#dari project

‘Dari’ is a small collection of photo’s taken with the Nishika N8000 3D camera. Additional stills were taken with a Contax T2 shot on Kodak Gold.

4 of 4 Special Thanks to Dari!

‘Dari’ is a small collection of photo’s taken with the Nishika N8000 3D camera. Additional stills were taken with a Contax T2 shot on Kodak Gold.

3 of 4 Special Thanks to Dari!

‘Dari’ is a small collection of photo’s taken with the Nishika N8000 3D camera. Additional stills were taken with a Contax T2 shot on Kodak Gold.

1 of 4 Special Thanks to Dari!

I'm spreading the word about a storytelling project for LGBT/queer Koreans and their families that will be published soon! The group is doing a final fundraising push—they're in striking distance of their $12,000 goal!—to release their print/web publication, so check it out and consider supporting: http://www.crowdrise.com/dariproject/fundraiser/johnwon 

As background, the Dari Project is an all-volunteer project I helped start up a few years back in NYC. After an extended community-outreach and story-collection process (which stalled, then started again), they're publishing a whopping 27 stories translated in both English and Korean. Why? Because basic knowledge, support, and resources on LGBT issues are hard to come by in the Korean American community, much less in-language, culturally competent, and designed with parents/family members in mind. 

One last thing: I'm proud that Dari Project made a core principle to foreground the voices of those least visible in our communities, i.e., women, transgender folks, immigrants, mixed-race folks, and adoptees. As a result, the stories we heard, the conversations we had, and the friends we made along the way have been amazing, loving, ones we hadn't anticipated (like this one by my friend Andy, who wrote about it for Huffpost), some brutally honest and critical, and overall pretty awesome. 

SIGNAL BOOSTING and we're going to make a donation on 11/15/12 (click here for thoughts on supporting beyond the re-blog):

Please consider supporting this wonderful project to publish the first bilingual publication of LGBTQ Korean American stories designed as a resource by and for queer Korean Americans and their families:

http://www.crowdrise.com/dariproject/fundraiser/dariproject1

Like and keep up to date with Dari Project on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DariProject

Dari Project is a volunteer-led, grassroots organization that develops resources to increase awareness and acceptance of LGBTQ people of Korean descent in Korean American communities.

Dari Project seeks to build bridges among Korean American families, social networks, institutions and faith communities by documenting and sharing the life stories of LGBTQ Koreans.

Since its inception in 2006, the Dari Project leadership has dreamed of publishing the first collection of personal narratives of LGBTQ Koreans as a bilingual resource for LGBTQ Koreans and their friends and families, and they're so close to making this dream a reality!

They've solicited 27 stories from members of their community, which represent a wide range of experiences, including homo/bi/transphobia in Korean American communities, coming out as an LGBTQ person, building relationships with family, and membership in faith communities.

This publication is designed to provide young Korean Americans coming into LGBTQ identities with stories in which they can see their lives reflected and as a resource for Korean American families coming to terms with having LGBTQ children.

Thanks to some friends and supporters they've been able to get started, but they need your help to publish this collection as a bilingual print resource for our community.

Your generous contributions will help edit, translate, design, and print their stories as a book.

If they can make their goal of $7000, it will help make this book available for FREE to your friends, families, communities, and people you care about.

Your generous contributions will go towards:

Full Korean and English translation services

Editing Korean and English Stories

Publication Design

Publication Printing

Dari Project Marketing