Hi everyone! Gathering some scattered thoughts here today.

Is it real or fake? The question is not really relevant anymore. I made a note to tell you about it, but I cannot remember what led me to the conclusion. No matter though, because I see that others are reporting the same from their respective viewpoints. In Vulture, digital music-promotion agency founders are quoted as “using sock-puppet accounts to manufacture enthusiasm for artists at every level of the music industry.” The manufactured enthusiasm via campaigns like clipping leads to real-human accounts engaging with content and legacy publications platforming the clipped sources. Warped reality shapes lived reality. 

The New York Times published an article about a reputation management firm hired to bury damaging stories for clients like Epstein’s friend and the U.A.E. ambassador to the U.S., pushing exposés down past the first page of search results. Respected institutions are unwitting, or perhaps witting, accomplices in laundering reputations when they post about the clients to their high-ranking websites. Search results and online presence have real-life consequences, not only by burnishing public personas, but by causing small businesses to lose work when search algorithms change, tanking webpages that used to attract prospective customers. 

I have no desire to navigate the digital astroturf in hopes of making it across to greener pastures and have pretty much gone offline as an artist (except for this newsletter), though a part of the reason is that I’m not in an output phase of my work right now. A friend from Pilates, who used to be a dancer, asked how I make a living as a musician and promote my upcoming show without being on social media. I don’t, and I’m not sure. I am sharing details of the show below and am considering signing back online to post a couple reels, though in the words of Bartleby, the Scrivener, “I would prefer not to.” 

I may be resigned on the business side of music, but I’ve been putting in work on the concept side and am excited to get the music together and share stories I’ve been wanting to tell!

Going Home to the Moon 🌕 Futurist Folk Songs & Stories

Thursday, June 18, 7–8pm

Burbank Public Library (Buena Vista Branch) at 300 N. Buena Vista St.

Singer, songwriter, and gayageum player Joyce Kwon lies flat on the ground, travels back to the moon, and embraces a cyborg present in a musical program illuminated by books that have inspired her. Long-time bandmate Brandon Bae joins on baritone guitar.

Free with RSVP. Details here.

I’ll also give a 10-minute solo preview at Tuesday Night Cafe in Little Tokyo on June 2.  

Regarding my last newsletter on Iémanja and my evolving faith: 

I have not seen a form of Christianity that is not syncretic, certainly not in the deeply patriarchal and Confucian culture of the Korean church or the prosperity gospel of the American church, promising deliverance from earthly ills through faith. Just because my syncreticism is not of the Christmas-tree variety does not make it invalid. 

Talking about religion reminds me of a recent conversation with my sisters. I randomly found myself wondering why anyone would want to be a Satanist when most desire to be part of something good. Why would someone want to worship a personification of evil? Eunice sent a short article, which clarifies that Satanists are typically non-theists interested in the “pursuit of reason, justice, and truth.”

“So if Satanists don’t believe in the devil,” Jello asked with concern, “are Christians the real ‘Satanists’ since we believe in Satan?” 

“A Cyborg Manifesto” begins by talking about blasphemy.

Discussing the passage in our cyborg reading group, Molly raised an incisive question: 

If blasphemy is taking religion seriously, is cyborgism taking humanity seriously?

Yes 🤯 My turn toward the cyborg is precisely because I take humanity seriously, having spent much of my life trying to prove my humanity as an Asian girl and woman in America. It has been tiring, and I would prefer not to do it anymore. Giving it a rest and embracing a posthuman existence instead, as Korean American poets like Franny Choi and Sun Yung Shin have done, is an attempt to honor my humanity.  

If we were to stop fighting for inclusion in the exclusive Western category of the human (i.e., white male), could diversity, equity, and inclusion consultants be replaced by cyborg consultants? Who would hire them? Should I form a cyborg consultancy as part performance art, part real consulting? Real or fake, does it matter?

🔊 Listening to KUSC 91.5 FM Los Angeles