ReViewing Our Past: Tracing Family Histories

Korean
American
Museum

enter

We need stories as we need to breathe and eat. We need reliable stories about our past to give us a legitimate source of strength, hope, and knowledge. Stories can provide a road map -- where we have been, where we are going. How did we get here.

The stories of the Korean American "Pioneer" generation are like fiber and bone. They are all about survival and innovation. In "ReViewing Our Past: Tracing Family Histories," members of eight of the oldest Korean American families will share their stories, possessions, and images. You will see and hear how Korean families survived in the US in the early 1900's. You will see and hear about early Korean American communities, how they have changed, how they have endured.

The exhibit will feature family "artifacts"; displays of personal and community photographs; a multimedia installation combining video interviews, textual life stories, as well as stills -- all woven together in an innovative design scheme. Each piece, each story provides the audience with another strand from which they can construct their own sense of the Korean American experience.

"ReViewing Our Past" evolved from a collaborative effort between the tellers of stories and the several listeners who spent days recording, transcribing, and processing the words. The inter-generational dialogue that resulted from the collaborative production is as valuable as the final displays.



See and hear the stories of families Kim, Kwon, Ahn, Lee, Hyun, and Halm. Get a sense of where the oldest Korean Americans have been, what they have accomplished.