Using Art and Music to Fight Injustice: Let Morning Shine

The Project: Let Morning Shine. Part 2 of the interview can be found here.

When Suhail Stephen saw the documentary, Seoul Train, he felt compelled to take action against the horrid injustices in the lives of North Koreans. Suhail and his friend, John, began devising a plan to be agents of change. Following the motto, “something is better than nothing,” Suhail gathered together a variety of artists and musicians and created Let Morning Shine.

1. Can you tell me about Let Morning Shine? Where does the name come from?

Let Morning Shine was the idea of two friends living in Hong Kong who wanted to do something to ameliorate the lives of North Koreans.  It was initially the name of a CD and event in which several people contributed songs, artwork, and photography.  All the proceeds of the event went to help North Koreans.

My friend John and I had an absolutely terrible time deciding on a name of the entire project.  Initially, we wanted to release the CD and host the event on Kim Il-Sung’s birthday, as a sort of ironic homage to “The Great Leader.”  We chose the name “Happy Birthday Dear Leader” for this purpose.  After a while, John, in particular, had some reservations with the name because it seemed more like we were making a political statement as opposed to really focusing our attention on the people of North Korea.  Not that we wanted to shy away entirely from the politics of the issues, but it seemed like we were being a bit presumptuous in using “Happy Birthday Dear Leader” and that the name would color the project with a certain hue that we didn’t want.  We also were a little concerned that the people we wanted to help would be put in danger because of using the “Dear Leader’s” name in unflattering terms.  We scrapped the name and were back to square one.  One day, I randomly looked at the North Korean national anthem.  The first line of the anthem is “Let morning shine on the silver and gold of this land / Three thousand leagues packed with natural wealth.”  When I read “Let morning shine,” I thought it was perfect.  Perfect because it was sort of the cry of the entire project we were doing – we wanted the thick curtains of injustice and suffering and hopelessness to give way to even a glimmer of hope and of solidarity.  To think that this very hope was embedded within North Korea’s national anthem was also a very rewarding and saddening feeling.

2. What was that process like from wanting to help and then actually taking action? How long did it take for you to finally do something?

In general, I think great moves of justice and action take time.  Not necessarily that ours was a “great” move, but the time between the initial desire and finally doing something was at least two years.  It all began when my father went to a press conference in Hong Kong, where the director of a new documentary called “Seoul Train” was both presenting his film and the issues it encompassed.  My father received a complimentary copy of the film that sat in my parent’s house for a few weeks.  One day, with nothing much else to do, I decided to watch the film.  I was totally devastated by what I saw.  I was previously unaware about North Korean human rights or refugees and what I saw struck a very deep chord within me.  I would probably be as bold as to say that I don’t think I’ve ever seen a documentary that affected me in the way that “Seoul Train” did.  The film gave me a ravenous desire to learn everything I could about North Korea.  I attended lectures, watched more films, read all the books I could find, and tried to keep updated with North Korea current events and news.

Around New Year’s of 2008, I was thinking about what I could do with my life in the upcoming year.  I thought about compiling a CD of music with my friends as an expression of gratitude to God.  The more I thought about the idea, the more I wanted it to be more than just an expression of something.  I felt that it was more important to do something.  I toyed with the idea of something relating to North Korea, but the details were far from clear.  Sometime after this, I met John.  We sat down once to have a casual lunch and he mentioned that he was very interested in North Korea.  I could hardly believe my ears and we talked about all of the things we had seen and read.  I mentioned to him some of the embryonic ideas that I had about a project and we both decided to try and do something.  Meeting John was definitely a turning point in the entire process because it set things into motion.  We decided, together, that we couldn’t keep talking about things and that we had to do something, even if it would never change the entire situation we were dealing with.  That decision to go for it, not knowing what would happen or how it would work out, was a very significant one.

3. Were there any disparities between what you thought would happen with the project and what actually happened in the end?

I don’t think we were ever sure what would happen with the project.  Everything was a risk.  For example, we had written over thirty artists and musicians to ask them to contribute either songs or artwork to the project.  We had no idea, first, whether they would be interested and, second, whether their contributions would be good.  We had no idea where to host the event and we weren’t sure whether anyone would want to attend.  Actually, we didn’t think too much about what was going to happen.  I think both of us had quiet dreams that the project was going to be a success, in other words, really matter to and help the North Korean people somehow.  Personally, I think I expected that doing the project would leave me with a great sense of satisfaction, that my life would be changed, that it would feel as if I had finally done something good.  That happened, but not on the night of the project.  I suppose I tried to keep my expectations fairly low since we had never done anything like this in our lives.  I have to say, though, that the end result was much more than I could’ve asked for or imagined.

4. Did you find it difficult to balance working on Let Morning Shine with your day to day activities? If so, how did you cope?

It was extremely difficult.  At the time of the project, I was in a band and was teaching full-time at the International Christian School in Hong Kong.  For about two months (this was the time frame that we gave ourselves to do everything), I was exhausted from trying to keep all the various things afloat.  Furthermore, I had to correspond with many, many people, I had to write one of the songs on the CD, produce and mix several others, work on the artwork for the cd with John, and do all of the organizational and logistical things that are entailed in a project.  It would have been a nightmare to do all of those things by myself, so it was absolutely fantastic that John and I were able to work together.  I don’t know that I really coped very well during these months, to be honest.  I didn’t get much sleep and was constantly busy.  I managed not to get sick though.  I think the project made me realize that if you’re going to do something, you need to do it wholeheartedly.  You need to be a little obsessive.  You need to struggle and fight and carry on.

5. What was the highlight in doing Let Morning Shine?

The highlight for me was definitely several months after the CD was released at the initial event.  One of my dreams was to be able to give the CD to a North Korean refugee.  John and I decided to go to Seoul, Korea for a conference on North Korea and so we took several CDs in the hope of giving it to people who could then give it to refugees who were now living in Seoul.  We met a very wonderful activist at the conference and I rather timidly asked him if it would be possible to give a CD or two to a few refugees.  He said that there were several actually at the conference and that he’d introduce us.  I feel somewhat embarrassed to admit it, but I felt like a little boy in a toyshop.  I think it was the feeling of trying so hard to do something for someone, or a group of people, that you deeply cared about and then finally getting to meet them face to face.  So, one day, in Seoul, I met the first of several refugees.  The first refugee that we ever met was one of the refugees whose story I had seen in “Seoul Train.”  His family’s story had a profound affect on me and if I had to pick one scene in the film that began the entire Let Morning Shine process, it would have been the one where his family tries to enter the Japanese consulate in China.  John and I were able to have lunch with this amazing man, give him a CD, and explain why we had done the entire project.  That moment was, by far, the most rewarding moment for me.  Before meeting this man, North Korean refugees were very real to me, but only theoretically.  Meeting someone face to face and being able to give him our little CD affected me in ways that I cannot express.  All I really wanted to show him was that there were people in the world who had not forgotten the people of North Korea and that, even in a small way, we were trying to do something.  Even more than that, I was very touched by the kindness and courage that I saw in that man.  He had gone through hell and back to make it to freedom and yet he still had light in his eyes.

…To be continued.

To learn more about the issues in North Korea check out these resources: Crossing Borders, Welcome to North Korea (a documentary), World Factbook – North Korea