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Korean Youth Cultural Center
Korean arts and culture
The Korean Youth Cultural Center’s (KYCC’s) mission is to preserve and promote Korean traditional art forms, using them to improve the social conditions of the Korean American community and the broader community of the Bay Area. To accomplish its goals, KYCC uses pungmul, a traditional village-style performance that combines drums, dance, folk songs, and street theater, and that emphasizes interation between performers and audiences. Through this art form, KYCC preserves traditional folk culture and creates communal spirit, which is the ultimate goal of pungmul. For many Korean Americans, who are a population often marginalized and alienated by mainstream American social life, pungmul has helped to energize and focus their cultural life; for a growing number of first- and second-generation Korean Americans, pungmul is the primary cultural (and sometimes political) vehicle for connecting to Korean culture. Through KYCC and other organizations, pungmul has not only been preserved, but has thrived, becoming an ubiquitous component of Korean cultural events and celebrations throughout the country.
In 2007, as a grantee of ACTA’s Living Cultures Grants Program, KYCC received support for their annual Jishinbalpki, or Korean Lunar New Year, celebration. This event, or great historical and ritual importance, brings together young and old in the Korean community, including recent immigrants, to honor and preserve their cultureal heritage.