An Inspired Chat with Tahn Bae Park of DTLA

We recently had the chance to connect with Tahn Bae Park and have shared our conversation below.

Tahn Bae, it’s always a pleasure to learn from you and your journey. Let’s start with a bit of a warmup: Have you stood up for someone when it cost you something?
Thanks for having me! Always grateful to share with folx and connect on a deeper level. Starting off strong here: it wasn’t an individual but a lived value to validate people who suffer from isolation, bullying, and abuse (throw in gaslighting, manipulation, and the violence from white fragility too). I’ve worked in higher education for over a decade in student services for both public and private. I was unnerved since moving to California almost 5 years ago witnessing the mistreatment of black women, marginalized folx through intentional exclusionary methods and segregation. It showed up as ‘halo effect’ biased hiring who had the same racial, demographic background, and even religious affiliation. That meant institutions were also pushing people painting them as non-compliant, aggressive, lazy, ‘not good enough’, the list goes on. I’ve seen the weaponization of white fragility (by white and brown folx) catering to white people’s sympathy building a negative response towards BIPOC and allies of BIPOC. It’s made higher ed where talks of justice and acceptance masked domination and control of others perpetuating a hollow sense of belonging.

I was as a pawn and a victim. I was told both water down scenarios then given the truth. So many stories by survivors and their resolve in order to stay alive were shared creating dissonance: who do I believe? Some do not make it out alive. My own health started to decline. I was having panic attacks at work. I had been dealing with non-consensual bullying and was set up to fail. Feeling silenced and unable to better the environment, I made my get away without a back up plan. I lost connections with the wonderful students and the staff/faculty I did trust. I lost income and I almost lost myself. I was constantly reaching out to friends only to be met with recycled text messages. So, I had to pause those friendships. I took some time to understand new triggers, reign in my PTSD, and develop some new coping strategies. There’s work to be done. Not all POC want solidarity or peace. I can’t expect to be welcomed and fully understood by my peers anymore. We are all on edge these days. I have to be more vigilant about how I distribute understanding and support. The time away gave me a chance to evaluate my values, my support system, and who I wanted to show up as person. I’m hoping to extend my services to multiple institutions, to groups, to professionals beyond education. Higher ed isn’t the same as it was and there’s opportunity for true change to happen; we just have to willing to take responsibility for what was wrong first.

Can you briefly introduce yourself and share what makes you or your brand unique?
I’m Tahn Bae Park with a long ‘a’ in my first name. My name, Tahn Bae, is roughly interpreted as an onomatopoeia as the ‘sound rain makes when it hits the sidewalk’. I’ve lived a complicated yet adventurous life thus far. I am not from LA but have lived in San Francisco, Boston, Vermont, Arkansas, and Indiana. I have Korean and Japanese lineage making my historical dig a little uncomfortable. I have been on T(testosterone) for almost a decade and have come to rest easy as a transmasculine, non-binary person who loves the functional nature of clothing as much as deconstruction of an avant garde piece hanging in my home. I run long distance for meditation and will make any excuse to eat pastries at local coffee shops.

What makes me unique has been finding the humanity in people to support them no matter how difficult or different. The work I’ve done has been supervision/leadership of student and professional staff mentoring and coaching along the way. I’ve investigating claims of problematic behavior and providing reconciliation options. I’ve supported one-on-one new professionals and college students through difficult transitions all because it’s colliding with their academics. I’ve branded myself as an ‘educator’ because I truly love to incorporate learning anything to help a student or colleague while taking the time to learn about the person in front of me. I collect experiences through people’s stories often discovering hidden information and figuring out what to do with it. My prerogative is to give back the decision making power back to my client. Each person has to stand at the helm of their own ship. They are setting the course steering through waters of uncertainty, danger, and calm. They have to participate in the process; I can’t do it for them. Bringing all the stories I’ve heard has shaped what I can offer and keeps me curious to discover. My work can evolve. Right now I am rebranding SpeakOpenly.co in the new year to The Velveteen. I want this work to be sustainable, have the flexibility to evolve, and change as I do. Both from the children’s book The Velveteen Rabbit and from my own best friend, Latte the Velveteen, has been my inspiration for growth, acceptance, transformation, and rebirth. Latte is my ESA rabbit who has been with me through very difficult times. As his time starts to draw to a close, I want to honor his resiliency to stay with me beyond our collective time together. Per the advice I give others I am also investing in me through wellness practices and taking care of my home. I continue to invest in me in order to then invest in others creating an extension of goodwill and empathy forward beyond just one college at a time.

Okay, so here’s a deep one: What part of you has served its purpose and must now be released?
I had a moment at work where I was being pulled to perform these outreaches on a dime’s notice. I contact a student and make sure they are safe physically, emotionally. I had no time to understand what has happened and had interrupted a student’s session where they were already receiving help. It was embarrassing because I don’t prescribe to ever panic. It’s not beneficial. I could feel the edges of panicked in this situation. Moreover, I was upset with myself. I feel what others are feeling really strongly and blocking that panic to maintain my own mind and heart has been a process. What I’ve had to let go is the desperation to empathize with someone’s spiraling. I can understand what they are going through without losing myself to serve their needs. Building those invisible shields guards my own energy from being sucked away. Releasing that part of me is standing by the non-negotiable my own personal health. I don’t spend a large amount of time with friends or acquaintances as I did. It’s very draining for me because my they will naturally start to share intimate details about their struggles and it becomes inappropriate. Finding a place where I care about someone while they care about me is reciprocal respect. It’s very difficult to find and sustain so I curate my relationships finely. I can’t help people if my service to them is slowly killing me.

What did suffering teach you that success never could?
During the pandemic in February 2020 and June 2025 I was feeling so defeated and abandoned. It was the worst I ever felt as an adult. My mind was eating itself exhausted from being positive and trying to find financial security in a challenging market while not asking my family or friends for any help. In the pandemic when I stopped showing up no one reached out. In June 2025 I was initiating all the contact. I was persistent but respectful to not bother my mentors or my friends. It was very one sided. One friend that I had shared that I wasn’t doing okay sent back a text that I recognized word for word was the exact same message he sent a few days ago. Copy and paste. I still haven’t come back to that feeling or that person. I haven’t cut them out of my life or social media, but I don’t interact. The feeling that nothing matters returned. Instead of toxic positivity I let myself feel disappointed. I focused on me and what I could achieve. I am impatient and accepted that progress was going to be slow. I needed to go through the motions for me. Now, I do what I like. I take care of myself first. I draw the line of what I’m not going to do early. With my work, my goal is to get the job done. I love just as hard as I always have, but I curate it and direct it towards places and spaces it will be nurtured. I changed my coaching to be timeline to be limited. We meet once a week to check-in and we reach a goal. We can keep making goals and reach them, but the client has to put in the work. I have so much clarity and satisfaction in my life since I made those changes. It made a big difference to where I am now in achieving my personal goals. I’m looking forward to having my business continue to match that energy.

Next, maybe we can discuss some of your foundational philosophies and views? Is the public version of you the real you?
I’d like to think what people see is what they get with me. I am generally a curious, empathetic person who enjoys solving problems. Those traits have lead to helping people because I’ve found human behavior to be fascinating and very complex. We each have something good to offer the community. I think where people question if this is the real me or not is when I don’t fulfill their expectations based upon bias. People expect me to be docile and non-confrontation person because I’m Asian American and smol. If I see something that is clearly wrong I’m going to say something. Just because I’m courteous and respectful doesn’t mean you can keep asking 8 times if I will do something after I’ve said no 8 times. No is no; it’s a full answer. I believe people deserve some level of respect until you lose that privilege. When I share an idea friends and acquaintances create these ‘fantasies’ reeling about how amazing it will be to achieve XYZ. Then, they share how they can benefit from my achievement. It’s always catches me by surprise. My achievement is not about me but about how it serves them. It’s never sit right with me. I don’t need this extravagant life in order to be content. I don’t need a swarm of friends to enjoy the company of people. People are enough to be around. Point is review your biases and perceptions of others. Are you making them into a fantasy? Are you placing an unchecked, unnecessary expectation on a person? Slow down and take in the moment. I’ll put on mask to protect myself but not to cover up who I am and how I show up.

Okay, we’ve made it essentially to the end. One last question before you go. What light inside you have you been dimming?
I have a whole degree in creative writing that I haven’t really touched since undergrad. It has emerged through fliers or posts here and there. I made a commitment to being an educator by trading my spare time for webinars, late night emails, and mental health management calls. In the pandemic I was listening to a wide variety of music, mixing folklore hymns with EDM. They sparked some ideas that started to form the skeleton of a book series. It’s since re-emerged as a more defined timeline of events, characters, backstory, and now design. I want to keep working on it while exploring other mediums that I do love like fashion and interior design. Clothing continues to help me feel comfortable but also challenges awareness in my body. It makes dysphoria feel less heavy when I look and get dressed in the mirror. I’m looking at the fabric drapery, the lines, the textures, and the color combinations with a playful giddy. I’ve started to rip apart thrifted clothes to make them into new pieces. My love of design for the book series, the wardrobe, and even my home is experimental for me to produce something new. My home was going to be a space for gathering and now it’s going to be my home for experimenting, creating, hoarding vintage clothing, and a lot of furniture that I love to look upon each day.