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Category: Arts & Culture

Specially Processed American Me

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Specially Processed American Me, an autobiographical performance by Jaime Sunwoo, delves into her Asian-American upbringing and her family’s encounters with the Korean War through the unconventional lens of SPAM, the canned meat. This surreal piece examines the military’s association with SPAM, its importance in the Asia-Pacific region, and its impact on Asian cuisine; employing music, shadow play, and cooking as creative mediums. With a blend of humor and somber tragedy, Specially Processed American Me offers a captivating and thought-provoking journey into the complexities surrounding one of America’s often misunderstood culinary staples.

The Korea Society is proud to sponsor a special film screening of the theatrical production of Specially Processed American Me at Flushing Town Hall. The event will include a talkback reflecting on the Korean War and how it impacts us today, using themes from the film as a starting point. The film will be subtitled in Korean to make it accessible to Korean speaking audiences and Spam dishes from local Korean restaurants will be served.

The filmed theatrical production of Specially Processed American Me was produced by Free Rein Projects and made with support from Asian Women Giving Circle. Event sponsors include Korean American Family Service Center, The Korea Society, WomanKind, The Association of Asian American Yale Alumni, Leviathan Lab, Coalition for Asian American Children and Families, REACH Coalition, and our space sponsor Flushing Town Hall.

 

Click here to purchase tickets

 

Specially Processed American Me
Film Screening & Talkback

Saturday, June 24, 2023 | 1-4 PM

@ Flushing Town Hall
137-35 Northern Boulevard
Queens, NY 11354

 

 

 

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About the Artist:

Jaime Sunwoo, a Korean American artist based in Brooklyn, New York, engages in a wide range of artistic disciplines including visual art, theater, film, and public art. Through her creative endeavors, she intertwines personal narratives with global histories, employing surreal storytelling techniques. Sunwoo pursued her art education at Yale University and has participated as a fellow with esteemed organizations such as Ping Chong and Company and The Laundromat Project.

 

Artist Talk: Emanuel Hahn

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Images courtesy of the artist | 

Emanuel Hahn‘s Koreatown Dreaming series was born out of a sense of urgency to document the stories of Koreatown LA during the Covid-19 pandemic and creeping gentrification. Although Koreatown is increasingly a popular destination for tourists and transplants, many small businesses in Koreatown serving the local population are closing, and long-time establishments and mom-and-pop stores have disappeared without leaving a record of their history and contributions to the city of Los Angeles. Documenting the lives and stories of those who are still surviving, his photo series offers a compelling insight into this entrepreneurial immigrant group.

Hahn, one of the two photographers featured in The Korea Society’s Koreatown LA/NY, talks about his career and work.

 

Artist Talk: Emanuel Hahn

Thursday, June 1, 2023
Video release

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

Gallery hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM – 4:30 PM
Summer Hours during the month of August: Monday-Thursday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

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ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Emanuel Hahn is a Los Angeles-based photographer and director. As a Korean Third Culture Kid growing up in Singapore and Cambodia, he developed an interest in storytelling around topics of identity, diasporic experiences and the question of what it means “to belong”. His deep observational and listening abilities have led him to tell the stories of the coffee farmers in Colombia, Chinese grocery store owners in the Mississippi Delta, the Korean Uzbeks in Brooklyn, and most recently the Koreatown community in Los Angeles through his photo book Koreatown Dreaming.

Make Break Remix: The Rise of K-style with Fiona Bae

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K-pop, K-fashion, K-drama, K-beauty: over the past decade, K-style has exploded onto the global scene. What is behind this phenomenon? Where does K-style go from here? In Make, Break, Remix: The Rise of K-style, author and communications consultant Fiona Bae makes no attempt to define or categorize the movement, instead celebrating the eclectic and multifaceted nature of K-style and its home city of Seoul.

Photo by less_TAEKYUN KIM

K-pop, K-fashion, K-drama, K-beauty: over the past decade, K-style has exploded onto the global scene. What is behind this phenomenon? Where does K-style go from here?

In Make, Break, Remix: The Rise of K-style, author and communications consultant Fiona Bae makes no attempt to define or categorize the movement, instead celebrating the eclectic and multifaceted nature of K-style and its home city of Seoul. Through interviews with sixteen tastemakers who are shaping K-style across creative sectors—from 1MILLION Dance Studio’s Lia Kim, rock band leader Hwang Soyoon, and world-famous tattoo artist Doy to drag performer Nana Youngrong Kim, Asia’s leading interior designer Teo Yang, and leading K-pop stylist Youngjin Kim (who has styled BTS, Kang Daniel, and NCT)—Bae tells untold stories from true insiders, exploring a sense of identity in their work, how living in Seoul affects them and their creative output, and the decade of changes that has brought about the current K-style.

In her conversation with Frances Cha, Bae discusses the rise of K-style.

Make, Break, Remix: The Rise of K-style will be available for sale during the event.

Make Break Remix: The Rise of K-style
with Fiona Bae

Thursday, May 25, 2023 | 6:30 PM (EDT)

 

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Speaker:

Fiona Bae is the author of the internationally acclaimed book Make Break Remix: The Rise of K-style published by Thames & Hudson. Born and raised in Korea, she is proud of her heritage and passionate about promoting her country and culture. Following graduation from Yonsei University in Seoul, she has lived around the world, including stints at the UN in New York and four years in Hong Kong, and now resides in London.

Fiona has her own consultancy that looks to bridge Korean culture and the rest of the world by promoting Korean artists, designers and architects internationally. She leads communications for Frieze Seoul, represented the Korean Pavilion at the Venice Biennale and worked with museum M+ in Hong Kong. Stories about how her clients are transforming Seoul’s urban life and its design and art scenes have appeared in the Financial Times, The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Guardian, The Economist, Le Figaro, Monocle Magazine and Wallpaper*.

About the Moderator:

Frances Cha is the author of the novel If I Had Your Face (Ballantine, 2020), which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time Magazine, NPR and BBC among other publications, and is being translated into 11 languages. She is from Korea and worked as a culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong. She has taught creative writing at Yonsei University and media studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and currently teaches undergraduate fiction workshop at Columbia University. Her children’s book The Goblin Twins, set in Korea and New York, is forthcoming from Crown in September, 2023.

FLAWLESS

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Seoul, South Korea makes Beverly Hills look like a one-stoplight town when it comes to the beauty rat race, and it’s getting more intense every year. Elise Hu spent four years in South Korea as NPR’s bureau chief, and during her tenure there, the K-beauty industry tripled to become a $10 billion industry. South Korea is home to more than 7,500 cosmetic and skincare manufacturers, and K-beauty has staked its claim as the future of skin care.

Author photo by Emily Cummings

Seoul, South Korea makes Beverly Hills look like a one-stoplight town when it comes to the beauty rat race, and it’s getting more intense every year. Elise Hu spent four years in South Korea as NPR’s bureau chief, and during her tenure there, the K-beauty industry tripled to become a $10 billion industry. South Korea is home to more than 7,500 cosmetic and skincare manufacturers, and K-beauty has staked its claim as the future of skin care.

With products that promise pore-less perfection, South Korea’s $10 billion beauty industry is a decade ahead of any other country in innovation and heralded by many industry professionals as the best when it comes to products, regimen, and end-results. Riding the pop culture “Korean wave” and marketed by K-pop superstars and global brands, K-beauty promises flawless skin and a soothing multi-step routine. You’ll find K-beauty products in any city around the world, and in the US, the biggest importer of K-beauty behind China, you can take your pick from hundreds of brands at stores from Nordstrom and Bloomingdales to Sephora and Target. But how did K-Beauty become the darling of the global skincare industry? And does the trend stop at creams and toners? Or are we in an appearance revolution that will permanently transform our faces and bodies towards a more aesthetically pleasing sameness?

Elise Hu, NPR host-at-large and the host of TED Talks Daily, asked herself those questions after living and working in Seoul, the heart of the K-beauty industry. She delivers an audacious, journalistic exposé of the booming industry from the ground up in Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital. In the book, Hu explores K-beauty’s undeniable success and shines a much-needed light on the darker ramifications of the impossible standards and pressures that drive its growth and their effects on women in a looks-obsessed patriarchy.

In a conversation with Hannah Bae, Elise Hu discusses her book and her experience in Korea.

Flawless: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital will be available for sale during the event via Yu & Me Books.

 

FLAWLESS: Lessons in Looks and Culture from the K-Beauty Capital
with Elise Hu

Tuesday, May 23, 2023 | 6:30 PM (EDT)

 

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Speaker:

Elise Hu is a correspondent and host-at-large for NPR, the American news network, and since April 2020, the inaugural host of TED Talks Daily, the daily podcast from TED that’s downloaded a million times a day in all countries of the world. For nearly four years, she was the NPR bureau chief responsible for coverage of North Korea, South Korea, and Japan. Her work has earned the national DuPont Columbia, Edward R. Murrow, and Gracie awards, along with a Gannett Foundation Award for Innovation in Watchdog Journalism. She lives in Los Angeles with her three daughters.

About the Moderator:

by Arin Sang-urai @photojuice

Hannah Bae is a Korean American freelance journalist, nonfiction writer and illustrator who is at work on a memoir about family estrangement and mental illness. She is the 2020 nonfiction winner of the Rona Jaffe Foundation Writers’ Award and a 2021 and 2022 Peter Taylor Fellow for The Kenyon Review Writers Workshops. You can find her work in anthologies such as Our Red Book: Intimate Histories of Periods, Growing & Changing and (Don’t) Call Me Crazy: 33 Voices Start the Conversation About Mental Health and online at Asian American Writers’ Workshop’s The Margins, Catapult, The Washington Post, The San Francisco Chronicle and other outlets.

Greek Lessons: Han Kang In Conversation with Katie Kitamura

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Han Kang’s Booker Prize-winning 2016 novel The Vegetarian solidified her place as a master of the surreal, and is a powerful reminder that what makes surrealist narratives so haunting is the way they illuminate concerns that are real and urgent. Han, one of South Korea’s leading literary voices, joins the Pen America’s World Voices Festival for the North American launch of her new novel, Greek Lessons. Following a female protagonist who loses her voice and seeks out learning Greek as a possible remedy, the book is a poignant exploration of language, the nature of pain, and the need to move on. Join Han in conversation with Katie Kitamura, author of Intimacies, for this fascinating conversation of the self and the myriad ways we seek to heal.

The Korea Society is proud to be a Cultural Partner for the World Voices Festival.

 

Purchase tickets here

 

All PEN World Voices Festival tickets are non-refundable. Please confirm the time and location of your event before finalizing your purchase.

 

Greek Lessons: Han Kang
In Conversation with Katie Kitamura

Friday, May 12, 2023 | 8 PM
@ The Strand

 

 

 

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About the Speaker:

Han Kang was born in 1970 in South Korea. A recipient of the Yi Sang Literary Award, the Today’s Young Artist Award, and the Manhae Prize for Literature, she is the author of The Vegetarian, winner of the International Booker Prize, Human Acts, and The White Book.

 

About the Moderator:

Katie Kitamura’s most recent novel is the national bestseller Intimacies, which was longlisted for the 2021 National Book Award for Fiction and was named one of President Barack Obama’s favorite books of Summer 2021. Her previous novel, A Separation, was a finalist for the Premio Gregor von Rezzori and a New York Times Notable Book. It was named one of the best books of the year by over a dozen publications and translated into sixteen languages, and it is being adapted for film. Her two earlier novels, Gone to the Forest and The Longshot, were both finalists for the New York Public Library’s Young Lions Fiction Award. A recipient of fellowships from the Lannan Foundation and Santa Maddalena Foundation, Kitamura has written for publications including The New York Times, The Guardian, Granta, BOMB Magazine, Triple Canopy, and Frieze. She teaches in the creative writing program at New York University.

ADG7 (AK DAN GWANG CHIL)

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Photo (c) Lee Jong Sam

ADG7 is back–this time in person!

The nine-piece South Korean ensemble ADG7 (aka Ak Dan Gwang Chil) draws equal inspiration from newly reclaimed Korean folk styles of gut and minyo and the contemporary stylings of modern K-Pop for a mix that will surprise you with its raucous, danceable energy. The band’s charismatic three frontwomen are backed by masterfully played traditional Korean instrumentation and present a distinctively theatrical style of performance that’s like nothing you’ve ever heard before, but that you’ll never forget. You won’t want to miss the crowd-pleasing sonic sensations that The New York Times calls “catchy, bouncy and brash.”

The Korea Society is proud to support ADG7’s concert in New York at Le Poisson Rouge, presented by World Music Institute. WMI’s COUNTERPOINT series focuses on contemporary artists who push the boundaries of what “world music” can mean in the 21st Century.

 

ADG7 (AK DAN GWANG CHIL)

Wednesday, May 3, 2023 | 8 PM

PURCHASE TICKETSPURCHASE TICKETS
@ Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St, Manhattan

 

Doors: 7 PM | Show: 8 PM
Le Poisson Rouge
158 Bleecker St, Manhattan
Tickets: Advance $30 | Day of Show $35
Standing Room with Limited Seating

 

 

 

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THE DIVE: THE SONGS OF JULIA RIEW

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The Korea Society is thrilled to sponsor The Dive: The Songs of Julia Riew featuring Julia Riew, Claire Kwon, Natalie Choo and others at 54 Below, Broadway’s supper club.

Fred Ebb Award Winner Julia Riew returns to 54 Below and makes her New York City solo concert debut. The evening will feature original music from a variety of projects including Julia’s viral musical Dive (previously known as Shimcheong: A Folktale), a fantasy-novel-inspired song cycle, and some of her other greatest online-and-onstage hits. Stepping into the solo spotlight for the first time, the composer-lyricist will be joined by rising theater stars to perform in a joyous celebration of lyric, melody, and the diversity across our experiences.

The concert will feature performers Claire Kwon (Always Famous), Emily Borromeo (The Prom Nat’l Tour, School of Rock), Juliet Lee, Kevin Perdido (Always Famous), Marina Kondo (KPOP, Frozen Nat’l Tour), and Natalie Choo. The band will be led by music director Simon Broucke, and will feature Noah Weisbart on guitar, Shelby Blezinger-McCay on Drums, Skyler Volpe on Bass, and Jeremiah Blacklow on violin.

 

THE DIVE: THE SONGS OF JULIA RIEW

Thursday, April 27, 2023 | 7 PM

PURCHASE TICKETS

@ 54 Below

254 W 54TH ST. CELLAR, NYC 10019

 

Use code RIEW5 for $5 off of Main Dining Room or Bar Rail cover charge;

Cover charge starts at $35, plus a $25 food/beverage minimum.

 

 

 

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About the Performer:

Julia Riew is a Korean-American composer, lyricist, librettist, and writer from St. Louis and currently based in New York City. She is primarily known for her musical Dive (previously known as Shimcheong: A Folktale), which amassed over 100k followers online and over 16 million streams on an animated music video of its titular song in Korea. Julia graduated from Harvard University in May 2022 and is First-Year in the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theatre Workshop. In her first year out of college, she has been named the 2022 Fred Ebb Award winner, Playbill’s Featured Songwriter of the Month, A Woman to Watch on Broadway, and the recipient of the 2022 Harvardwood Artist Launch Fellowship under the mentorship of composer Laurence O’Keefe (Legally Blonde, Heathers). Julia was the inaugural recipient of the Musicians United for Social Equity (MUSE) Linda Twine Scholarship (2021), a member of the first MUSE One-on-One Mentorship Program (2021-22) (mentor: Jeanine Tesori), and a member of the inaugural Maestra Music Mentorship Program (2020-21) (mentor: Deborah Wicks La Puma). Her past works include Alice’s Wonderland, an original musical co-written by J Quinton Johnson (Hamilton), Jack and the Beanstalk: A Musical Adventure (The American Repertory Theater’s 2020 Family Musical), and Thumbelina: A Little Musical (The A.R.T. 2019 Family Musical).

Seongmin Ahn | Enchanted Reality

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January 19 – April 14, 2023|
Opening Reception: Thursday, January 19, 2023 5-7 PM (EST)|
Artist Talk: Tuesday, March 21, 2023 6 PM (EST)|

In her solo exhibition at The Korea Society, Seongmin Ahn presents a series of paintings and wall installations that fuses her insight in the relativity of perception with a deep regard for traditional Korean art, especially minhwa–folk painting. In her work, Ahn begins with traditional forms and themes, which she then extends into multi-disciplinary and multi-media practices by adopting science, technology, and multiple cognitive models.

For Ahn, whose work reads as equally playful and earnest, bringing light to a dark room at the touch of a finger is a wondrously apt metaphor for the role of art in our lives. —Richard Vine, a senior editor at Art in America

The Korea Society Gallery is open only by appointment. The appointment must be made at least 24 hours prior to the scheduled visit. To make an appointment, please contact info@koreasociety.org.

Gallery Hours: Monday-Friday 10 AM-4:30 PM
By Appointment Only

Click here to make an appointment

 

@ The Korea Society 
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, NYC

**Pre-registration is now required for all Korea Society events, and an ID is required for security.**

For more information, please contact info@koreasociety.org or call (212) 759-7525.

 

Join our membership program here!

email iconE-News sign-up

 

ABOUT THE ARTIST:

Seongmin Ahn holds an MFA in Asian traditional painting from Seoul National University and another MFA in mixed media from the Maryland Institute College of Art. As an active participant in the contemporary art scene in New York and East Asia, she has exhibited work at such major venues as the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Seoul, the Jordan Schnitzer Museum of Art at the University of Oregon, and the Charles Wang Center at Stony Brook University. She has received a number of funding awards, including two Pollock Krasner Foundation grants, AHL foundation artist grant and Café Royal Cultural Foundation grant. Her work has been reviewed in The Washington Post, the Philadelphia Inquirer, The Baltimore Sun, The Plain Dealer and others. Her work has been acquired by the National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art in Korea, Princeton University Art Museum, and Hudson River Museum.

Image courtesy of the artist

 

 

Kyung-Sook Shin with Jenny Wang Medina

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Author photo © Jun-yeon Kim

An instant bestseller in Korea and the follow up to the international bestseller, Please Look After Mom, I Went to See My Father by Kyung-Sook Shin centers on a woman’s efforts to reconnect with her aging father, uncovering long-held family secrets. More than just the portrait of a single man, I Went to See My Father opens a window onto humankind, family, loss, and war. With this long-awaited follow-up to Please Look After Mom—flawlessly rendered by award-winning translator Anton Hur—Kyung-Sook Shin has crafted an ambitious, global, epic, and lasting novel.

In a rare personal appearance in the U.S., Kyung-Sook Shin will be joined by Jenny Wang Medina to discuss her latest novel.

I Went to See My Father will be available for sale during the event.

 

Kyung-Sook Shin
with Jenny Wang Medina

Thursday, April 13, 2023 | 6:30 PM (EDT)

 

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Author:

Kyung-Sook Shin is one of South Korea’s most widely read and acclaimed novelists. She has been awarded the Manhae Grand Prize for Literature, the Dong-in Literary Award, the Man Asian Literary Prize, and many others. Shin is the author of eight novels, eight short story collections, and three essay collections, including the NYT-bestselling Please Look After Mom, which has been published in more than forty countries.

 

About the Moderator:

Jenny Wang Medina is Assistant Professor in modern Korean literature and culture at Emory College.

Gina Chung: Sea Change

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A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus.

Author photo by S. M. Sukardi

One of “22 Works of Fiction to Read This Spring”—The New York Times

A novel about a woman tossed overboard by heartbreak and loss, who has to find her way back to stable shores with the help of a giant Pacific octopus. Sea Change is an “absolutely stunning debut” novel —Frances Cha, author of If I Had Your Face—by Gina Chung.

Ro is stuck. She’s just entered her thirties, she’s estranged from her mother, and her boyfriend has just left her to join a mission to Mars. Her days are spent dragging herself to her menial job at a mall aquarium, and her nights are spent drinking sharktinis (Mountain Dew and copious amounts of gin, plus a hint of jalapeno). With her best friend pulling away to focus on her upcoming wedding, Ro’s only companion is Dolores, a giant Pacific octopus who also happens to be Ro’s last remaining link to her father, a marine biologist who disappeared while on an expedition when Ro was a teenager. When Dolores is sold to a wealthy investor intent on moving her to a private aquarium, Ro finds herself on the precipice of self-destruction. Wading through memories of her youth, Ro has one last chance to come to terms with her childhood trauma, recommit to those around her, and find her place in an ever-changing world.

In a conversation with Frances Cha, Gina Chung talks about her debut novel.

Sea Change will be available for sale during the event.

Gina Chung: Sea Change
with Frances Cha

Tuesday, April 11, 2023 | 6:30 PM (EDT)

 

 

The Korea Society
350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor
New York, NY 10017

 

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About the Author:

Gina Chung is a Korean American writer from New Jersey currently living in Brooklyn, New York. A recipient of the Pushcart Prize, she is a 2021-2022 Center for Fiction/Susan Kamil Emerging Writer Fellow and holds an MFA in fiction from The New School. Her work appears or is forthcoming in The Kenyon Review, Catapult, Gulf Coast, Indiana Review, Idaho Review, The Rumpus, Pleiades, F(r)iction, and Wigleaf, among others, and has been recognized by several contests, including the American Short(er) Fiction Contest, the Los Angeles Review Literary Awards, and the Ploughshares Emerging Writer’s Contest.

About the Moderator:

Frances Cha is the author of the novel If I Had Your Face (Ballantine, 2020), which was named one of the Best Books of the Year by Time Magazine, NPR and BBC among other publications, and is being translated into 11 languages. She is from Korea and worked as a culture editor for CNN in Seoul and Hong Kong. She has taught creative writing at Yonsei University and media studies at Ewha Womans University in Seoul and currently teaches undergraduate fiction workshop at Columbia University. Her children’s book The Goblin Twins, set in Korea and New York, is forthcoming from Crown in September, 2023.