Events

LIFTing Voices for Peace: Korean American Authors on the Un-Ended Korean War!

Writers Grace M. Cho & Gary Pak will share their work and engage in a conversation about separated families, the traumas of war, and LIFTing the ban to travel to North Korea. Grace Cho, who most recently is the Winner of the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature, was a  Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and whose book Tastes Like War was A TIME and NPR Best Book of the Year in 2021. She is a professor of sociology at CUNY; her previous book, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, was published in 2008 and she is an active scholar. Gary Pak was a professor of English at the University of Hawaii until his recent retirement. He is the author of many works, including The Watcher of Waipuna and Other Stories, A Ricepaper Airplane, Children of a Fireland, Language of the Geckos and Other Stories, Brothers Under a Same Sky,  Chon-go Ma-bi / High Sky, and Horse Fattening: Essays on Contemporary Korean Culture. He co-edited Yobo: Korean American Writing in Hawai‘i (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2003). He has published a children’s play, Beyond the Falls, which was produced by the Honolulu Theater for Youth in 2001. This event is organized by LIFT (Let Individuals Freely Travel), a joint initiative of the Korea Peace Network, the Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, and Peace Treaty Now.

Korea Peace Advocacy Week

More than 170 people across the country — mostly Korean Americans — will participate in Korea Peace Advocacy Week, June 13-17, 2022. This nationally coordinated action will consist of virtual lobby visits with 139 Congressional offices in 28 states to advocate for H.R.3446, the Peace on the Korean Peninsula Act, which calls for serious, urgent diplomacy in pursuit of a binding peace agreement to formally end the Korean War, and H.R.1504/S.690, the Enhancing North Korean Humanitarian Assistance Act, which aims to ease the impact of sanctions on much-needed humanitarian aid to North Korea. Constituents will also encourage their Senators to support S.2688, the Korean War Divided Families Reunification Act, to facilitate the reunion of Korean Americans and their family members in North Korea. This year marks the seventh year of coordinated advocacy days for the cause of peace in Korea, and the third year of it being online due to the pandemic.

'Crossings' West Coast Premiere at Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival

In 2015 — the 70th anniversary of Korea’s tragic division by the United States and the former Soviet Union — 30 women peacemakers from around the world crossed the DMZ from North to South Korea, calling for peace on the Korean peninsula. Crossings, a new documentary film by Emmy-award-winning filmmaker Deann Borshay Liem, follows these women leaders, including Women Cross DMZ co-founders Christine Ahn and Gloria Steinem and Nobel Peace Laureates Leymah Gbowee and Mairead Maguire, on their historic journey. Through their story, Crossings explores enduring questions about war’s legacies and the role women play in resolving the world’s most intractable conflicts. Crossings will have its West Coast premiere at the Los Angeles Asian Pacific Film Festival on May 10 at 7:30pm at the Tateuchi Democracy Forum @ JANM (100 N Central Ave Los Angeles, CA). Buy tickets here.

LIFTing Voices for Peace: Korean American Authors on the Un-Ended Korean War

Join us on April 26 at 7:30pm ET/4:30pm PT for “LIFTing Voices for Peace: Korean American Authors on the Un-Ended Korean War” Writers Grace M. Cho & Gary Pak will share their work and engage in a conversation about separated families, the traumas of war, and LIFTing the ban to travel to North Korea. Click here to register. Grace Cho, who most recently is the Winner of the 2022 Asian/Pacific American Award in Literature, was a  Finalist for the 2021 National Book Award for Nonfiction, and whose book Tastes Like War was A TIME and NPR Best Book of the Year in 2021. She is a professor of sociology at CUNY; her previous book, Haunting the Korean Diaspora, was published in 2008 and she is an active scholar. Gary Pak was a professor of English at the University of Hawaii until his recent retirement. He is the author of many works, including The Watcher of Waipuna and Other Stories, A Ricepaper Airplane, Children of a Fireland, Language of the Geckos and Other Stories, Brothers Under a Same Sky,  Chon-go Ma-bi / High Sky, and Horse Fattening: Essays on Contemporary Korean Culture. He co-edited Yobo: Korean American Writing in Hawai‘i (Bamboo Ridge Press, 2003). He has published a children’s play, Beyond the Falls, which was produced by the Honolulu Theater for Youth in 2001. This event is organized by LIFT (Let Individuals Freely Travel), a joint initiative of the Korea Peace Network, the Korea Peace Now! Grassroots Network, and Peace Treaty Now.