About Kilmok

In compiling the 1998-1999 volume of KILMOK, various concerns entered my mind. As a journal of Korean-American perspectives, it narrows its range of communicability for we have yet to define what it means to be Korean-American. Being Korean, being American, are only factors of what we are--factors of the larger equation that has yet to be solved. What draws the KILMOK staff together every week, and what draws the authors and artists to submit their creations to us, is not only in the fact that we are Korean-American. Because we are Korean-Americans, we feel that there may be a commonality in interests, experiences, and feelings. However, as we discover along the way, there is great diversity amongst us. The diversity allows us to free ourselves from the stereotypical roles that bind us. The notion of "Korean-Americanism" itself is binding, yet it is within these binds that we must begin to liberate ideas and identities.

What I hope our journal does is not further the concept of "cultural masturbation" (as people often state), but rather of cultural education. KILMOK is a journal of Korean-American perspectives--the stress is in the aspect of perspectives rather than Korean-American. As a Korean-American reader, you might have read and understood some of the issues addressed in the works found in this year's volume. Non-Korean-American readers, I hope, may have read this and understood that we are not merely Korean-Americans. Meaning, Korean-American experiences extend beyond our racial and ethnic differences that make us "Korean-American" rather than "American." What we are is difficult to state, difficult to know. It is in our differences, then, we are who we are.

KILMOK asks for submissions. We require it to be your perspective, your experience, however you wish to portray them. Please e-mail me at jyko@midway.uchicago.edu for further inquiries.

- Jessica Ko
Editor-in-Chief, '99-'00