By Dustin Slaughter
A little-known but passionate activist named Kathy Chang will be memorialized in a stage production by performance artist Soomi Kim, as part of this year’s Asian American Theater Workshop, reports Newsworks’ Peter Crimmins.
Like Kim, Chang was a performance artist. Chang was frequently seen on the University of Pennsylvania campus during the 1980s and ’90s, “in a constant and prolonged campaign to change the world through public performance art,” often advocating for marijuana legalization and world peace.
In 1996, she took her own life in an act of self-immolation.
Kim tells Crimmins:
“I’ve been to a lot of conferences attended by people in the activist community and theater community, and a lot of people don’t know who she was,” said Soomi Kim, a New York-based performance artist who created and performs “Chang(e).” “I thought that was interesting and sad. Her story deserves more recognition.”
Kim’s “Chang(e)” has three performances at Interact Theater: Wednesday, Friday, and Saturday. You can purchase tickets here.
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