Anthony Kim

Meet Anthony Kim

Graduate Student, Department of Literature, UC San Diego

Representing Korean Community Center of the East Bay

Korean Community Center of the East Bay
4390 Telegraph Ave. Suite A
Oakland, CA 94609

"The mission of KCCEB is to empower the Korean American and other communities of the Bay Area through education, advocacy, service and the development of community-based resources."

If you win the title of Mr. Hyphen, what do you hope to accomplish in your year-long reign?

My goal is to stay committed to what my brother Steph in HOBAK (Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans) calls “redefining tongil.” Tongil in Korean means “reunification,” a word that finds its roots in a Korean War that has not ended and lives on in the subdivide of the peninsula at the 38th parallel. It’s a word that can conjure up sadness and grief but also the hope and possibility for a day when the imposition of this division will no longer be, when we can break the chains of oppression and our bodies and souls can be free. I want to extend tongil beyond just the land of Korea itself and connect it to the Korean folks in the diaspora who are crossing borders and building bridges across race, class, gender, sexuality, and ability in their ongoing, everyday work.

One way that I am honoring that work is by raising visibility and support for the Korean Community Center of the East Bay (KCCEB), a nonprofit organization that has been a part of the Oakland landscape since the late 1970s. Even in this period of economic recession, the small but dedicated staff of KCCEB continues to provide much needed counseling and support to a multiethnic, multigenerational base for domestic violence, immigration, naturalization, and civic participation. As a former Youth Program Coordinator for a now-defunct youth program in SF, I hope that the $1,000 will be a springboard for re-developing KCCEB’s youth program past the clichéd parameters of cultural enrichment towards locally-based, on the ground leadership development and community activism.

More From Anthony:

My love letter from Pahole's API/A Love Letter Project: http://apialoveletterproject.wordpress.com/2010/08/30/anthony_kim/