Here is a link to the article: http://oaklandlocal.com/blogs/2010/04/hyejin-yus-house-birds-excerpts-oakland-words-emerging-writers.
Here is the article taken from Oakland Local:
HyeJin Yu's "House of Birds": Excerpts from Oakland Word's Emerging Writers
HyeJin Yu
Oakland Word has attracted writers from a wide range of backgrounds, representing some of the kaleidoscope of histories and perspectives that make up Oakland and the Bay Area. Our second excerpt comes from HyeJin Yu, who took the "Life Stories" workshop at the Main Library with instructor Bisola Marignay. The complete story will be published in the Oakland Word anthology, due out in June 2010.
OW: Why do you write? Who do you write for?
HJY: I write mostly for myself because writing is such a cathartic process for me. It's a great pleasure to write about how I see the world or what my life experience has been. If someone else reads my work and is inspired, that is a plus but I will continue to write for therapy.
OW: How/why did you choose Oakland Word?
HJY: A friend found out about Oakland Word through her Oakland neighborhood e-newsletter and told me about the program. Since I was working on my life stories, Bisola's Oakland Word workshop peaked my interest.
OW: Who are your 3 favorite writers and why?
HJY: Zora Neale Hurston, Maxine Hong Kingston and Bharati Mukherjee. These women writers inspire me to delve into my Korean heritage and write about it because our racial and cultural background color our writing and I find their works fascinating due to cultural elements.
OW: Did you learn anything surprising about yourself from taking the Oakland Word workshop?
HJY: Instead of writing life stories as if I was just telling a story, I learned to paint scenery with my words. I also learned to be a stronger person by writing life stories thereby facing and resolving painful past experiences. Oakland Word's workshop has made a tremendous, positive impact in my life.
OW: Will you be writing more? What kind of support do you need to write more?
HJY: I will definitely continue to write on my blog and also on my life stories compilation project. As far as support goes, it would be nice to have a local writer's group where we can share our writing and get a feedback from other writers like we have been at Oakland Word workshops.
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Excerpt from "House of Birds" by HyeJin Yu
"Hang on!" said the policeman, looking over his shoulder. I wrapped my arms tighter around his waist as we sped along a narrow winding street up the hills of On-Chun-Dong. Cold wind whipped my short hair around and I burrowed my face deeper into the warmth of his back. Last night's events played out in my head.
I was huddling under a desk inside a concierge office in an apartment building where I've been living with Nam-Chun-Dong ajumma (“older woman from Nam-Chun-Dong” in Korean) and her family for past six months. The concierge office was no more than an enclosed glass stall big enough to fit a desk where a concierge sat guarding the entrance. Every day after elementary school, I would run into the apartment, throw down my backpack and leave to hang out at a nearby playground until it got dark and ajumma came home. Then came the winter; I could not keep warm at the playground no matter how many pairs of socks I put on. Our building concierge, God bless him, took a pity on me. He let me crawl under his desk and keep him company with my endless childish chatter until ajumma came home. Truth be told, I'd been hiding out mainly from ajumma's thirteen year old son who always liked to play rough with me, calling it tae-kwon-do or judo and flipping me around like a sack of potatoes. Afterward, I would always find a bruise or two creeping up on my body. I knew he did not like me; as a matter of fact, nobody liked me here except ajumma and that's because she was dating my dad behind her husband's back. She even lied to her husband about my real identity so I could live with her. I would not like me either if I was one of them.
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HyeJin Yu first fell in love with the San Francisco Bay Area and its proactive residents while studying music and religious studies at University of California at Berkeley in 1996. She moved to Oakland from Florida five years ago and currently lives near Lake Merritt with her fiancé Travis and 3 kitties. When she is not biking around Lake Merritt with Travis or spending time with her East Oakland youth mentee whom she's been mentoring for two years, you will find her working on her literary blog called Lyrical Journey in Life (http://hyejinyu.blogspot.com). Since late 2009, HyeJin has been compiling life stories and poetry about her childhood experience in Busan, South Korea. Writing life stories and poetry has been a therapeutic and rewarding process for her. HyeJin thanks Oakland Word, for giving her motivation to continue her writing and opportunity to share her creative work with fellow Oakland residents.
1.5 generation Japanese-born Taiwanese American expatriate of New Jersey suburbia. His Pushcart Prize and California Book Award-nominated writing arises from his work as an activist, educator and cultural worker. Kenji’s poetry chapbook You Left Without Your Shoes was published by Finishing Line Press (2009), available on Amazon.com. His writing has appeared in Tea Party Magazine, Kartika Review, and the 2009 Intergenerational Writer’s Workshop online anthology Flick of My Tongue. Kenji was a presenting literary artist at APAture 2009, a multidisciplinary Asian Pacific American art festival. He will be the new poetry editor at Kartika Review starting with issue 7 and is working on a multi-genre full-length collection of poetry, prose and visual art.
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