KoreanAmericanStory.org

KoreanAmericanStory.org A 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to preserve stories of the Korean American experience.

06/11/2026

Jiwon Shin is a New York-based nightlife and event performer. Born in Highland Park, a suburb of Chicago, she grew up between Kentucky and Los Angeles, following her mother after her parents’ divorce. In the years which she describes as “a crack in the mirror,” Jiwon found a lifeline in music and the precise, expressive choreography of imported K-pop VHS tapes such as SBS’ Inkigayo (인기가요) and MBC’s Show! Music Core (쇼! 음악중심). More than just play, these living-room dances were staged performances in which Jiwon would recruit her brothers to form their own little K-pop group, in which each sibling was cast as a particular member of a group.

With her mother’s encouragement, Jiwon would later move to New York City to pursue studies in fashion business management at FIT, which is where she began to step out of her comfort zone. She found that experimentation with how she presented herself proved to be the formula for getting invited to perform music and drag, with her debut happening in 2019 to outstanding success.

Since then, Jiwon has emerged as a breakout force in the Brooklyn q***r community, using drag and K-pop performance art as tools for personal and collective affirmation; today, Jiwon champions a "chosen family" of fellow performers, viewing the stage as a sanctuary where the healing of an inner child and the celebration of modern q***r culture converge to create something entirely new and electric. “You only have one life and you have to live it like your authentic self,” she tells us, “…if you don’t do that, you’re going to live for everybody else. And what kind of life is that?”

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KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

06/08/2026

This Pride Month, we’re revisiting Legacy Project: Q***r Joy in Conversation.

In this reflection, speaks to a shared hope: to be seen as we are, to be loved, and to feel part of a larger community.

Through conversations with members of the Korean American q***r and trans community, this series uplifts the many ways q***r joy lives within our stories, our relationships, and our collective future.

***rJoy

06/04/2026

Marina Lee was born around Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Philadelphia when she was four years old with her parents and two older brothers. Her memories of Korea are centered around the unconditional love of her parents, as well as her mother’s legendary cooking, which drew the attention of neighbors who’d “invite” themselves over to Marina’s home for a taste of what her mother had prepared. Every week, it seemed, her family would inevitably host a dinner party for her parents’ friends and families. From dinner parties to rituals of making kimchi with her mother (and other ahjummas), Marina tells us that she holds not a single negative memory of life before moving to the United States.

When Marina was four-years old, her father, an accountant for the US Army, was offered the chance to relocate his family to Philadelphia following the surprise recovery of a sum of money. In the midst of adjusting to immigrant life in her town—where she was the only person of color in her Kindergarten class—Marina began noticing the slow and confusing deterioration of her mother’s mental health: the self-talk, the changing nature of food on the table, and the growing emotional distance in the household. Yet in the face of a new country, where assimilation rhetoric and stigma surrounding mental health prohibited open discussion, Marina was left at a loss for how she could nurse her mother back to health, freeing her from an illness which trapped her in her own mind.

When she was a teenager, she recounts how, in a rare moment of lucidity, her mother apologized to her for her condition, cementing Marina’s conviction to continue fighting for her mother. After graduating from college, she took it upon herself to learn as much as she could about her mother’s schizophrenia, whereupon she learned through other physical screenings that her mother was afflicted by several other health issues as well. Although she was able to provide treatment for her mother which improved her mental health, her mother would pass at the young age of 65.

Today, with a daughter of her own, Marina admits that she is “overly communicative,” though she urges families—particularly those from different cultural backgrounds—to have open conversations about mental health and wellbeing. Her advice for her daughter? “Don’t take life so seriously, have some fun, have a lot of fun, because you only have one.”

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http://www.koreanamericanstory.org
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KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

06/02/2026

This Pride Month, Korean American Story invites audiences to listen back to Legacy Project: Q***r Joy in Conversation, the second iteration of KAS’ Q***r Joy series.

Conversants from the Korean American q***r and trans community ponder and reflect together upon the unique—and at times tumultuous— journeys of finding q***r joy in their lives, with conversations unfolding between family, friends, and spiritual allies.

In highlighting the dynamic and intersectional identities of Korean American life, this interview project seeks to destigmatize and uplift conversations around sexuality, gender, and q***r narratives, punctuating how the ‘Korean American Story’ is not a singular history, but a diverse tapestry of interwoven experiences.

Special thanks to for funding this Legacy Project series, as well as the PRISM Foundation () for additional support with our work.

05/28/2026

John Young Ho Lee was born on June 25, 1936, in Pocheon, Korea. Born into a landed, “yangban” (aristocratic) family, he recalls how village folk would refer to him as “doryeon-nim” (young master), in place of his own name. He tells us that he lived comfortably, and even had hospitable relations with Japanese soldiers who would occasionally stroll into his town on horseback, with his mother preparing them Korean food which they seemed to like.

His father, along with his uncle, had received police training in Japan (serving in the Japanese police force), and continued working for the police upon his return to Korea. As part of the landed class, his family allotted plots of land to sharecroppers who gave them their harvest. After liberation, however, his family had a reversal of fortune: their land was taken and redistributed by the Communist Party, and they had to go into hiding after villagers alerted party officials to his family’s status as landlords; he remembers hiding in his family’s cornfields as their former tenants sought them out. Young Ho and his family found refuge in Sinwi, though not before he learned of his grandparents’ abduction by the party.

In time, he would graduate from law school before working as an accountant for the U.S. Eighth Army for 24 years, with stints in Saudi Arabia. In 1980, he was granted papers to immigrate to the United States, where he and his wife hoped to give their children better educations. Today, he enjoys spending time with his grandchildren—and the feelings are reciprocated.

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https://koreanamericanstory.org/donate/

See more of KoreanAmericanStory.org:
http://www.koreanamericanstory.org
http://www.facebook.com/KoreanAmericanStory.org
http://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanstory

KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

05/21/2026

Reverend David Jungdo Park grew up in Madeok, Hwanghae Province (today known as “Yeomjeon” in South Hwanghae Province, North Korea) during a tumultuous era of Korean history: born nine years before liberation, he still remembers the song he sang as a schoolboy after hearing of the emperor’s surrender. His father having passed before liberation, David was raised by his mother alongside his sister, Yeon-do, who, at the time of recording, he has not seen since leaving his hometown 78 years ago.

In his conversation with his grandson, John, Reverend Park speaks to moments from his childhood whose values he carried with him to the present day: earnest faith, which his mother shared with him through Korean readings of the Bible during Japanese occupation, and stewardship, which he learned from his father as he tended to his orchards, transplanting saplings, pruning and grafting branches.

Like so many elders interviewed for this iteration of Letters to My Hometown, Reverend Park embodies that tree which has been pruned, transplanted, and nurtured to bear fruit in the stories he has to share (John notes how the both of them share a predisposition towards storytelling). Often, these stories are held in waiting by the elder generation, whose preoccupation with raising their own children in a foreign environment takes urgent precedence over the recollection of past experiences, stories, and traumas.

Yet in time the stories emerge, prompting younger generations—the grandchildren of these elders—to find in these testimonies a storied link to their roots, and to their hometowns; a single family, grafted and propagated an ocean away.

Support us!
https://koreanamericanstory.org/donate/

See more of KoreanAmericanStory.org:
http://www.koreanamericanstory.org
http://www.facebook.com/KoreanAmericanStory.org
http://www.instagram.com/koreanamericanstory

KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

05/15/2026

Reverend David Jungdo Park was born in Madeok, Hwanghae Province, in 1936. Raised in a family that had been early adherents of Christianity on the Korean Peninsula, David became accustomed with the Christian faith through bible readings with his mother, which, at the time of Japanese occupation, was considered an illicit activity. He recounts how his father, beaten by Japanese authorities, did not survive to see liberation on August 15, 1945, a day he distinctly remembers as being filled with trumpeters marching throughout the streets as townsfolk cheered “manseh!” Yet after only a couple months of liberation, David’s life was again thrown into disarray when the North Korean government enacted policies which disrupted Christian life.

In the winter of 1950-51, the Armed Defense Unit which had held the line against encroaching Chinese and North Korean forces splintered and was forced to retreat; David’s uncle, who had been a member of the unit, warned his family to flee before the soldiers arrived. As David’s grandfather, an elder of the town, would have been unable to make this journey, David’s mother and sister opted to return to their hometown to be with him.

On January 14, 1951, David was evacuated to Chodo Island off the coast of Hwanghae, from which he fled to South Korea in June of 1951 as a refugee. He got by as a dishwasher at a Chinese restaurant which could not give him days off on Sundays due to the influx of weekend customers—a shock to David, who had largely fled from his hometown in fear of religious persecution. Committed to his faith, however, he decided to instead attend dawn prayer meetings before work, which eventually led to him becoming a church custodian, attend seminary, work in the chaplaincy for KATUSA, and immigrate to the United States to nurture budding churches. Having worked as clergy in Charlottesville, Austin, and Atlanta, David continues his service to ministry by teaching Hebrew and the Old Testament in Catonville, Maryland.

KoreanAmericanStory.org is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization whose mission is to create and preserve the stories of the Korean American experience.

Run with Korean American Story 🏃KAS’s Associate Board is excited to bring the community together for a 5K and post-run h...
05/15/2026

Run with Korean American Story 🏃

KAS’s Associate Board is excited to bring the community together for a 5K and post-run hang on May 31st at Hana Makgeolli!

Our 5K route (~3.1 miles) will begin at Hana Makgeolli, where runners can grab a pre-run snack from day-guard, before looping through Long Island City and returning to Hana Makgeolli for drinks, music by West1ne, and raffle prizes from Hana Makgeolli, day-guard, and Gamsa Foods.

Come out and get to know Korean American Story, learn more about the work we do, and connect with others in the community!

Can’t wait to see you there ✨

RSVP required. Free to attend. All paces are welcome!

Run with KAS
May 31, 2026 | 10:30AM-2PM
201 Dupont St, Brooklyn

Big thank you to our sponsors:
Venue + Drinks: Hana Makgeolli
Pre-Run Snack: Day-Guard
Raffle: Hana Makgeolli, Day-Guard, and Gamsa Foods

05/10/2026

On Mother’s Day, we honor the women who carried more than we ever realized as children.

The mothers who worked through exhaustion.
Who held families together through uncertainty.
Who sacrificed quietly so their children could dream bigger.

As we grow older, many of us begin to see our mothers more clearly. Not just as parents, but as people who endured, persevered, and loved deeply even in the hardest moments.

To all the mothers, especially the immigrant mothers who gave so much of themselves for the next generation, thank you.

Happy Mother’s Day from Korean American Story. ❤️

#엄마

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