Jessica Kim

= Division III =

This article is part of a Climax Div III Issue. By Carolyn Li Madeo, Contributor.

Jess Kim’s Division III, Redefining Mixedness: In/authenticity in Mixed Identity, consists of a written dissertation and memoir, a community art gallery, and an art and writing event. The community art gallery Redefining Mixedness will be showing in the Cultural Center from April 22 to April 29.

Jess’s Division III is based on an exploration of the personal, the theoretical and the communal, which her work balances in a perfect chorus. In the written section of Redefining Mixedness Jess strives to connect these different sections of her life and studies as they pertain both to herself and to the idea of mixedness, a term that for Jess is constantly changing. The art and writing event and community art gallery under the same name, were created by Jess to open a conversation on mixedness up to a larger community. Through her Division III, Jess has worked to create both a personal and community space, not simply to create or define a new term for mixedness.

The first section of Jess’s written portion of her Division III is an oral history; this section is focused on her life before Hampshire, and specifically the type of language and vocabularies that she used to talk about herself then. Included in this section and throughout her Division III are poems that she wrote. Jess’s second written section is focused on her experiences at Hampshire, specifically how studying race theory changed the language that she used and how this language left little space for her to fit into. The final written section speaks back to the prior two sections as an intervention of mixedness and includes excerpts from her art and writing event.

Ultimately, Redefining Mixedness is a multilayered Division III—one that uses personal mapping, community events and the sharing of stories to explore both language and space within mixedness.