Biography
Sunny Hahn was born in South Korea during the heat of Korean War. She grew up in a prestigious family in Seoul. While her father was educated in imperial Japan and in America, Korea in the 1950s was a war-torn, poverty-stricken country with a GNP the same as that of Ghana, Africa. From the very start, she experienced both privilege and destitution. In her own clan, there were wealthy people as well as poor people who had to worry about their next meal.
After attending the best junior and senior high schools in Korea, she went on to attend the best women's university in Korea. At her pro-West parents' recommendation, she studied Western classical music and obtained a Bachelor of Arts and a Masters degree in Music.
She came to America in 1979 to pursue life, liberty and happiness.
She began her life in America, in Cambridge, Massachusetts, travelling all over New England towns and acquainting herself with early American heritage. Then her life moved her to Washington, DC, the national capitol. There she worked for Overseas Employment and Information Services, an immigration brokering company, where she learned the value of a green card and the process of getting one.
Later, she worked at the National Women's Political Caucus, where she learned about the American political process, the power of lobbying and the concept of the rights of people. After living and working in Washington, D.C. for four years, she moved to Hawaii. There she worked at an immigration center that dealt with the issues of Korean women, who were married to or divorced from American military personnel. She began her political activism by helping Korean immigrants in Honolulu participate in the political process. She also worked for Mike McCormack Realtors, the most prestigious realty company in Hawaii, as a real estate sales agent.
After three years of living in Hawaii, her life brought her to New York, her final home in America, in 1986. Here her life as an activist and an artist had fully matured. After briefly working at the Korean American Association of Greater New York as a deputy director of social service programs, she was hired by the New York City Commission on Human Rights in 1987 as a community organizer. Her joining the Commission couldn't have been more timely, because tension between Korean merchants and African-Americans community began brewing in 1988. By 1989, the tension between the two communities reached a boiling point that lead to the famous episode involving the Big Apple produce store in Brooklyn. The store had to close, in spite of the entire Korean community's support and yearning, after a year and a half of boycott, which was lead by the famous African-American community activist Sonny Carson.
Sunny Hahn, as the only Korean community organizer of the Commission's Community Relations Bureau, had to work to address this serious issue. She created and organized a program called "Soul to Seoul" from 1990 through 1991, that helped ease the tension between the two communities.
During this time she volunteered to serve on the board of the Jackson Heights Beautification Group, as the only Asian from 1991 to 2000. Here she learned the causes and effects of "white flight" in an American neighborhood. The organization grew to become one of the most powerful community organizations in Queens and saved Jackson Heights by designating 38 blocks of Jackson Heights as a Historic District in 1996. The experience taught her how a community in America could be saved and maintained.
Sunny retired from the NYC Human Rights Commission in 2002, to seek better opportunities. She moved to Manhattan where she combined environmental activism with fashion artistry and founded Freewill Fashions, successfully producing four fashion shows and one fashion exhibition from 2006 and 2007. She received huge publicity and praises for her shows and her innovative fashion concept.
With the success of the Freewill Fashions, Sunny then decided to move back to Flushing to be seriously engaged in political activism. As she sees problems and issues as well as enormous potential in Flushing, she decided to work to turn the town around for the better for all people. She is uniquely qualified and prepared to work with people of every background; race, creed, ancestry, and gender, and to deal with many challenging issues that face Flushing, northeast Queens, and our city today.
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Sunny Hahn
for NYC - City Council
District 20 - Flushing, Queens
36-25 Union Street, Flushing, NY 11354
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With Sunny Hahn's leadership,
we can make Flushing the
greatest destination in the city!
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