Julayne Lee

Los Angeles, CA

Julayne Lee was given up for adoption in South Korea as a result of the Korean War. She was adopted by an all-white Christian family in Minnesota, where she grew up. She has spent over fifteen years working with Overseas Adopted Koreans (OAKs). She lived in Seoul and now resides in Los Angeles, where she is a member of the LA Futbolistas and Adoptee Solidarity Korea - Los Angeles (ASK-LA). She is also part of the Adoptee Rights Campaign working to pass the Adoptee Citizenship Act to ensure all inter-country adoptees have US citizenship. NOT MY WHITE SAVIOR is her first book.

Julayne Lee is an overseas adopted Korean American poet, essayist, artivist, producer, art curator, occasional blogger and Futbolista.  Inspired by the pan-Asian spoken word groups Mongrel and I Was Born With Two Tongues and the APIA Spoken Word and Poetry Summit, writing has long been a means of survival and empowerment for her.  She has read in Seoul, South Korea and throughout the US including the Southern California Poetry Festival, the Bridgewater International Poetry Festival and the shows Listen to Your Mother - Burbank and KPCC In-Person's #UnheardLA (ep. 4).  As part of Writ Large Press’ #90X90LA in 2017, she hosted the first ever reading with adopted people of color in Los Angeles and hosted a monthly writing & expression workshop, Healing Through Writing the Unsaid, for those who identify as adopted POC or racially ambiguous adopted people.  She has also hosted this workshop in San Francisco, MN, NYC and Seoul, South Korea. 

Her poems and writing have been published or are forthcoming in several journals including Cultural Weekly, Korean Quarterly, The Nervous Breakdown, Portside, Uri Shinmun, Zoom Info Korea and ILDA South Korean Feminist Journal (bilingual).  Julayne’s debut collection of poems Not My White Savior was on BookTrib’s list A Year of Memories: 15 New Memoirs We Can’t Wait to Read This Year, Bitch Media's Bitchreads: 15 Books Feminists Should Read in March and Entropy’s Best of 2018: Best Poetry Books & Poetry Collections. Not My White Savior was included in the 2018 Poets House Showcase in New York, their 26th annual exhibition of the nation’s poetry books.

Julayne is a Community Literature Initiative scholar (CLI) and a Las Dos Brujas and Voices of Our Nation Arts (VONA) Foundation alum.  She has a B.S. in Mathematics Education and an M.A.Ed. with an emphasis in Curriculum & Instruction.  Julayne is co-founder of Adoptee Solidarity Korea – Los Angeles (ASK-LA) and has spoken on adoption at universities and symposiums throughout the U.S. & Korea including the Overseas Koreans Foundation (OKF), Peace Corps Alumni with the Korean Consulate in Los Angeles, Rutgers University, the University of Michigan and UC Berkeley.  She has also volunteered with the Adoptee Rights Campaign (ARC) and Adoptees for Justice working to ensure all inter-country adoptees have US citizenship. When she's not writing or at a literary event, she enjoys stand up paddle boarding (SUP), travel, films, Korean dramas and sampling cupcakes at the local coffee shop.   She currently resides in the greater Los Angeles area. For booking, please email julayne@julaynelee.com.

 

 

 

 

Photographer:  Somlit  (Facebook Page: Somlit) 

Location: Los Angeles

Event: The Great Mic

Website designed by Stephanie Sajor.

© 2018 Julayne Lee. All rights reserved.