Korean Quarterly

Minnesota Chinese Music Ensemble concert to be held
2025-03-29 19:00 - 21:00 (America/Chicago) | Sundin Music Hall, 1531 Hewitt Avenue, St. Paul, MN, 55104, United States
The Minnesota Chinese Music Ensemble (MCME) will hold a concert featuring pieces for the classical Chinese instruments urhu and yangqin on March 29 in St. Paul.
The concert, entitled Soul of Dragon’s Heritage, will spotlight erhu virtuoso JuanJuan Wang and yangqin master WenTing Zhang. Joining them will be soprano QianHui Ma and pianist Yu-Chien Huang. The artists will perform instrumental solos (for erhu, yangqin and piano) and vocal pieces featuring Chinese melodies.
The MCME is led by President Wei Ming Chiang, who has developed musical education in erhu and Chinese music preservation and enjoyment in Minnesota.
The performance will be held at the Sundin Music Hall at Hamline University, at 7 p.m. on March 29. General admission is $30, with a 20 percent discount for tickets purchased before March 13. Discounted tickets for $25 are available for students and seniors (65-plus). Limited quantities of complimentary tickets are available for public assistance recipients. See ticketing and details at: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/mcme
For inquiries or accessibility seating requests, contact MCME at (email) mnchinesemusic@gmail.com or (phone) 612-293-8771.

Adoptee Hub holds Bake 'N Chill fundraiser
2025-04-19 11:00 - 15:00 | Roseville Banquet Hall, 2661 Civic Center Drive, Roseville, MN, 55113, United States
Chili and other fun foods will be the center of a chili cook-off and baking contest to be held by Adoptee Hub on Saturday, April 19.
The Bake ‘N Chill proceeds will benefit the 2025 programming of Adoptee Hub, including social and cultural events by and for adult Korean adoptees, and for its ongoing birth search portal project, the Hope Registry.
The event, to be held 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. will include a bake sale, chili contest, cookie contest and pie contest. Chili makers and bakers can get more info about entering on the website’s entry form and instructions here. Donations for the bake sale also accepted.
Tickets at the door are $10, and include tasting the chili and cookie competition entries, and participating in family-friendly games and events. The event is open to the public.
Location is Roseville Banquet Hall, 2661 Civic Center Drive, Roseville.

Arbeiter Brewery to hold Phoenix Festival
2025-05-10 13:00 - 17:00 | Arbeiter Brewing Co., 3038 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55406, United States
The Korean American-owned Arbeiter Brewery in Minneapolis is holding its annual Asian Phoenix Festival, a free event, on May 10 l to lift up AAPI culture through community.
The Asian Phoenix represents resilience, revitalization, and harmony., and has become an important symbol to the South Minneapolis neighborhood as it works to renew and rebuild since the spring 2020 uprising.
The free event will include several Asian food vendors, including Bao Bao Buns, Caphin Vietnamese Coffee, and D’s Bahn Mi. Asian performing artists will include JangmiArts, and special guests Gina Choi and Chansoo Lee, DTG Lions, SeevCev and the DJ Diane Miller.
There will be an Asian craft market, and activities for children include face painting and a bounce house.
The event is sponsored in part by the Lake Street Council and Lake Street Lift.
Arbeiter Brewing Company, located at 3038 Minnehaha Avenue, creates a variety of beer styles, including a Korean rice lager, and a German pilsner. Arbeiter Brewing is one of a very few Asian-owned breweries in the country, since Asian owners represent only two percent of all breweries in the U.S.

AAOP to hold Asian Heritage Month event
2025-05-10 17:00 - 20:00 | DK Training Center, 1821 University Avenue West, St. Paul, MN, 55104, United States
The Asian American Organizing Project will hold an API Heritage Month event on May 15 to honor the history and connections of the diverse Asian American people of the Twin Cities.
The free event will include food, an interactive timeline activity and other conversation-starting activities, and reflections of personal journeys. The intent is to strengthen participants sense of care and support of the community, and to affirm the many identities Asian Minnesotans – ethnic, gender, sexuality and others.
The purpose is also to view the broader community as a strength to resist the current administration’s fascist and authoritarian agenda.
The event will be held 5 to 8 p.m. at DK Training Center, 1821 University Avenue West, Suite 242, St. Paul.

Women's peace walk to be held at a U.S. base in South Korea
2025-05-24 | Naeri 260, Paengseong-eup, Pyeongtaek-si), Naeri 260, Pangseong-eup, Pyeongtaek-si, Korea, Republic of
On May 24, an international delegation from Women Cross DMZ will collaborate with the Gyeonggi Women’s Association in a commemorative peace march at the Camp Humphreys, a U.S. military base at Pyongtaek, South Korea. The special focus of these two groups is on the fact that war and militarism disproportionately harms women.
This free event will be held Saturday, May 24, 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. (Korea time), beginning at Naeri Culture Park, Pyeongtaek (Naeri 260, Paengseong-eup, Pyeongtaek-si)
The date, May 24, is International Women’s Day and is also the 10th anniversary of the original crossing of the Demilitarized Zone by an international group of 30 women peace activists under the sponsorship of Women Cross DMZ. The group included Nobel Peace Prize winners Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire.
Every year since the 2015 march that crossed the DMZ, the, Gyeonggi Women’s Association has organized an annual march to coincide with International Women’s Day for Peace and Disarmament.
This transnational act of solidarity is particularly timely as democracy is under attack in the U.S., South Korea is on the cusp of electing a new president, and growing tensions between the U.S. and China raise the risk of war in Northeast Asia.
The walk around Camp Humphries is designed to raise awareness about the need for peace on the Korean Peninsula from the perspective of gender equality.

CAAL to hold free Grant Readiness Workshop
2025-09-03 18:30 - 19:30 | IL
A free Grant Readiness Workshop will be held online September 3, 2025, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. (CST) by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL).
CAAL is a network of leaders who act collectively to make Minnesota work better for its Asian American community. CAAL’s programs include: network weaving, to allow leaders to meet and network with one another; leadership building outreach and events; and advocating for annual policy priorities in areas like immigration, education, economic development.
The workshop is designed to provide guidance on preparing a strong grant application, give tips for sharpening a proposal, and answer participants’ questions on grant writing. The content is appropriate for prospective applicants who want to build a business and for non-profit leaders who want to expand the community impact of their organization.
CAAL is also launching the second round of its grant fund, CAAL Ignite, with the goal of incentivizing Asian American leadership and prosperity in Minnesota. Applications for the CAAL Ignite grant fund will open later this September.
Learn more and sign up for the workshop, and read about the CAAL Ignite second round fund at: caalmn.org/caal-ignite

Adoptee Hub's annual self-care workshop features kimchi-making, a film, and some drumming
2025-09-27 08:30 - 17:00 | Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Ave. SE, Minneapolis, MN, 55455, United States
Adoptee Hub is holding its Cultural Identity and Self-Care Workshop at the University of Minnesota on September 27.
The day-long workshop is designed to help adult adoptees recharge and build community with fun cultural activities. Participants will choose four of 12 classes to take including: kimchi-making and mandu (dumpling) preparation; a tea ceremony demonstration; massage; Korean language for beginners; empowerment and the “gratitude effect”; a film with discussion; Korean songs with the K-Breeze kids’ choir; and an introduction to Korean drumming with Shinparam Korean Drum Troupe.
Registration is by reservation only, and the workshop, including breakfast and a Korean lunch, is $50. Registration is at the attached link.
The event will be held at Coffman Memorial Union, 300 Washington Avenue SE, Minneapolis.
More about Adoptee Hub is at its website at: www.adopteehub.org.

Korean adoptees discuss records fraud at live radio event
2025-11-11 18:00 - 20:00 | Arbeiter Brewing Co., 3038 Minnehaha Ave., Minneapolis, MN, 55406, United States
A panel of four Korean adoptees will discuss the South Korean governments admission of adoption records fraud and its effect on the local Korean adoptee community in a live event Tuesday, November 11, hosted by Minnesota Public Radio (MPR) and Twin Cities Public Television (TPT).
The event, titled Mistaken: Minnesota’s Korean Adoptees Grapple with Confessed Systemic Corruption, is part of the North Star Journey Live series. It will be held at Arbeiter Brewing Company in South Minneapolis beginning at 6 p.m.
The panelists, who are all Korean adoptees, are: Ami Nafzger, president of AdopteeHub, which reaches out to adult Korean adoptees with social and self-care programming and birth family searches; Cameron Lee Small, a therapist who works in adoption literacy and counsels adoptees and their families; Matt McNiff, director of the Camp Choson summer Korean culture camp; and Mary Niedermeyer, the CEO of the non-profit organization Communities Advancing Prosperity for Immigrants (CAPI).
See feature story at this link.
Tickets are required. See link below for registration information.
