Description

To register, please visit http://afterlives-koreanwar.eventbrite.ca

“Ara” is a Korean word whose various meanings include, “Ocean” and ,”Eye”, which symbolize themes of rebirth and wisdom. This piece will evoke the regenerative powers of the ocean, as the energizing force behind life, and the cycle of rebirth, as the histories and stories that have happened and still happen to the people on the land. This performance piece is dedicated to the history of the people, the stories, the land and justice of Jeju Island.

Born on Jeju Island in South Korea, where shamanic tradition is very strong, Dohee Lee learned Korean dance, Korean percussion, and vocals. Her art focuses on integrating these traditional forms with contemporary elements. Each piece and performance blends Eastern and contemporary Western musical forms with modern dance languages into works that emphasize the experimental, ritualistic and regenerative aspects of music, dance and visual bodies. Lee has presented her work at Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago and Asian Art Museum in SF and performed at Carnegie Zankel Hall in NYC with the Kronos Quartet, Teatro Municipal de Lima Peru, Beijing and Europe.

SKIM is an artist and cultural worker born and raised in New York, and currently producing music in Los Angeles. Through song, rap, and Korean folk drumming, SKIM’s work breaks silences, honours family, offers love, and demands change.

Over the past 12 years, SKIM has performed for a wide range of audiences and venues from independent theatres and music festivals, to HBO’s Def Poetry Jam, to youth and senior centers, schools, and juvenile halls, to actions protesting police abuse and war crimes from past to present. They have also shared their work and music through: drumming with organizers and members of Koreatown Immigrant Workers’ Alliance in LA and Jamaesori in the Bay area, performing at events with Still Present Pasts: Korean Americans and the “Forgotten War,” facilitating creative workshops with youth in Alternative Intervention Models, API Youth Promoting Advocacy and Leadership, the Chicago Children’s Choir; and recently joining a leadership cohort of the Brown Boi Project.

Any students, faculty members, and members of general public interested on the Afterlives of the Korean War are welcome to join. All events are open for free.