Korean community and the Korean American Community Advisory Council, which was established to plan the 2001 Festival cultural focus and related activities. The audience is invited to participate in a discussion after the presentation. Topics include the role of language, conflicts and differences between first and second generation Korean Americans, changing gender roles and identities, cultural identity, religious differences and adoption of Korean children in the U.S. Presentations will be in English with simultaneous Korean translation, and will be recorded and later published in Occasional Papers.
Dr. Chang Mook Sohn is Executive Director for the Washington Office of the Forecast Council, economic advisors for the state. Dr. Sohn recently published a book titled, America Seen From the Inside and Korea Seen From the Outside, which presents his view of the Korean American bicultural experience. In his book he explores how to reconcile or synthesize the differences between Korean and American culture and how to adapt to a new culture while also preserving one’s roots or cultural origins.
Jay Koh is a vibrant young film maker from the Pacific Northwest who is perhaps best known for his film, My Brown Eyes, which explores an immigrant boy’s first day at school. Koh addresses the issues facing Asian American adoptees in, True, a 90 minute film tracing the life of an adopted boy raised in the American mid-west and later introduced to Asian culture in Los Angeles.
The 2001 Northwest Folklife Festival will highlight Korean folk arts and culture, including an exhibit of both contemporary art and traditional ritual arts of the Korean life and seasonal cycle, a CD of Korean music drawn from the extensive recorded collection at the University of Washington Ethnomusicology Archive and special performances by renowned Korean musicians and dancers from Vancouver, Canada and South Korea.
Northwest Folklife, through the Festival and on-going education and outreach programs, creates opportunities for individuals and communities of the Pacific Northwest to celebrate, share and sustain the vitality of folk, ethnic and traditional arts. It is a private, not-for-profit organization.
