AS A MILLENIAL, I have witnessed one global disruption after another, each having a profound impact on me. The 1997 IMF crisis in Korea set off decades of financial struggles for my family. Attending high school in New Jersey in 2001, I remember the smoke billowing over New York City, drifting across the Hudson on September 11. I graduated from college a year before the Great Recession of 2008 and tried to pursue a life as an artist. The hard lesson I learned very quickly was that making art is a privilege. The recession left me unemployed and scrambling to help support my family while trying to build my own life—struggles familiar to many low-income immigrant families.

These pressures led me to move to Korea, where I ended up for seven years. I taught ESL so I could send money home to my family and also carve out some space for myself. I reconnected with relatives and my cultural roots while making art, having exhibitions, and later applying to MFA programs. Though as many of us know all too well, independence is costly, and I could never veer too far from family obligations. It’s a complicated relationship, one that can be even more pronounced if you are a first-generation Korean American.

In 2018, I returned to the U.S. to live and work as an artist. I moved to Koreatown, not far from where the GYOPO space is today. As I sought to meet artists and become familiar with the cultural landscape, I discovered GYOPO online. I immediately started following their work and events because I felt the organization was filling a void I didn’t realize I had. GYOPO’s work and mission resonated with how I wanted to approach life as an artist—critically, relationally, and unapologetically Korean in the most gyopo way. They hosted events and programs showcasing the vital contributions of Korean artists, diasporic artists, cultural critics, and writers. In many ways, GYOPO became my main resource for learning about Korean artists, thinkers, writers, and arts professionals. I knew this was my community, and I eagerly sought to become part of the worldmaking that GYOPO was creating.

I became a communications volunteer for GYOPO in May 2020, shortly after attending their online program Racism Is a Public Health Issue, just before the murder of George Floyd. By that point, we had been stuck at home for nearly three months because of COVID lockdowns, and I felt that the world was finally awakening to the longstanding racial, social, and gender inequities embedded in our systems and power structures. This sequence of events compelled me to deepen my involvement in social justice and solidarity efforts. The future seemed uncertain, but GYOPO was the community I wanted to belong to—one that could hold space for us in the diaspora while responding to calls for action to fight the manifold challenges facing QTBIPOC communities.

I share my story to acknowledge three things. First, the financial hardships that my family and I faced as an immigrant family are common in the American experience. Second, global calamities such as 9/11, the Great Recession, COVID-19 pandemic, and the litany of events shaping our current political reality seem to occur unceasingly, to a frightening degree. Three, in spite of all of this, love, care, and community are what make us—core values that ground GYOPO. As Yoon Ju Ellie Lee, one of GYOPO’s co-founders, calmly yet firmly reminded me during one of our calls, “We stay the course.” For me, the course is clear: continue our work of being in community across our differences, ground our creativity and culture in shared histories, and build collective projects to help realize the just and equitable futures we want to see.

Through GYOPO, this work is possible. Since 2020, I've witnessed and been an active part of GYOPO’s remarkable growth, due to the contributions of numerous volunteers, collaborative partners, funders, and donors. GYOPO is more than just a volunteer community; it is also a cultural and community hub for collective learning, storytelling, art, and dialogue.

Thank you for being with us, and thank you for supporting GYOPO. Together, with your help, we can “stay the course” and build on our efforts to expand and deepen the connections within the GYOPO community and beyond.

Chung Park

Artist & Educator