Immigration, Trauma & Hybridity
November Series: Immigration,Trauma and Cultural Hybridity
We, as a nation, are pounded by waves of trauma upon trauma. In the midst of the pandemic, fires, tornados, hurricanes, and earthquakes, we see the socio-political, civil and religious systems failing to protect the lives of BIPOC communities, especially women, children and elder population in these communities.
How are immigrants dealing with trauma? What is trauma and what how is it embodied in immigrant communities? What are ways to respond to the trauma that we carry? How have we adapted culturally in a country where we are seen as perpetual foreigners? What is cultural hybridity? In November, ReconciliAsian is hosting series of webinars to wrestle with these questions with Jeehye Kim, Sue Park-Hur and Peter Lee.
Jeehye Kim, AMFT and Rev. Sue Park-Hur are Strategies for Trauma Awareness and Resilience (STAR) practitioners. Dr. Peter Lee holds a PhD. in Intercultural Studies from Trinity International University.
Registration is required. All of the webinars will be in Korean. For questions, contact reconciliasian@gmail.com.
Korean songs of resilience
One of the ways to build resilience and stay rooted during traumatic times is to sing- sing with your heart and soul. Here are two Korean folk songs that are familiar to many as a song of reunification and another a song of resistance. What are songs that have centered you or your community during traumatic times?
Holo Arirang sung by So Hyang
Parangsae sung by Seth Mountain with students from 성문밖 학교 (SMB Mountain School)
"홀로아리랑" with 탈북청년 합창단 위드 유 ON 캠페인(One Nation) 독도 발표회 2014.8.14. 독도
"홀로아리랑" with 탈북청년 합창단 위드 유 ON 캠페인(One Nation) 독도 발표회 2014.8.14. 독도
A Play directed by Hector Alvarez
Adapted from a play by a Korean American playwright Young Jean Lee, We're Gonna Die, Hector Alvarez, Theatre Y presents a reimagined interpretation of the current state of isolation through an unconventional medium of play using images and video as it's main material.
FREE tickets can be found here.
VOTE on Election Day: November 3rd
If you are an American citizen, you have the power to make your vote count in this critical election. American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community group is the fastest-growing minority group and a major voting bloc.
If you need a voting guide, here are a few we recommend you checking out:
https://www.kacla.org/resources.html (available in Korean and English)
https://www.myfaithvotes.org/ (faith based)
Staff pick books on trauma and resilience
by Asian American authors
Dandelions by Li Chong-dŏk
On a green rice field footpath
As if strewn about
Dandelions bloom in yellow
How lovely they are!
I plucked one blossom and took it to my mouth
It reminds me
Of the spring aroma of
the lunch Mother carried out when I was young
On an evening walk back home from school
When I blew them hoooo on the palm
Your seeds scattered like parachutes
In the end, they rooted in the hometown fields.
Ah, dandelions, dandelions
Also bloom in my heart of love and destiny;
The lovely flowers of my hometown
Rooted in this soil!
리종덕의 〈민들레〉
풀빛 파란 두렁길에
휘뿌려놓은 듯
노랗게 피여난 민들레
어쩌면 이리도 정겨울가
한송이 따서 입에 대니
내 어릴 때
어머니 점심밥 싸들고 나오던
그 봄날의 향기도 상기 있는듯
학교에서 돌아오는 저녁
손바닥에 놓고 후– 불면
락하산처럼 날아가던 네 씨앗
끝내는 고향의 들에 뿌리를 내렸구나
아, 민들레 민들레
사랑과 운명의 내 넋에도 피여
이 땅에 뿌리를 묻은
내 고향의 정겨운 꽃이여
(This translation of North Korean poem was originally published in Azalea, Volume 2, 2008)