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Celebrating Philadelphia's breakthrough, Grammy-nominated, experimental pop band Japanese Breakfast for its pioneering sound and recent critical acclaim, and recognizing the band's frontwoman, Michelle Zauner, a powerful voice for AAPI women and Korean Americans, whose best-selling memoir, Crying in H Mart-a tribute to her late mother and the Korean food and culture that bound their love-has moved countless readers across the globe.
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WHEREAS, Michelle Zauner, who was born in Seoul and immigrated to Eugene, Oregon when she was nine months old, began playing the piano at five years old, and, after begging her mother for a guitar, finally secured one by age sixteen. Zauner has explained: "I learned my first three chords and I was really off to the races. I just loved songwriting and the guitar really became this vehicle for songwriting. It was just my instrument." The indie rock band the Yeah Yeah Yeahs especially inspired Zauner, who has explained that the band's "front woman, Karen O, was the first icon of the music world I worshiped who looked like me. She was half Korean and half white with an unrivaled showmanship that obliterated the docile Asian stereotype"; and
WHEREAS, Zauner found a home in the Philadelphia region when she was an undergraduate at Bryn Mawr College, where she graduated with an independent major in creative production and focused her studies on creative writing; and
WHEREAS, Zauner spent her 20s working on both her writing and her music while living in Philadelphia. She worked in concessions and coat check at the City's renowned music venue Union Transfer while recording and performing as the front woman of the band Little Big League. Zauner worked tirelessly to perfect her craft and gain acclaim, including developing a new solo act known as Japanese Breakfast which began posting original songs online in 2013; and
WHEREAS, In May 2014, Zauner's mother was diagnosed with late stage pancreatic cancer. Zauner returned to her ...
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