Sarah Saeun Kim, aka Skim, came to Los Angeles from her native New York to become a screenwriter, but instead fell head-over-heels for spoken word and hip-hop music. The 28-year-old rapper/poet/musician is now turning heads in her new hometown for her stage performances that blend deft rhymes, Korean folk melodies and social consciousness.

 

Why incorporate Korean folk music into your performances?

I always loved Korean music. My parents, they laugh at me. They think, “What do you know about it?” I was learning Korean drumming, so that led to the folk singing. In so many ways, I felt like it was natural for me to connect to it.

What was it like when you first started performing?

I was working on this feature-length screenplay and taking a writing workshop. At the end of the series of workshops, they hold a reading. That was the first time I performed. It was such a simple act of just speaking into a mic in front of a group of people. It was one of the only times in my life where I felt like I deserved that attention, not just the attention on me but what I was speaking about. In that moment, I realized how so much of my experience has been about shutting my voice down. It became this challenge to give myself that credit, appreciate my worth.

Why is social justice so important to you and your music?

In L.A., I’m around people who are doing community work, community organizing, political work or social justice work. I work with a group that does art workshops. We go into juvenile halls and talk to youth in group homes. The purpose is to build a relationship so we can have honest dialogue about the issues in our life. Those conversations are how people teach and learn.

You talk a lot about being a bridge between genders and cultures. Why?

I’ve lived a life outside of the box. I recognize that I do embody all these contradictions. I believe that my purpose is to be a bridge between all these different spaces. I could keep them separate, but I want to do this. That’s how I managed to really stay alive, without literally trying to kill myself.