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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

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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!

avatar for Leah Cooper

Leah Cooper

Wonderlust Productions
Co-Artistic Director
St. Paul, MN

Hi, I'm a transracial adoptee from Los Angeles, CA now based in St. Paul, MN. I was placed in a closed adoption in 1968 at the age of 10 weeks. I've never had access to any of my birth records or family, and I was told that my mother was white and my father was not white, that I was "mixed" but nobody was sure what kind of mixed. 

I'm co-artistic director for Wonderlust Productions, a multicultural, multidisciplinary performance ensemble that makes plays and other artistic experiences based on community stories. In 2016 we made a play about the community of people impacted by adoption. At the time, I didn't think I had many feelings about being adopted. Ha! That play tumbled me right out of the fog and everything has been very different ever since. In 2021, we adapted that play into a graphic novel, called In My Heart: The Adoption Story Project

Besides running several arts organizations over the last 25 years, I am also a facilitator and consultant in community engagement, organizational development, and uncomfortable conversations, with a trauma-informed and human-centered approach to complexity and change. Prior to shifting my career into the performing arts in 2001, I worked in the corporate sector as a software engineer and business consultant for ten years. 

I'm currently writing a memoir about survival and magic.

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  • Filter By Date KAAN 2024 Conference Jun 21 -23, 2024
  • Filter By Venue 6100 North River Road, Rosemont, Illinois 60018, USA
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  • Activities
  • Adoptee-Only Dinner
  • Adoptee-Only Session
  • Check-In
  • Exhibitors & Sponsors
  • Fishbowl Session (Adoptee-Centered But Non-Adoptees May Attend To Listen)
  • General Session (Open To All Attendees)
  • KAAN
  • Leadership
  • Mainstage Event
  • Meals
  • Youth Program