This past Sunday at the home of Kathy Choi and Anthony Choe in Los Angeles’s Hancock Park, arts collective GYOPO hosted its Fourth Annual Chuseok Benefit to celebrate the Korean full moon harvest festival. The event included an array of art, activities, entertainment, and food for the guests, with all proceeds in support of free public programming put on by GYOPO, an LA-based diaspora of Korean creatives who share critical, progressive, and intersectional conversations across their community of artists, curators, writers, producers, and art professionals.
Photography by Gina Clyne.
This year’s Chuseok Benefit paid special tribute to Cathy Park Hong, poet and author of Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning, which tells a moving story of her experiences as an Asian American person living in the United States. At the event last weekend, she gave an intimate speech, noting how the gathering “felt like [she] was with family.”
Photography by Gina Clyne.
The event brought a multi-generational community together to celebrate the harvest festival, and offered a variety of activities for everyone who attended. Inside, children enjoyed making crafts and admired the charye table honoring ancestors in a worship ritual. In the courtyard, guests enjoyed hors d’oeuvres by Bao Dim Sum House; drinks by Kikori Whiskey, Halmi, and Dokkaebier; and Bites and Bashes catered an impressive Korean buffet including a homemade kimchi bar and selection of contemporary twists on classic dishes.
Photography by Gina Clyne.
GYOPO also showcased “Yellow Study (for GYOPO),” an edition of 50 lithographic prints by Yunhee Min that were available to purchase at the event to benefit the organization’s mission, lectures, programs, and events that inspire creative thinking and highlight Korean diasporic culture across the city. With Brian Park, cohost of podcast Feeling Asian, as the event’s emcee, laughter was a constant presence. "It was incredibly inspiring to witness the camaraderie and support of the GYOPO community and its mission to bridge cultures,” says Park reflecting on the affair. “Personally, I left with a greater sense of resolve and purpose for my own creative practice.”
Guests including Tate Modern Curator-at-Large Christine Y. Kim, actor Steven Yeun, artist Anicka Yi, musician Sasami Ashworth, and Equitable Vitrines executive director Yoon Ju Ellie Lee joined GYOPO on the memorable day of celebration for the Korean community in Los Angeles. Gift bags filled with items from CLE Cosmetics, BANDOLIER, and CJ Entertainment, and Suhn Lee ceramics made sure that a piece of these memories went home with everyone.
