The Casey Lartigue Show!

On February 2nd from 2-3 a.m. (Korea time), I was the featured speaker at an "Author Spotlight" by the Harvard Division of Continuing Education (DCE) and the Harvard Extension Alumni Association (HEAA) .  Watch, like, share, and comment.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dmRgP3q7rQg&list=PLn7xtnmarHFq6kVvq3PxOgC8nwjn8ioBO  * * *  I will be in the USA for two weeks in March, I will kick off the trip with a speech on the campus of the Harvard Graduate School of Education (HSGE) for its annual Alumni of Color Conference (AOCC). It will be a bit of a homecoming reunion, I was one of the speakers at the first HGSE AOCC in 2003.  Stay tuned, this will be preparation for a larger event later this year. Thanks to everyone who has helped make FSI's work possible. ( Stripe ) ( PayPal ).

  I was invited by the Harvard Graduate School of Education to give a speech and engage in discussion with students interested in having careers in non-profits. I informed HGSE that my co-author could join me. They loved the idea. The speech was special for two main reasons. 1) It was on October 3rd. That's the date Songmi Han was released into freedom after arriving in South Korea. 2) She only recently learned about Harvard University. Three years ago, she didn't know about the existence of Harvard University. On her Freedom Day, she was speaking at Harvard University. Here's an excerpt from Greenlight to Freedom: " A North Korean refugee learns about Harvard ."

    Yaron Brook is an author, commentator, YouTuber, entrepreneur, and chairman of the Ayn Rand Institute. He mentioned me at the beginning of a recent YouTube show (starting from the :53 mark). https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cPZfFoHYADs&t=53s

  We visited the Hendersonville Public Library to see Greenlight to Freedom on the bookshelf! How did it happen? FSI Fundraising Fellow Eben Appleton asked what she could do for our trip near her area. I reminded her that high school students in the FSI-GHSU had donated  Greenlight to Freedom  to libraries across the USA. Perhaps she could donate a book to a library in the area? Off she went! She talked with a few librarians and got the book on the shelf of at least one library. Then as part of our trip, we visited the Hendersonville Library. When I first told Songmi about her book being at the library she was not that impressed. She was touched when she saw it on the bookshelf, however. There are many books in the world that have been published, but hers was one of them on the library shelf.

Songmi Han escaped from North Korea in March 2011 and was released into freedom in South Korea in October 2011. For the first decade, she was silent. She was struggling with settling down and was also a survival of several different traumas. After she went through counseling and joined Freedom Speakers International as a Special Assistant in early 2021, she finally began to open up. I suggested that she might want to write a book. that her healing process might also be able to help others. After some discussions, she decided to try, although she recruited me as her co-author (that was NOT part of my suggestion). As we worked on the book, I told her that the would come that she would have a book signing. She didn’t believe it. Eighteen months later, she had her first in-person book signing. I organized a trip to the USA, with the first event being held on her birthday. Below are many of the photos I took of her as she signed books with attendees in Nashville. Finally, after signing many...

  North Korean refugee authors Youngnam Eom visited the office to discuss his book. He first joined us in 2015 even before we had established an official organization.  Eunmi Park visited the office to discuss her book. She first joined us in 2014 shortly after she arrived in South Korea. When she was ready to publish her book she came to us even though we are still newbies in the publishing world. Eunmi even publicly announced that she was publishing her book with us. She comes to our office often to work on her book. It helps that she can spend time discussing it in Korean with FSI co-founder Eunkoo Lee. Others can help with discussing the outline, structure, which things to emphasize, etc. But still, being an author means spending a lot of time by yourself. When it is a memoir, it means reflecting on yourself, your life and others who have been harmful or helpful.

It is so wonderful when a North Korean refugee you wrote a book with mentions you during an interview. I'm the "with" author so that means that for many I am better unseen and unheard. But I'm not the typical "with" author. The book was my idea and I wrote it. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vwP_tos4tKo&list=PLn7xtnmarHFq6kVvq3PxOgC8nwjn8ioBO&index=1 Songmi explained how she first got involved with FSI, going back to when we were TNKR. Then yes! They started talking about me! Songmi told the audience that I wrote the book with her. Then they both praised and thanked me! In your faces, you stupid conspiracy theorists! Greenlight to Freedom  is available on Amazon and Kyobo . Thank you so much to Yumi for highlighting Greenlight.   Yumi is hilarious! She pretended to read the book, using simple English "Thank you very much." Yumi has 245,000 subscribers to her YouTube channel.