Seo Yun Son
On Saturday, July 16, 2016 I read a piece for “Her Story: Maria and Waldeth”—a dinner conversation hosted by artists Armando Cortes and Christine Dianne Guiyangco at The Blue Orchard.
An event focusing on women and labor, artists gathered around a dinner table to feast, narrate, listen, and exchange dialogue throughout the evening.
I shared my own story honoring the women in my life that night to participate in an ancient tradition passed down by our ancestors that fulfills our innate desire to cast our experiences into narrative form.
As old as human language, oral storytelling has nurtured and enriched generations by linking the past, the present, and the future—acting as sempiternal sources of hope.
I honor and preserve this tradition by transcribing and sharing the stories from my own dinner table, where I once felt nourished by the platter of food and incantations of distant memories, my belly and heart full, satiated and bound by love.
The audio below is a recording of the text I performed that evening. Part eulogy, memoir, diary, and means of self-preservation, it is a practice of reinterpreting my own experiences and uplifting all undocumented families who may feel silenced. A reminder: our very survival is our revolution.
An event focusing on women and labor, artists gathered around a dinner table to feast, narrate, listen, and exchange dialogue throughout the evening.
I shared my own story honoring the women in my life that night to participate in an ancient tradition passed down by our ancestors that fulfills our innate desire to cast our experiences into narrative form.
As old as human language, oral storytelling has nurtured and enriched generations by linking the past, the present, and the future—acting as sempiternal sources of hope.
I honor and preserve this tradition by transcribing and sharing the stories from my own dinner table, where I once felt nourished by the platter of food and incantations of distant memories, my belly and heart full, satiated and bound by love.
The audio below is a recording of the text I performed that evening. Part eulogy, memoir, diary, and means of self-preservation, it is a practice of reinterpreting my own experiences and uplifting all undocumented families who may feel silenced. A reminder: our very survival is our revolution.
Seo Yun Son is an artist and educator living in Los Angeles, California. She received her BFA in Fine Arts from the University of California, Los Angeles. As an undocumented immigrant, her practice examines the politics of constructing one’s identity by remapping territory and citizenship as well as the circulation and progression of one’s personal memory and history.