Event Details
Sung Yung Shin 鈥 Budae-jjigae 攵雽彀岅皽 (Army Base Stew) with SPAM庐: A Decolonial Poetry Workshop
Sun Yung Shin 鈥&苍产蝉辫;Poet, writer, and cultural worker
The histories of Asians and Pacific Islanders at home and as 鈥淎mericans鈥 are inextricable from U.S. empire. This poetry workshop is named for a South Korean dish developed鈥攐ut of necessity and ingenuity鈥攄uring desperate post-war times lived in the shadow of U.S. army bases. Despite having 5% of the global population, the U.S. military budget is by far the biggest in the world; it鈥檚 40% of the world鈥檚 military expenditures, with more spent on defense than the next 9 nations combined. The 75-year old recipe 鈥淏udae-jjigae鈥 incorporates a now iconic 20th-century American food product, SPAM庐, produced right here in Austin, Minnesota. In this workshop we will read and discuss eco-feminist poems by Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans, and generate our own drafts of poems that explore our own relationships to empire(s), 鈥渞ace,鈥 ethnicity, nature, body, community, place, language(s), and self.
鞁 靹 鞓 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea and was raised in the Chicago area. She is a poet, writer, and cultural worker. She is the of What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories on Food and Family (2021) and of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, author of poetry collections The Wet Hex (winner of the Midland Authors Society Award for Poetry and finalist for a Minnesota Book Award) Unbearable Splendor (finalist for the 2017 PEN USA Literary Award for Poetry, winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for poetry); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (winner of the 2007 Asian American Literary Award for poetry), co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and author of bilingual illustrated book for children Cooper鈥檚 Lesson and picture book Where We Come From, co-written with Diane Wilson, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy. Her forthcoming picture book, Revolutions are Made of Love: Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs, co-written with M茅lina Mangal, will be published in 2025.
She is a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Project and elsewhere. She is a former MacDowell fellow and has received grants from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization with poet Su Hwang. ()
- Refreshments will be served, to ensure dietary accommodations please .
Contact: [email protected]
Audience: Faculty, Staff, Students
Sponsors: American Studies, English, Institutional Equity
Free food: Available for students
Listed under: Campus Events, Featured Events, Front Page Events, Lectures and Speakers


Location
Markim Hall - Davis Court
1595 Grand Ave.