Pronouns: She/Her
Juliette grew up in a cosmopolitan suburb of Washington DC. Raised by immigrant Korean orphans and war survivors, she has extensive experience mobilizing communities through grassroots fundraising tactics and community dialogue. She earned a BA in English and Masters in Teaching from the University of Virginia, and an MFA in Poetry with an Advanced Feminist Studies Certificate from the University of Massachusetts at Amherst. Juliette’s training includes critical pedagogy, intersectional feminist research methods, and ethnic studies frameworks.
Juliette started organizing as a canvass director and campus organizer for the Public Interest Research Groups (PIRG) in Massachusetts, then helped open a field office for US PIRG in New Orleans. After completing her poetry degree, she worked in higher education for a decade; she previously taught as a Visiting Assistant Professor for the University of Pittsburgh’s graduate writing program and was a Senior Lecturer at the University of the Arts in Philadelphia, where she also directed the Summer Institute for High School Students’ Creative Writing program.
Juliette is passionate about the arts as a vehicle for social transformation and has supported national Asian American arts organizing work. She helped coordinate the 2014 National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival, and has served as an editorial consultant for the Smithsonian Institute’s Asian Pacific American Center and the Asian American Writers’ Workshop. A video artist and author, Juliette has published four books, numerous essays on race and culture, and was a 2013 Pew Fellow in the Arts for Literature. In 2017, the Asian Arts’ Initiative commissioned her for a video and installation work, Peace Light, as part of their 25th Anniversary celebration. She occasionally teaches writing workshops at the Lighthouse Writers Workshop in Denver.
Juliette loves dance parties, science fiction, making kimchi for friends, knitting, and biking around town.