Korean Club to Hold Festival This Saturday

The Koreans of Harvard-Radcliffe (KOHR) will produce a cultural festival in Memorial Hall this Saturday to celebrate their heritage.

The festival, the first large-scale event in the group's 12-year history, will feature traditional Korean dances, music and food, said Ju Ho Hahn '88-89, who organized the festival.

Hahn said he expects many Korean-Americans from the Cambridge area to come to the event, which has been advertised extensively outside of Harvard.

"The festival is a celebration of Korean culture as unique and separate from other Asian cultures," said KOHR President Steve Choe '89.

There are roughly 250 Korean students at Harvard, of which about 50 are active KOHR members, Hahn said.

"I would like to see more non-Koreans show up and enjoy the afternoon with us," Hahn said. He said he hopes there will be a large undergraduate turnout at the festival, which is scheduled also to include a film of a traditional dance about womanhood.

The event is designed to raise American awareness of Korean culture shortly before the Olympics in that country will be generating U.S. media attention, Hahn said.

And the event may give KOHR the momentum to grow into a more dynamic organization, Hahn said. "We need to break the image of being just a social club," he said.

The festival will open with a Korean lunch at noon in Mem Hall and then move to Sanders Theater for performances by both student and professional groups at 1 p.m. Ticket price for students is $4 with the meal, $2 without.

The women members of KOHR will perform a traditional Korean fan dance, and women from Smith College's Korean Students Association will sing Korean folk songs.

Performers from the Myung Sook Chun Dance Center in New York will dance six different group and individual traditional Korean pieces.