On Wednesday, April 26th, we gathered with our closest friends and supporters to celebrate our 31st Inspiration Awards Gala at Cipriani South Street. Thanks to your incredible generosity, we raised a record-breaking $3.2 million to empower Asian American and immigrant youth in New York City and beyond! These funds will go towards expanding our programs into the borough of Queens, where currently half the population of New York’s low income Asian American youth reside.
Proprietor of Gracious Hospitality Management
Simon Kim is the proprietor of Gracious Hospitality Management, the brand behind the Michelin-starred COTE Korean Steakhouse in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, COTE Miami, and bespoke cocktail lounge Undercote, with exciting new projects in the pipeline.
Author, Poet
Pianist, Composer, Activist
Author, Poet
Sally Wen Mao is the author of two poetry collections, Oculus, a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize, and Mad Honey Symposium. The recipient of two Pushcart Prizes and a National Endowment for the Arts fellowship, her upcoming works include The Kingdom of Surfaces and Ninetails.
Simon Kim is the proprietor of Gracious Hospitality Management, the brand behind the Michelin-starred COTE Korean Steakhouse in Manhattan’s Flatiron district, COTE Miami, and bespoke cocktail lounge Undercote, with exciting new projects in the pipeline.
Born in Seoul, Kim began his hospitality career at MGM Grand Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas, while studying Hotel Administration at the University of Nevada. He would go on to lead the front-of-house teams for notable chefs, including Jean-Georges Vongerichten and Thomas Keller, and open his first Michelin-starred restaurant, Piora, at the young age of 31.
Fulfilling a lifelong dream, Simon opened COTE in 2017, New York City’s first Korean steakhouse and the only Michelin-starred Korean tabletop grill restaurant in the world, an honor now shared by COTE Miami following its breakthrough first year in the city’s Design District. COTE quickly earned numerous accolades within its first few months, including GQ’s Best New Restaurants in America, two stars from The New York Times and New York Magazine, James Beard Foundation Award nominations, and semifinalist nods for Best New Restaurant and Outstanding Wine List.
An Associate Board Member of the National Restaurant Association, EY Entrepreneur of the Year New York 2022 winner, Crain’s 40 under 40 honoree, and recipient of the Next Generation Award from the NYC Hospitality Alliance, Simon is not only a leader in the industry known for his creative and polished execution but one that is passionate about supporting local Asian American communities. In 2021, Simon founded Taste of Asia, an annual tasting event celebrating New York City’s AAPI communities. Featuring a curated selection of 40 restaurants serving Asian-inspired bites in Madison Square Park, this event honors the diversity and vitality of AAPI culture and cuisine in New York City and beyond, raising $1.2M in its inaugural year and $1.4M in 2022 for three organizations: City Harvest, where Simon sits on their Board of Directors and is an active participant on their Food Council, Apex for Youth and Madison Square Park Conservancy. Simon is also a Board member of the National Restaurant Association and a father of two.
Ocean Vuong is the author of The New York Times bestselling poetry collection, Time is a Mother (Penguin Press 2022), and The New York Times bestselling novel, On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous (Penguin Press 2019), which has been translated into 37 languages. A recipient of a 2019 MacArthur “Genius” Grant, he is also the author of the critically acclaimed poetry collection, Night Sky with Exit Wounds, a New York Times Top 10 Book of 2016, winner of the T.S. Eliot Prize, the Whiting Award, the Thom Gunn Award, and the Forward Prize for Best First Collection. A Ruth Lilly fellow from the Poetry Foundation, his honors include fellowships from the Lannan Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri Foundation, The Elizabeth George Foundation, The Academy of American Poets, and the Pushcart Prize.
Vuong’s writings have been featured in The Atlantic, Granta, Harpers, The Nation, New Republic, The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Paris Review, The Village Voice, and American Poetry Review, which awarded him the Stanley Kunitz Prize for Younger Poets. Selected by Foreign Policy magazine as a 2016 100 Leading Global Thinker, Ocean was also named by BuzzFeed Books as one of “32 Essential Asian American Writers” and has been profiled on NPR’s “All Things Considered,” PBS NewsHour, Teen Vogue, Interview, Poets & Writers, and The New Yorker.
Born in Saigon, Vietnam and raised in Hartford, Connecticut in a working class family of nail salon and factory laborers, he was educated at nearby Manchester Community College before transferring to Pace University to study International Marketing. Without completing his first term, he dropped out of Business school and enrolled at Brooklyn College, where he graduated with a BA in Nineteenth Century American Literature. He subsequently received his MFA in Poetry from NYU.
He currently lives in Northampton, Massachusetts and serves as a tenured Professor in the Creative Writing MFA Program at NYU.
Chloe Flower is a pianist, composer, activist, fashion icon, and so much more. She is bridging the gap between classical and pop with her self-created genre — POPSICAL — which is showcased in her 2021 eponymous debut album, Chloe Flower. Born in Pennsylvania, Chloe first reached for piano keys at the age of two.
By twelve, she was studying at the Manhattan School of Music followed by London’s Royal Academy of Music.
The multi-hyphenate star has become music and fashion’s go-to creator as she
intertwines her personal couture style and unique sound into something the
industry has never seen or heard. Serving as an Official Steinway artist, over the years Chloe has grown into a musical powerhouse — from her show-stopping 2019 GRAMMY® Awards performance with Cardi B to her featured performance with Lil Baby on Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Aside from her own music, Chloe has co-produced and composed for Céline Dion, Johnny Mathis, 2 Chainz, Swae Lee, NAS, Babyface, and more. Additionally, she has scored Misty Copeland’s documentary, A Ballerina’s Tale, numerous works for Kevin Hart including Hart to Hart (NBC), On the Come Up for Paramount+, and
original compositions for champagne house, Krug.
Chloe is an ardent advocate of anti-human trafficking and a champion of music education and therapy. She serves as an Artist Ambassador for the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime and the youngest board member of The Liberace Foundation.
www.chloeflower.com
