Benefit Showcase for Nodutdol for Korean Community Development based in NYC
To commemorate July 27, the date of the signing of the Korean War Armistice in 1953, we will have a benefit show with performances, readings, and films about the painful legacies of war that still affect us today and the dire necessity for a Peace Treaty in Korea. Also 2009 marks the 10 year anniversary of the founding of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development which is part of a national coalition in the U.S. that launched a peace treaty campaign last fall.
LIST OF PARTICIPATING WRITERS, PERFORMERS, ARTISTS:
Haja Brazilian Percussion Troupe
Haja Production School is an alternative High School in Seoul focusing on art, design, performance relating to social issues. Students from HPS will preform music which is heavily influenced by Brazillian percussion and sounds.
Jason Ahn
A graduate of the University of California at Berkeley and is currently in his 2nd year of studies as a physician-in-training at Harvard Medical School. The urgency of the divided families issue has pushed him to pursue this project. While a Fulbright scholar to Korea, Jason became interested in the divided families through Saemsori, an organization that works towards formal family reunions between Korean Americans and Koreans living in North Korea.
Young
Young is an aspiring novelist who has nothing but his aspirations.
Ji Young Yoo
A member of Nodutdol, a contributing visual artist for the traveling exhibition, ‘Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the Forgotten War’, and a lecturer of Media Arts in various colleges. She received her MFA from the City University of New York and an MA in Media Studies at the New School University in NY. She has exhibited her work both in Korea and the U.S. In May 2009, she participated in a group show ‘Meta-Data’ at Guro Art Belly in Seoul.
Grace M. Cho
A member of Nodutdol, a contributing performance artist for ‘Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the Forgotten War’, and an Associate Professor of Sociology and Women’s Studies at the City University of New York. Her first book, ‘Haunting the Korean Diaspora: Shame, Secrecy, and the Forgotten War’ was published last year with University of Minnesota Press.
*Note: If you would like to purchase the book, you can order it on-line through Amazon. As a supporter of Nodutdol, 25% of the author’s proceeds will go towards the organization.
Cho Sungjoon
A second generation corean american from New York and a member of Nodutdol for Korean Community Development and (TRACK) Truth and Reconciliation for the Adoption Community of Korea.
Jane Jin Kaisen
A visual artist working with film, video, performance, text, and photography. Jane is a co-founder of UFOlab, and the collective Chamber of Public Secrets. www.janejinkaisen.org
Maja Lee Langvad
Her first book, ‘Find Holger Danske’ was published in 2006 with Borgens Forlag. She has received several awards and grants including a 3 year work grant from The Danish Arts Foundation. Since 2004 she has been the co-editor of the literary magazine ‘Banana Split’. She has translated ‘Fragebogen’ by the Swiss author, Max Frisch, into Danish. At the moment she is writing a fictional book about her experiences living in South Korea where she currently resides.
ABOUT THE ORGANIZATION:
노둣돌 no-dut-dol
1. stepping stone; 2. home, opening, entryway; 3. bridging; 4. love and longing in separation; 5. reunification.
WHO WE ARE
Based in New York City, Nodutdol is a community of first through fourth generation Koreans living in the U.S. We are a community that has families in both, the south and north of Korea. We are diverse in our backgrounds and perspectives, but bound together by our shared sense of the Korean homeland that continues to suffer under division [with the understanding that the concept of ‘home’ may vary]. We are part of the Korean diaspora spread throughout the globe made up of artists, filmmakers, teachers, students, workers, professionals, young families, etc. who believe in social justice.
HISTORY
In April 1999, Nodutdol was founded in New York City. Inspired by the democratic social movements in Korea, there was a desire to create a progressive space in NYC that promotes the self-determination and unity of the Korean people through grassroots organizing and community development. With a critical analysis of the U.S. – Korea history [that is closely linked to war and militarism], Nodutdol began putting together workshops, lectures, and study sessions, believing in the importance of educating present and future generations of Koreans living in the U.S. to be actively engaged in social change.
MISSION STATEMENT
Through grassroots organizing and community development, Nodutdol seeks to bridge divisions created by war, nation, gender, sexual orientation, language, class, and generation among Koreans and to empower our community to address the injustices we and other people of color face here and abroad. Nodutdol works in collaboration with other progressive organizations locally, nationally and internationally as part of a larger movement for peace and social change.
Nodutdol seeks to contribute to a global people’s struggle against war and militarism as part of a Korean struggle for national unification and democracy, and as part of a U.S.-based peoples’ struggle for racial, social and economic justice in New York City. In that spirit, we are building a broad base of NYC Koreans who struggle against war and militarism on these two fronts.
*To learn more about Nodutdol and our work, please visit:www.nodutdol.org
Our work is only possible through the broad support of community members, friends, and allies. Nodutdol is incorporated under New York State law as a nonprofit co and is a 501(c)3 federal tax-exempt charitable organization. All donations to Nodutdol are tax-exempt.
if you can not make it the event on thursday, but would still like to make a donation to Nodutdol, you can make an on-line tax deductible contribution: http://nodutdol.org/index.php/support/
