I AM KOREAN AMERICAN: A Spoken Poem

I present to you a spoken poem that is both a personal project of mine and a poetic front to the website with the same name, I AM KOREAN AMERICAN. From self-hatred to fierce love, I AM KOREAN AMERICAN is how I came to accept my Korean American identity. With this poem, I reveal myself to you all here at 8Asians as you get to see who I truly am. But this poem would not have been possible if it weren’t for the people in my life that believed in me so a huge thank you is in order.

I am thankful for Steve Nguyen (Channel APA head and fellow 8Asians contributor) who contributed his amazing talent to shoot and edit this personal project of mine. I am thankful for Tommy Su and his amazing TSJ Studios for allowing us to shoot in the space and also contributing his time to help with the lighting. I am thankful for the IAKA folks for accepting this poem into their website and taking a chance with me with this raw and personal poem. But most of all, I am thankful and incredibly blessed to have the people in my life who have in many ways helped me in more ways than I can count. If it weren’t for them, I wouldn’t be here in Los Angeles, pursuing my dreams and making the most out of it. If it weren’t for them, I probably wouldn’t be alive. Life can take you in many ugly places and so it is a blessing to have the people that love you take you out of it.

So with that being said, I present to you all:

I AM KOREAN AMERICAN.