Korean Quarterly

President-elect Biden and the Korea peace process
2020-12-01 19:00 - 20:30 (America/Chicago) | MN
International affairs expert Han-shik Park will be the guest speaker at the fourth annual Minnesota Forum, entitled President-Elect Biden and the Korea Peace Process, will be held via Zoom on Tuesday, Dec. 1, 7 p.m. CST.
Park is the former director of the International Affairs Institution, University of Georgia, and his areas of expertise include human rights, sustainable development and East Asian Politics.
The Minnesota Forum is a guest speaker series offered by the Korean American Association of Minnesota in cooperation with the University of Minnesota.
To RSVP for this free forum, contact hj*******@***il.com or RSVP with the google form below.

Online event Residual Trauma: The Island of Dokdo to include Q and A of documentary filmmakers
2020-12-18 17:00 - 18:00
Minnesota filmmaker Matthew Koshmrl and editor/producer Christina Sun Kim will collaborate in a special online program about their film Land of My Father. The program is cosponsored by the Korean American Association of Greater Austin. Select scenes from the film are available to view on the film’s website, and on Friday, December 18 at 5 p.m. CST there will be a Facebook live Q and A with the Koshmrl/Kim team.
Land of My Father is about the history of the Dokdo Islands of South Korea, and their importance to the modern history and present-day relationship of Korea. The documentary particularly examines the meaning of the Dokdo Islands to South Koreans today, as seen through the lives of two activists.

Korean Institute of Minnesota deadline for spring enrollment
2021-01-11
January 11 is the deadline for enrollment for spring semester of Korean Institute of Minnesota, a Saturday school for Korean culture and language, located in Brooklyn Park, Minnesota. Because of the ongoing pandemic, all classes will be held on line for the second semester of the school year, which will run for 11 consecutive Saturdays, from February 6 to April 24.
Pre-K through third grade classes will meet in small groups with a teacher for 30 minutes each week. Grades four through six will meet for one-hour classes. Due to the online platform, Pre-K through sixth grade classes will not include taekwondo or self-esteem topics. Teen classes will also meet for one-hour sessions. Adult (beginner, intermediate, advanced) Korean language classes will meet for 75- to 90-minute sessions and be supplemented with offline materials. There may be some adjustments based on student and parent response from the fall on-line class evaluations.
Participants will receive teacher and class assignments by January 29. Tuition is $200 per semester for Pre-K to sixth grade, and $225 per semester for teen and language-intensive classes, with an additional cost for textbooks. There is also a family discount and tuition assistance is available. Please refer to the website for more information and registration forms.

Author talk - The Magical Language of Others by E.J. Koh
2021-01-13 17:00 - 18:00
Writer E.J. Koh will be the featured writer in an online author talk about her new memoir The Magical Language of Others on January 13.
The memoir is a story of growing up and coming of age after her parents, after living with the author and her younger brother in the U.S. for a decade, return to South Korea for work, and leave 15-year-old Eun Ji and her brother behind in California. The story includes how Eun Ji rediscovers her mother’s letters in a box, reads them years later. The story encompasses how the author grapples with reconciliation, legacy, and intergenerational trauma.
The event is a free live stream on Tuesday, January 13 at 5 p.m. CST (6 p.m. EST), and requires signup at the viewing link.

Event for launch of report Redefining Wealth Through Communal and Cultural Assets
2021-01-20 16:00 - 17:00
A Twin Cities Asian American political action organization will launch its economic report on Asian Minnesotans and wealth building entitled Redefining Wealth Through Communal and Cultural Assets in a free online session on Wednesday, January 20.

The research was conducted by the Coalition for Asian American Leadership (CAAL), a St. Paul-based organization. It included communities from 10 different Asian ethnic groups, and offers a deeper look at practices and values that drive wealth building in this diverse population. The event will go in-depth about the research findings, and include commentary from leaders working on wealth building about how the findings can be used.
The intent of the research is to build inclusivity and explore prosperity models, grounded in cultural intelligence and values, to combat poverty and build wealth. The session is open to the public, and is particularly relevant to those working in banking, housing, workforce, small business, or in the general community development field. Sign-up for the Zoom link is required at the link below.

AK Connection mask giveaway for Korean adoptees
2021-01-24 12:00 - 13:00
A free mask giveaway for Korean adoptees will take place at various sites in the Twin Cities, sponsored by the Minnesota-based Korean adoptee resource organization AK Connection. AK Connection has received hundreds of masks from the South Korean media resource Ddanzi (http://www.ddanzi.com
To reach as many recipients as possible, the giveaway will be limited to 20 masks per person. Recipients will get a maximum of10 KN94 masks and 10 Zinide masks (which are black and appear to be similar to the KN94 mask).
The first giveaway will take place Sunday, January 24 at Bap and Chicken restaurant, 1328 Grand Ave., St. Paul, from noon to 1 p.m. The second giveaway event will be held Sunday, January 30, at Dong Yang Korean grocery store parking lot, 725 45th Avenue NE, Hilltop, from 10:30 a.m. to noon. More giveaway events will be held later as needed.

Korea Society offers online Korean language classes
2021-01-25
January 25 is the first day of class for students enrolled in the Korea Society’s online Korean language lessons for winter 2021.
There are a wide variety of levels, from Introductory classes to Advanced Reading and Discussion. There are also three conversational Korean classes. The classes will also include sections for Beginning Korean I and Beginning Korean II.
Classes meet once a week for 12 weeks, from January 25 through April 17 (21 classroom hours) and are all online, due to pandemic restrictions. For more information, an application, and a listing of course offerings, please refer to the website (below). Class tuition is $400, $450 for beginning level classes, and textbooks are an additional cost.

AK Connection sponsors free mask giveaway for Korean adoptees
2021-01-30 10:30 - 12:00

Korean Adoptees of Chicago celebrate Seollal
2021-01-30 17:00 - 18:00
Korean Adoptees of Chicago (KAtCH) will celebrate the Korean lunar new year (Seollal) with a virtual celebration (and optional cook-along) on Saturday, January 30 from 5 to 6 p.m.
KAtCH member Taneka Hye Wol Jennings will cook dduk guk, a traditional soup for good luck in the new year made with beef broth and Korean rice cakes. This virtual celebration is free, but reservations are required on an Eventbrite site (see link).
To cook along and make dduk guk at home for Seollal (and have better luck in the new year), see the recipe included on the Eventbrite reservation site.

Theater Mu to broadcast play Today Is My Birthday online
2021-02-05 19:00 - 20:30, 2021-02-06 19:00 - 20:30
Theater Mu will produce the play Today Is My Birthday by Soon He Stanton February 6 through 21 in a live broadcast format.
Today Is My Birthday is about loneliness in the age of connection captured in a story about an would-be writer in Hawaii who stumbles into a gig as an actor on a shock-jock radio dating show. With a mixture of phone calls, voice mails, and radio spots, the play describes the predicament of a person with 1,000 friends on Facebook, but no one to have dinner with.
Mu is offering pay-as-you-are pricing for its 2020-21 season. The standard ticket price is $35. Audience members can pay less if they need to – as little as $5 per ticket.
The preview show will be 7 p.m. (CST) Friday, February 5. Opening night is 7 p.m. Saturday, February 6, and the remaining shows will be broadcast 2 p.m. on two Sundays, February 7 and 14; and 7 p.m. daily Wednesday, February 10 through Saturday, February 13.
Susan Soon He Stanton is a playwright, screenwriter, and TV writer from Aiea, Hawaii. Lily Tung Crystal is an actor, director, and artistic director of Theater Mu.

Theater Mu to broadcast Today is My Birthday online
2021-02-07 14:00 - 15:30

Theater Mu to live-stream play Today is My Birthday
2021-02-10 19:00 - 20:30, 2021-02-11 19:00 - 20:30, 2021-02-13 19:00 - 20:30

Theater Mu to live-stream the play Today is My Birthday
2021-02-12 19:00 - 20:30

Theater Mu to live broadcast play Today is My Birthday
2021-02-14 14:00 - 15:30

CAAL sponsors free webinar on Legislative Priorities for AAPI community
2021-02-17 16:00 - 17:00
A free webinar will be held on legislative priorities by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) on policy and legislative topics of interest to Asian Minnesotans.
The webinar will be held Wednesday, February 17, 4 to 5 p.m., to discuss the most important legislative actions that will expand opportunities for Black, indigenous, Asian and Latinex communities in Minnesota.
CAAL staff and partners will speak at the webinar to provide a high-level overview of the organization’s legislative priorities, take questions and gather comments from participants.
The Coalition for Asian American Leaders is a network of Asian American community leaders in Minnesota engaged in providing events and activities to advance the legislative and policy agenda for Asian Minnesotans. To register, see the CAAL website (www.caalmn.org) and scroll down on the front page of the website to the events, to see description and registration information, or use CAAL’s Events page link below.

CAAL to hold free webinar on resources for immigrants
2021-02-25 15:30 - 16:15
A free webinar will be held February 25 to premiere a new web tool for immigrant community resources. The session is sponsored by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL).
The Immigration Community Resource Map is a visual mapping tool to help find community resources that provide critical services to the immigrant and refugee communities.
The new digital map identifies locations that provide immigration legal, educational, and advocacy services in Minnesota. Last year, CAAL released a report about the experiences of Asian immigrants in Minnesota, and concluded there was a need for a directory of service providers that work with immigrant and refugee communities. CAAL partnered with the Center for Urban and Regional Affairs (CURA) at the University of Minnesota to develop this interactive map for Asian Minnesotan communities. At the event, CAAL leaders will give an overview of the project and provide participants a tutorial of the mapping tool.
CAAL is a network of Asian American community leaders in Minnesota engaged in providing events and activities to advance the legislative and policy agenda, and advance culturally-appropriate services for Asian Minnesotans. To register, see the CAAL website (www.caalmn.org) and scroll down on the front page of the website to the events, and click on the event to reach the registration page, or use the CAAL events page link below.

Virtual session to feature artist Eun Kyung Suh on her recent textile exhibit Shelter
2021-02-26 13:00 - 14:30
Minnesota textile artist Eun-Kyung Suh will discuss her current exhibit Shelter with Liz Miller. The two are co-recipient of a McKnight Fiber Artist grant of works now exhibited at the Textile Center in Minneapolis. The virtual discussion will be held Friday, February 26, 1 to 2:30 p.m. (CST), facilitated by curator/scholar Glenn Adamson.
In Shelter, geometric vessel-like forms are spread across walls and over fences and barriers. As part of the project, Suh collected discarded fabric from garage, estate and moving sales in rural Minnesota. The fragments are imbedded in the vessels which are positioned in a map-like trail. The exhibit describes our persistence to find and establish shelter.
In Liz Miller’s Falling Loss, the artist suspends multi-layered, loosely-draped silk panels containing laser-cut shapes, suggestive of aerial photos. There are fallen silk cutouts in a pile, are the backdrop of waxing and waning projections of names from obituaries. The exhibit evokes the unprecedented loss of loved ones that happened in 2020.
Facilitator Glenn Adamson is a renowned curator, critic, college professor and the author of numerous books on craft and critical thinking, including Fewer Better Things: The Hidden Wisdom of Objects (2018). The conversation will present their work in fiber and textiles within the context of contemporary art.
Shelter and Falling Loss are on exhibit at the Textile Center, Minneapolis January 12 through Saturday, March 13.
To register for the free Zoom session, see the link below.
The Textile Center is located on 3000 University Ave. SE, Minneapolis. For info on its exhibit hours and other offerings: in**@*************mn.org

10-week virtual Korean drumming class, Pungmul Gajok, registration deadline
2021-03-07
March 7 is the registration deadline for a new program offering by JangMi Arts, a Korean traditional performing arts school in Minnesota and Wisconsin, in cooperation with Korean Performing Arts Institute of Chicago (KPAC). It will be a 10-week virtual course in Korean drumming called Pungmul Gajok (Drumming Family).
The program, to run weekly on Saturdays from March 13 through May 22, will connect Korean adoptee students with culturally Korean music and percussion instructors. Adult adoptees and their families, Korean adoptee children with their siblings, friends, neighbors and community members are invited to experience Korean culture through its arts. Registration deadline is March 7. For schedule, calendar, fee information and registration see the website: www.jangmiarts.com

Feminist Case for Ending the Korean War virtual event
2021-03-18 19:00 - 20:00
A virtual event The Feminist Case for Ending the Korean War will be held March 18 at 7 p.m. CST, to rally support for peacemakers’ efforts to push the Biden administration to take a peace-first approach to progress on diplomatic goals with North Korea. Goals include denuclearization and progress on human rights reforms.
Speakers will include the authors of the recent report Path to Peace: The Case for a Peace Agreement to End the Korean War by the transnational feminist campaign Korea Peace Now. The report describes how feminist leadership is crucial for the peace process to be successful and sustainable.

Virtual live reading of A Comedy of Errors
2021-03-18 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-03-19 19:00 - 20:00, 2021-03-20 19:00 - 20:00
Shakespeare’s play A Comedy of Errors will get a live reading in three sessions in March by Twin Cities actors, including Sun Mee Chomet, in a production by Ten Thousand Things theater.
The readings will be held March 18, 19, and 20 at 7 p.m. each evening. In addition to Minnesotan Korean American actor Sun Mee Chomet, other readers include Sarah Agnew, Jasmine Bracey, Crisina Florencia Castro, Mo Perry, and Sally Wingert. The production is directed by Risa Brainin, with music and sound by Peter Vitale.
This comedy explores the richness of finding love in unexpected places and the challenges of immigrating to new lands. Filled with zany confusion, the play asks questions relevant for today: How do any of us really know who we are—or what day it is, for that matter?
Ten Thousand Things is a theater company that brings the talents of people of all backgrounds and life experiences to the stage. This production is free, but reservations are required at the link below.

140 Lbs - How Beauty Killed My Mother to be broadcast online by Theater Mu
2021-03-26
140 Lbs -How Beauty Killed My Mother by Susan Lieu will be staged in an online live broadcast by Theater Mu on March 26. The play describes intergenerational trauma, ; parent-child relationships; body insecurity and shame; repression and healing from personal loss; lack of accountability in the medical system; Vietnamese folkloric practice of spirit channeling.
The solo theater work, performed by the playwright, describes how Susan’s mother dies during a medical procedure, and how 19 years later on her wedding day, Susan’s mother’s seat sits empty and Susan realizes she can no longer ignore her longing to know who her mother reallyw was. Sifting through thousands of deposition pages and reaching out to the killer’s family, Susan uncovers the painful truth of her mother, herself, and the impossible ideal of Vietnamese feminine beauty.
Note: Theater Mu is offering “pay as you are” pricing to make community stories as accessible as possible. $35 is ticket value; if an audience member needs to pay less, they may do so by choosing as little as $5/ticket. See the website for information about tickets.

National Vigil for the Victims of the Atlanta Shooting
2021-03-26 18:30 - 19:30
A national vigil to remember the victims of the Atlanta shooting will be held Friday, March 26, 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CST (7:30 to 8:30 p.m. ET). The event #StopAsianHate National Day of Action and Healing, will be held at the Korean American Association of Greater Atlanta, and livestreamed. To RSVP for this event, go to www.326vigil.org.
The physical location of the vigil is the KA Association of Greater Atlanta, 5900 Brook Hollow Parkway, Norcross, GA 30071

Author talk on second edition of anthology of adoptee stories
2021-03-27 20:00 - 21:00
Two Minnesota editors of an anthology of adoptee stories will read and discuss their adoption journey stories in a virtual event sponsored by the Minnesota service and educational organization Adoptee Hub.
Author/activists Jane Trenka and Sun Yung Shin will read excerpts from this second edition of essays, fiction, poetry and art from the perspective of transracial adoptees. Following the reading, the two will take questions from the Zoom audience.
The event will be held Saturday, March 27 at 8 p.m. CST. The event is free and open to the public, but reservations are required (see link below) There will be a book giveaway to a limited number of attendees.

Minnesota's Stop Asian Hate Commemoration Rally at State Capitol
2021-03-28 17:00 - 20:00
A rally to speak out against hate crimes targeting Asian Americans will be held Sunday, March 28 at 5 to 8 p.m. at the Minnesota State Capitol.

The event is for Asian Americans and allies to remember the victims of the Atlanta shooting and to demonstrate solidarity and support for one another with performances, speeches, pledges and a candlelight vigil.

Wax candles are not permitted at rallies. Instead, the organizers have suggested bringing an LED candle or using a smart phone candle app. Organizers will also provide some LED lights. Organizers have also suggested bringing signs. An arts-and-crafts table will also be provided to make signs there. There will be escorts for participants back to their cars, if needed.

The rally is co-sponsored by 27 Asian American community, arts and religious organizations in Minnesota, with funding from the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL), the Council on Asian Pacific Minnesotans, and Asian Plaza.

OurHistory discussion group to hold monthly Zoom meeting
2021-04-11 15:00 - 16:00
Adoptee Bridge will hold its monthly OurHistory discussion group that meets via Zoom on Sunday, April 11, 3 p.m. CST. The group discusses not only history, but current events of interest to Korean Americans; the group has become particularly important in light of recent events around the March 16 mass murder of eight Asian Americans in Atlanta, Georgia.
The purpose of the discussion group is to allow transracial adoptees to meet in a safe space to explore matters of interest to them. This group is not therapy, rather it is a peer-led discussion group.
AdopteeBridge is able to refer transracial adoptees to appropriate counselors upon request. The group is free, but requires pre-registration. Please see the link for more information.
