KAAN 2024 Conference: Full Schedule

Join KAAN from June 21 – 23 for three days of keynotes, films, presentations, roundtables, performers, exhibits, support forums, and life-changing community. KAAN offers an Adoptee-Only track, as well as sessions for a general audience that are open to all. There are programs for adults aged 18+ and youth aged 8-17. Everyone is welcome, including adoptees, birth families, family members (adoptive parents, spouses/partners, siblings, and children of adoptees), service providers, and Korean Americans. If you have any questions, please feel free to email us at tech@wearekaan.org.

Register now at tfec.org/kaan2024

Donate to KAAN
KAAN is a Project of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities, fiscal sponsor. This permits KAAN to operate as a nonprofit under TFEC’s 501(c)(3) designation. The official registration and financial information of The Foundation for Enhancing Communities may be obtained from the Pennsylvania Department of State by calling toll-free, within Pennsylvania, at 1-800-732-0999. Registration does not imply endorsement. The Foundation for Enhancing Communities is registered in each state requiring such registration for charitable solicitation. Your donation is tax-deductible to the fullest extent allowable by law. Thank you!

12:45pm CDT

Welcome: First-Timer Attendees: Young Adult Adoptees Ages 18-25 (Adoptee-Only)

This session is geared for adoptees aged 18 - 25. If you are an adoptee 26-39, please see First-Timer Attendees Welcome: Ages 26-39 (Adoptee-Only). If you are an adoptee 40+, please see First-Timer Attendees Welcome: Ages 40+ (Adoptee-Only).

Whether you're new to the KAAN Conference or just want a refresher on the details for this year's gathering please join us for an informal Q&A and meet-and-greet session. All adoptees ages 18 - 25 are welcome to join!

Speakers

Carole Chee

Carole Chee (she/her/hers) is a recent graduate from Hope College, where she studied English Literature and Women's & Gender Studies, co-founded a student organization focusing on adoptee identity, and served as the Asian Student Union president. As a Chinese-Korean transnational... Read More →

Ali Koehl

University of Michigan

Ali Koehl (she/her/hers) is a recent graduate of Hope College who has a bachelors in psychology and Chinese studies. She is a Chinese transracial adoptee from Fuling, China and grew up in Otsego, Michigan. She has been involved in spaces that engage with DEI, social justice, and higher... Read More →

Friday June 21, 2024 12:45pm - 2:00pm CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

2:30pm CDT

Learn the Unique Korean Fiberart ... Bojagi

LIMITED AVAILABILITY FOR THE FIRST 25 REGISTRANTS: PRE-REGISTER FOR THE BOJAGI SESSION HERE.

This is a classless art that was once passed on through the generations of Korean artist and has no longer been passed on … especially to Korean Adoptees. It has now become an elite-est art and very much unknown artform even among the Korean nationals. This is an artform that is very unique to Korea and it needs to be rejuvenated among any Korean who loves to learn about Korean culture and has a pride in learning and doing something that is very uniquely Korean. With the completion of your project you can proudly display Korean heritage.

Speakers

Sara Salansky

Freelance Cultural Educator

I am one of the second wave of Korean Adoptees to arrive to the United States. I never grew up learning or experiencing anything Korean. And, now in my retirement years, I have been truly drawn to the arts aspect of the Korean culture. Arts is very exclusive and elite-ess in Korea... Read More →

Friday June 21, 2024 2:30pm - 3:45pm CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

7:30pm CDT

Carve Your Dojang ... Stamp Your Heritage

LIMITED AVAILABILITY FOR THE FIRST 25 REGISTRANTS: PRE-REGISTER FOR CARVE YOUR DOJANG HERE.

Dojangs, in Korean culture, was a carving of the family surname which was stamped (with red ink) on official documents. Even if we don't know what our true surnames are we can still create this dojang to represent ourselves and use it as a stamp that represents us and is a visible symbol of our existence as individuals, not as Adoptees, but continue a cultural heritage through this dojang.

Speakers

Sara Salansky

Freelance Cultural Educator

Friday June 21, 2024 7:30pm - 9:00pm CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

9:00am CDT

Support Adoptees Without Citizenship!

Members of Adoptees for Justice and the Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship will share about strategies to remedy the situation of intercountry adoptees without citizenship. Although they were adopted by U.S. citizen parents as children, thousands of intercountry adoptees are living without citizenship. Come learn about the challenges they face and ways to support them.

Speakers

Adoptees For Justice

Adoptees for Justice (A4J) is an intercountry adoptee-led organization whose mission is to educate, empower and organize transracial and transnational adoptee communities to achieve just and humane adoption, immigration and restorative justice systems. The Alliance for Adoptee Citizenship... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 9:00am - 10:15am CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

10:30am CDT

Reimagining Intimacy in Adoptee Centered Relationships

Relationships play a major role in shaping our realities and sense of self throughout life. For adoptees who were relinquished during childhood, attachment-related trauma can influence many adult relationships. When we layer on options for non-monogamous relationships with friends, family, and partners, it can raise conflicts in self worth, identity values, and question how we embody belonging. Intersectionality provides a framework to better understand our needs as adoptees when navigating all types of relationships. In this adoptee-led and adoptee-only session, speakers will share personal experiences in non-monogamous relationships and invite attendees to engage with their own reflections on relationship identity.

Speakers

Eugene Rush

Gene is a transracial Chinese adoptee, and in the past year or two has experienced an interwoven journey involving coming into his adoptee consciousness, beginning his adoptee healing journey, and deconstructing the mono-centric paradigm he was raised with. He enjoys rock climbing... Read More →

Anna Inazu

Anna (she/they) is a Korean adoptee who grew up on the east coast in a racially mixed family, and currently resides in Denver, CO. Anna’s navigation of adoption hasn’t followed a particular trajectory, but gaining clarity of this experience and identity, is currently in the foreground... Read More →

Laura X. Williams

Laura X. Williams is a transracial Chinese American Adoptee , born of Chinese soil, local to Verona, NJ, and living in Aurora, CO.

Mikaela Smith

Mikaela Smith (they/them) is a transracial Chinese American Adoptee who grew up In Missouri. After moving across the country and graduating twice in a pandemic, Mikaela has used past challenges and individual experiences to navigate adoption topics through one-on-one conversations... Read More →

Mai Li O'Keefe

Mai Li O’Keefe (they/them) is a transracial Korean adoptee. They are currently based in Portland, OR where they balance their time between their work-for-a-living job, community organizing, and playing outside with their pals. They actively organize for VOICES, a BIPOC Adoptee Community... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 10:30am - 11:45am CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

2:00pm CDT

Creating & Losing Family – BIPOC Adult Adoptees

In Creating & Losing Family as BIPOC Adult Adoptees, a group of Black, Native, and POC adoptees will share a story about losing, defining, or creating family as adults. Adoptee community members will get a window into five adoptees’ experience of family as they navigate marriage, divorce, queerness, parenting, reunion, and more. There will be a group discussion following storytelling. This session intends to continue building BIPOC adoptee community and expanding our intersectional exposure and understanding within it. We believe storytelling is a powerful tool for healing, self-expression, and understanding. We want folks to feel safe, seen, and heard.

Speakers

Liana Soifer

Transracial Adoptee born in South Korea and raised in Oregon, Founder of BIPOC Adoptees, and mother to three. She earned her BA in Human Services. Liana has worked as a Project Manager supervising online software programs and web applications to improve the lives of people. In 2020... Read More →

Mai Li O'Keefe

Alisha Bennett

Alisha Bennett (she|her) aka 션영 is a South Korean Adoptee with citizenship. Alisha lives in love in Brooklyn, NY with her husband and 3 year old daughter. She works in NYC as a social worker, therapist and small business owner. Becoming a mother as an adoptee is what inspired... Read More →

Danni Mar

I am a Colombian-born adoptee from Bogotá who was domestically adopted and then immigrated to the United States at the age of four to be closer to my adopted American father's family. Over the past six years, I have been in reunion with my biological family, and within the last five... Read More →

Lisa MacLellan

Lisa MacLellan is a transracial domestic adoptee that was born and raised in Wyoming, USA. She was relinquished at birth, due to her race - she is biracial - and was adopted out of foster care just before she turned a year old. Lisa currently reside in the Pacific Northwest with her... Read More →

Maze Felix

Hi there, I'm Maze Felix and my pronouns are they/them. I am a polyamorous queer trans nonbinary AAPI Chinese transracial adoptee. I am a full time actor based in Los Angeles, CA and I also carry a degree in American Sign Language Interpreting. As an actor, my intersectional identities... Read More →

Stef Henning (she/they)

배양숙

Stef Henning AKA 배양숙 (Bae Yang Sook) was taken to America at 3 months to a white family in Iowa in 1983. The erasure of Korean culture and heritage wasn't apparent until much later in life when she moved to Portland, OR, and realized her identity was no longer tied to her white... Read More →

Matthew Fetzer

Matt is an adopted Korean. He was born in 1975 in Gongju, South Korea. He is active in the BIPOC adoptee community, and has volunteered for several domestic adoptee organizations. Matt is passionate about many issues facing the adoptee community, including race, sexuality, and mental... Read More →

Saturday June 22, 2024 2:00pm - 3:15pm CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

3:45pm CDT

Decentralizing Adoptee Grief, Reclaiming Ourselves

This session is a continuation and response to the need exhibited at KAAN in 2022. The immersive experience of grief comes from a white, western mindset/framework which describes grief as linear, conclusive, and monolithic. Adoptees experience grief in different ways than what is traditionally assumed. What support is needed for sustainability? How do we stay in touch with the grieving process throughout our lifetimes? We’ll use sun-print paper, 3-D objects, and writing utensils as artistic tools for the grief process. Adoptees will be able to take home their projects and continue to process grief within their own unique adoptee experience.

Speakers

Jas Strong

Jasmine Strong is a Baltimore based Chinese adoptee with a background in print making, sculpture, and computer science. She's been passionately engaged with the adoptee community for over several years and continues to facilitate workshops that will help transracial adoptee foster... Read More →

Laura X. Williams

Laura X. Williams is a transracial Chinese American Adoptee , born of Chinese soil, local to Verona, NJ, and living in Aurora, CO.

Saturday June 22, 2024 3:45pm - 5:00pm CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

8:45am CDT

Debrief: First-Timer Attendees: Young Adult Adoptees Ages 18-25 (Adoptee-Only)

This session is geared for adoptees aged 18 - 25. If you are an adoptee 26-39, please see Debrief: First-Timer Attendees: Ages 26-39 (Adoptee-Only Session). If you are an adoptee 40+, please see Debrief: First-Timer Attendees: Ages 40+ (Adoptee-Only).

Reconnect with the cohort from your first-timers session and discuss KAAN next steps.

Speakers

Ali Koehl

University of Michigan

Carole Chee

Sunday June 23, 2024 8:45am - 9:15am CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session

9:30am CDT

Recovering People Pleasers – Reclaiming Nervous Systems

Please note: this session will repeat as a Fishbowl session at 10:30 AM on Saturday, June 22.

Back by popular demand! Did you learn to appease others growing up? Do you still feel trapped in a cycle of people-pleasing and blame yourself for not breaking the cycle? We’ll explore the intricate web of people-pleasing by exploring how it's propagated through media and mainstream adoption narratives and learn how it's connected to trauma. We’ll then share ways to reclaim our voices and shift our nervous system. We hope to build community through sharing personal stories, understand the roots of people-pleasing behaviors, and equip participants with tools and resources to break free from these patterns.

Speakers

Midnite Townsend

Midnite Townsend (she/they) is a movement enthusiast and recent recipient of a masters in somatic social justice counseling. With 20+ years of performing and teaching everything from circus arts to pilates to burlesque/drag, Midnite believes in building community, healing trauma... Read More →

Grace Clark

Grace Clark is a Korean transracial adoptee living in Denver, Colorado. Grace is currently in graduate school at Naropa University, where she is studying Somatic Body Psychotherapy. Eventually, she plans to get her P.hD in clinical sexology, specifically examining paraphilia. Grace... Read More →

Jamie Barnett

Hello! My name is Jamie, she/her/hers. This is my third year attending KAAN. I am a Chinese Adoptee living in Boulder, Colorado. I am currently in my third year of Graduate School to obtain my Masters in Mental Health Counseling with a focus on Somatic Dance/Movement Therapy!

Sunday June 23, 2024 9:30am - 10:45am CDT
Rosemont 4: 3rd Floor

Adoptee-Only Session