Digital Press Kit
SOYOUNG L KIM’s
GHOST ROOTS
Photo by Albert Wong
GHOST ROOTS explores the possibilities of a future of solidarity, care and celebration through the stories of two Asian American women. Before we can reach this future, Soyoung L Kim poses the questions, “Can America’s attempt at reconciliation/Extend beyond black and white?/Can America’s embrace include/The yellow of my skin?” By reinterpreting the Korean traditional dance of 강강술래 Ganggangsullae, Soyoung L Kim creates a world rooted in a circle of intergenerational care and of immigrant stories. GHOST ROOTS is a performance art film that runs for 16 minutes.
GHOST ROOTS
A New 강강술래 Ganggangsullae
Soyoung L Kim Creator/Director
Soyoung L Kim and Fernadina Chan Spoken Word
Fernadina Chan and Soyoung L Kim Choreography
Soyoung L Kim Visual Art/Stop Motion Animation
Jeremy Stanley Filming and Editing
DoYeon Kim Original Music
Marvin Kim Sound Engineering and Mixing
Performed by Soyoung L Kim and Fernadina Chan
2022
This project is made possible by a Live Arts Boston grant from the Boston Foundation
Soyoung L kim
Soyoung L Kim’s work blends several practices, including painting, sculpture, writing, stop motion animation, and performance. Her background as 교포 Gyopo, as part of the Korean diaspora, allows her to move freely across artistic disciplines to create new works that blend those disciplines and to break those boundaries. Her work is influenced by her own childhood of many moves and displacements and the many stories she has gathered over the three continents she has called home at various times in her life. As a young Korean girl growing up in Nairobi, Kenya, she listened to her parents tell her Korean folktales, as well as stories about the struggles of the Korean people, in their fight for independence from Japanese colonization, in the Korean War, and in the struggle to build a country after the devastation of the Korean War that divided the country. She was shaped by the harsh beauty of the Kenyan landscape and the stories of the British colonization and the struggles of the Kenyan people for independence. All of these experiences and stories inform Kim’s work that aims to transport us to a place of liberation, where we are free from colonization and the burdens of racism, fear and hate.
Kim was born in Seoul, South Korea, and moved to Nairobi, Kenya, at the age of six and spent her formative years there. She lived in Cape Town, South Africa, for a year before moving to the USA for college. She received her MFA in Creative Writing from The School of the Art Institute of Chicago. Her flash fiction,“Red Lines Across the Map” was published in “Screaming Monkeys: Critiques of Asian American Images,” edited by M. Evelina Galang. Her essay, “Water Memory” was published in Fare Forward in February 2022. She has exhibited in galleries in Boston and New York. She has been part of many collaborative projects, including the 2017 Choreography Residency through the Boston Center for the Arts with Continuum Dance Project. Most recently, she received the 2021-2022 Live Arts Boston Grant from The Boston Foundation to create GHOST ROOTS, an interdisciplinary performance art film.
For screening inquiries of GHOST ROOTS, please email: soyoung@soyounglkim.com
Photo by Albert Wong
Collaborator Bios:
Fernadina Chan was the Founding Artistic Dean and Dance Department Chair at the Boston Arts Academy (BAA). She is the recipient of the Surdna Arts Teacher Fellowship in 2001, Teacher of the Year from the International Network of Schools for the Advancement of Arts Education in 2005, Boston Educator of the Year in 2011, and 2013 Dance Champion from Boston Dance Alliance. Ms. Chan founded Continuum Dance Project (CDP) as a laboratory for choreography with BAA alumni in 2013, and was awarded the 2017 Boston Center for the Arts Choreographer Residency. CDP under the Co-Directorship of Fernadina Chan and Adriane Brayton received two LLC Grants from The Brookline Commission for the Arts, and was the recipient of a 2020 LAB grant from The Boston Foundation. Most recently, Brayton and Chan are 2022 Massachusetts Cultural Council Artist Fellowship Finalists, and received an AiR residency at the Somerville Arts Council’s ArtAssembled. Chan's work has been presented at High School Dance Festivals in Miami, Philadelphia, and Baltimore; South Vermont Dance Festival, Rebound Festival and numerous festivals in the Greater Boston area. She is a Certified GYROKINESIS ® and GYROTONIC® Instructor.
Jeremy Stanley is an accomplished filmmaker residing in Brooklyn, NY. He has spent the last 20 years working in various aspects of the film & television industries. In addition to his entertainment endeavors, much of his time is spent working on documentary and public awareness projects in the post-conflict and developing world. His work has been featured in and he has been a Producer on multiple Emmy award winning television series.
DoYeon Kim is an internationally acclaimed and award-winning virtuoso of the gayageum (a traditional Korean string instrument). In addition to traditional Korean music, DoYeon specializes in free jazz, jazz, and improvisation. She regularly performs solo and group concerts worldwide in Asia, Europe, North America, and South America. As a graduate of the New England Conservatory, and protégé of the world’s leading gayageum master Yi Jiyoung, DoYeon has performed alongside many distinguished improvisors, including Joe Morris, Agusti Fernandez, Barry Guy and Tyshawn Sorey. Her 2017 album Gapi was nominated for a Korean Grammy award, and her latest album Macrocosm, with Joe Morris, received international critical acclaim, and Grammy.com recognized her as one of 7 Musicians Pushing Ancient Asian Instruments Into The Future (2021). DoYeon’s approach to playing the gayageum, as well as improvised music, is a singularly unique experience.
Marvin Juneyoung Kim (nanum.wav) is a music maker and audio engineer based in Boston, MA. Graduated from Berklee College of Music in 2021, his musical background is rooted in wide ranges of sound from Classical and Jazz music to Rock and Hip-Hop music. As a producer, his work focuses on revealing the artists’ truest and most honest voices, encouraging them to take risks and allow vulnerability to bloom in their music. In studios, nanum.wav lives to capture the moment that will only exist once into an immortal digital recording. He has worked with artists including Autumn Jones, Shakale Davis, Christourfer Schrock, Sheroz Mazhar.
OUTREACH:
Outreach activities are available, in both live and virtual formats, to create packages that best fit your audience. Offerings include pre- and post performance discussions on topics that range from the collaborative process, to centering the Asian American narrative in America today, to mental health and community care. For art galleries and museums, visual art and projections are available to create an interactive exhibit or installation that can remain after a showing.
Image of interactive site-specific installation at Pao Arts Center, 2022, that opened with the screening of the film. Photo by Mel Taing.
AUDIENCE TESTIMONIALS:
"With compelling visuals and rhythmic spoken word, GHOST ROOTS offers a rare look into the Asian-American experience, which…transcends borders." — Zeinab D.
"As an Asian American adoptee, it was incredibly impactful and important for me to see my Asian elders telling their stories and they did so in such a beautiful, moving way, weaving the stories of our Asian diaspora through the histories of imperialism, colonialism, and the unfortunate present-day violence that our community is still facing. But, through that storytelling, it felt like they were reclaiming their power and reclaiming that process. And for me, I felt more empowered, so I can't thank them enough for sharing this story." — Nicole E.
"I was impressed with the way mature bodies were celebrated. You don't see that too much these days." — Sarah M.
"…even though Soyoung is talking about the Asian American experience, being an immigrant, having this "ghost" experience, coming from Korea to live in America, I see a connection with the experience of African Americans as well. I was born in Africa and spent a significant time in America. So even though we have completely different stories, the way she presented the stories—I can also see some connections as an immigrant in America...I hope there's a part two of this because it feels like there's more to what she can say to the audience. I feel grateful to have been able to experience this as part of the audience and I'm hoping she can release more." — Jacob F.
"I think Soyoung is just an incredible artist...The way that her brain operates and the way that she puts things together—I'm so mesmerized by how she does it so effectively. I think it was so rich to hear her personal story and Fernadina's story, and to see the common threads between them, and to see two beautiful, amazing, Asian creatives that are changing the art world and allowing us to feel that even though we are not of Asian descent, we all found something in their stories that we could connect with, and so it was really impactful and beautiful to watch." — Myra H.
Press Reviews for GHOST ROOTS:
Press Quotes for Soyoung L Kim’s Previous Work:
”…Kim’s seething landscape…” — Boston Globe
“Her work is bold, organic, and veritably dripping with hope.” — Galatea Fine Art
“Her particular genius is the ability to balance elements that, at face value, appear opposite from each other.” — Abstractions Magazine