DAEBOREUM
Hello,
Welcome to the second episode of Sitting Together. I’d like to share some thoughts of this full moon, but first…
A Few Updates:
JADEDxFormosa LNY Photographed by Julie Lee (@offday_goth), shared with permission from artist.
The new year has many reflecting so beautifully on the sacred spaces our community holds. I, too, am so grateful to be among the young warriors, great thinkers, gentle healers, and brave builders. Thank you to our community anchors, JADED AAPI Artist Collective (@jadedpgh) and Formosa (@formosa.exe), for hosting Year Of The Snake LNY Party for our community, at Little Corner Grill House 街边儿 (@cornerhotpot).
Anne Chen’s (@annxietease) Solo Exhibition, “Chinoiserie Behavior”, Is on exhibit at Seton Hill’s Jodee Harris Gallery through March 7th. I recommend going and sitting for a while. There are so many beautiful and touching layers to all the pieces.
Manduhandu sold out at Sexy Time and Love Bug. Thank you for coming out!
Upcoming Events
Thank you to those who registered for Mend & Meal at Otto Finn with Old Flame Mending. Lookin forward to meeting with you all.
Special, thanks to Rona and Rebecca for hosting us, offering space and skills to our community.
Another big thanks to all who have taken our Kimchi Class with WorkshopPGH. We’ve sold out, again, for our February workshop! We will keep offering this course, and hoping to add some new ones this year. Thanks for your continued interest in learning about Kimchi! For those who haven’t taken the class yet, our next one is on 3/15 12-2:30pm - registration open now.
We’ve added another event to our upcoming schedule this weekend!
Sunday 2/16 at Two Frays Brewery 1-5pm. Come join us as at our favorite local brewery. They are also hosting a Professional Women’s Hockey League Watch Party, starting at 4pm.
A reminder: American Craft Council is hosting their annual show, American Craft Made, at the Baltimore Convention Center next weekend, February 21-23. I will be there with Otto Finn, as Rona’s assistant. Check with Rona to see if she still has some tickets available!
There will be no Manduhandu events for the rest of the month, as I will be traveling for the ACC show, and then heading to Denver to visit my sister, Jinny, and her dog, Banjo, for the beginning of March.
Other News
My mother, Becky Sungja Kim, now has five books available on Amazon. I will also have them available soon for direct purchase. Please support Becky’s work as an artist by purchasing her books. All writing, poems, photographs, and paintings in the books are by Becky herself. Her titles include Korean Food Jang, HEALING HILL, Blessings and Meditations, MEDITATION AND JOYFUL LIVING, and I Light a Candle.
Tonight is 대보름 Daeboreum, the Great Full Moon, celebrated with a fire festival to great the first full moon of the new year. As such, I share an excerpt of writing from my mini zine, “boy moon stars night love”:
Confession: I don't sleep around the full moon, I never have. All my life I have been staring at my reflection upon the faces of strangers. I'm so tired but the song of the fool captivates me. I think about the hungry ones and the ones unearthed and sent to the heavens. I think about my sisters and my brother and the un-mended heels of our father. I hear the song of the mourning birds and wonder if my mother still sings. I stay up to read back in time to a place forgotten, our home. Sand and doors, the monk sits in silence. Harmony and stillness, our namesake, the fallen mother. Confession: I've known since the warmth of mother's womb that I would be born to breathe mountain air. I've known since the dust I would live to mend wounds. Here we are at the Original Matter. The Not-being with his strange hat and willow wisp arms. The eye of change falls upon us.
Here I am, listening to the sound of rain pitter patter outside my window, the sky a murky grey. Still, I will build my 달집 daljip out of cards. Complete with an east facing door. The lighting of the “moon house”, the ritual stomping, the fire lantern’s dance. All to ward off evil spirits and pests from the fields, ensuring a healthy harvest. I have reimagined them here, with my cards and incense and midnight dance.
Zoe Inspecting the Kimchi Jjigae, a different kind of fire within us!
Maybe now we burn the fire in our hearts to expel the mean spirit that dwells there. Maybe we chase off the ones who do us harm, smoke out unwanted energy, protect what we have been working so hard to grow within us. Maybe we don't leave room for bitterness.
I find myself every year revisiting the meaning of ritual practice and the great importance for us as humans to physically display and act out our transformations and commitments, tying as many senses as possible to our own becoming.
A great sense of mystery surrounds the coming Era, a cloud of doubt and unease in the air. There, a whiff of unfamiliar energy rushing toward me, just about my head, as I try to navigate unknown territory. We are here together in this odd new time, surely, I'm not alone in this foggy other-place I've suddenly found myself in.
Or is this just late winter in Pittsburgh?
Haha.
This morning, I fed a murder of crows. They come every winter after the sycamore have lost their leaves, providing the birds a great viewpoint over the Ohio River. Theo and Sophie greeted them from the bedroom window. I was touched by their visit and offered them some Brazil nuts. “Hello, thank you for stopping by. These are for you!” I felt a soothing sense of calm as they accepted my offering, as if some wrong had been righted. The bridge might never get rebuilt, but we will keep mending it.
Last I spoke with my father he said, "they did what they had to do to survive." Really, survival is such a huge theme in my life as a child of Korean immigrants. My ancestors really did find a way to survive, at all costs. At All Costs. They were not afforded the luxury of considering the consequences, and for this they must be forgiven.
Maybe more on that another time. For now, Let us go find a hill to climb over the clouds to meet the moon and dance in the Light. Happy Great Full Moon! (Happy Grateful Moon)
Love,
Sunni
