Hyphen magazine - Asian American arts, culture, and politics

When you first meet Sue Jin Kim, you look at her and want to say, “Umm, hi. Can you tell me when Sue Jin gets here?” She hides herself behind thick-rimmed eyeglasses and a long overcoat, but when she gets on-stage, it’s like she has an alter ego. She’s sultry, bubbly, and va-va-voom. She enchants with her Demi Moore-esque purr which can get any one hot and bothered.

Sue Jin’s career is on the rise with a recent profile in One Voices, the exclusive newspaper of the AAJA’s (Asian American Journalists Association) Los Angeles convention. She’s also been highlighted at Tuesday Night Café performances and touring. Sue Jin took the mainstage at the East West Players benefit, Hip Hop and Hot, and next week, she’ll be at Traci Akemi Kato Kiriyama’s “signaling” book release party.

What connection do you have with EWP?

For the past 3 years or so, I have been doing work with the Tuesday Night Project, which is a close partner with East West Players. Tuesday Night Cafe is a performance space for artists of all kinds that gather every first and third Tuesday of the month in the courtyard of the East West Players Theater. In addition, many of the individuals that work with the Project also do work with East West Players.  

Why do you think it’s important for API artists to get involved with EWP?

The life of an artist can be difficult in and of itself. But when you marry this concept with the larger social challenges and skepticism facing API artists, the road can become extremely lonely. As an artist, immersing yourself not only in the art, but also with other artists that have already paved the way, or are doing so with you, can not only make the journey more exciting and thought-provoking, but it can contribute to the collective momentum that is needed for progress. 

Organizations such as EWP have pioneered change for APIs in a culture that has not fully recognized the transcendence of art over race, class, socio-economic status, etc., and envelops artists, from novices to veterans, in a culture of possibility.   

Your career has been gaining momentum — is this Sue Jin’s time right now?

My initial response to this question is that I hope my “time” is not ephemeral; rather, that every day is my “time”, an opportunity to continue creating and sharing art with others while simultaneously gaining a greater understanding of myself and humanity through it.  

I have come to realize that my perceptions of success have drastically changed since my first experiences as a solo performer. I used to attempt to gage my success as an artist through somewhat arbitrary measurements, such as plays on MySpace, or hits on YouTube. But, I’ve come to recognize that the greatest success for me, personally, is simply to consistently create and share music with others that can inspire, instigate, and initiate social change. 

You’re active in the community volunteering your time, a relentless salsa dancer, a school teacher, and a grad student. How do you fit your music in?

I’m definitely not the expert when it comes to juggling multiple things, however, I have begun to scratch the surface of the idea that all of the things I do are connected.

For many years, I put much energy and emphasis on compartmentalizing the different aspects that make up my character, and the different cultures that I identified with. Subsequently, I made it much harder for myself to maintain all of these separate, significant entities and identities.  But through further investigation, I found there was more overlap than I initially acknowledged. My studies as a grad student relate directly to my work in education. My work as an educator relates to the messages and subtext in the music I write. My love for dance is an extension of my love for music. And all of these things contribute to my greatest objective, which is to represent and empower women. Simply by recognizing and embracing the overlapping factors, doing them all becomes more feasible.

Hip Hop and Hot, a special performance by East West Players at the David Henry Hwang Theater, home of East West Players, Aug 14. Contact LTang@EastWestPlayers.org or 213-625-7000 x 17 for tickets and more info.