Author Talk: A Conversation with Elondra Birchfield author of Purple Hearts: Maya’s Journey With BTS We all have an origin story of how we started our journey as fans of K-pop and Korean culture. For some, it was a way to connect to a culture and community that we were already familiar with. The journey … More A Journey into Becoming ARMY and Beyond
Back in January, I was scrolling through my Instagram, and I see a post by one of my favorite Black American comics Kevin Fredericks (KevOnStage) and to my surprise there was a clip of the recent Korean pop group Got7’s fan-meet concert Nestfest. The caption on the clip says, “He’s not a Delta.” Confused, I … More Here We Go Again: Korean Entertainment Lack of Awareness
Stopping the Repeat of History On December 3rd, 2024, at approximately 10:30 PM KST South Korean President Yoon Sik Yeol announced on national television that he was enacting his Presidental power and placing the country into martial law. Merriam Webster Dictionary describes martial law as the law administered by military forces that is invoked by a … More “What about my oppa?” K-Pop Fans Concerns During South Korea’s Brief Period of Martial Law
In September, a close friend of mine, who is in the U.S. Army, was deployed oversees over 6,000 miles away. His wife, one of my best friends knew for almost two years he was going to deploy. However, when he finally got the final orders it was still a huge blow. Well, this is how … More It’s Happening: BTS Enlistment
For you K-pop stans this Ticketmaster kerfuffle has been an on going issue for more than a decade. However more recently Ticketmaster and their questionable practices have only been exacerbated by the pandemic and loosely regulated standards of practice for the ticketing industry. In addition with the use of “bots“, a computer program that runs automated tasks … More The Saga that is Ticketmaster
On July 12th I had the opportunity to finally check off an item on my music bucket list and see Korean R&B artist and Voice Korea 2020 winner Kim Ji-Hyun, better known as G Soul (aka Golden). I discovered his beautiful soulful voice in 2018, when I was going through my Korean R&B journey. Out … More Soul From Seoul: The Underappreciated Genre of Korean R&B
As I listen to J-Hope’s new solo album Jack in the Box and read English translations, something occurs to me. What if all the accolades, the number one albums and singles, all the chart topping and record breaking, history making was just too much. What if all the excessive album buying campaigns and purposely purchasing … More Here Me Out: Unpopular Opinion-Can extreme fan support be detrimental.
Let me start first by saying I am a multi group fan. I do not just support just one group, listen to just one group or talk about only one group. With that being said BTS, them Bangtan Boys, are without a doubt my ultimate group. They were not the first group that started me … More My BTS Story
I had the chance to go to a sold out exhibition called Korea Cubically Imagined that was organized and sponsored by Korea Creative Content Agency (KOCCA) https://www.kocca.kr/en/main.do. The KOCCA is a governmental agency that oversees and coordinates the promotion of the Korean content industry, was established in May 2009 by integrating five related organizations, including … More Korea Cubically Imagined
Recently I had a friend ask me about the name of this blog, The Melanin Ajumma, and why I had chosen such a name. Being Black American, she understood the melanin part of the name, but not being familiar with Korean Culture, she had no idea the reasoning behind Ajumma. It then hit me, that … More Why do I call myself the Melanin Ajumma?
The Melanin Ajumma 