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UID:events.uid.1360@www.discovernikkei.org
DTSTART:20070610T000000Z
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DESCRIPTION:<strong>The Art of Jimmy Mirikitani</strong>\n<em>June 10 - Aug
 ust 12\, 2007</em>\n\nThis summer ONLC is hosting a collection of painting
 s and drawings by <a href="/wiki/index.php/Jimmy_Tsutomu_Mirikitani">Jimmy
  Mirkitani</a> that explore his life and work\, the lasting impacts of war
  and discrimination\, and the healing power of creativity.\n\n"Make art no
 t war" is Jimmy Mirikitani’s motto. Jimmy is an 87-year-old artist who w
 as born in Sacramento\, California in 1920 and raised and educated in Hiro
 shima\, Japan. He returned to the United States in 1938 to pursue a career
  in art\, and was living in Seattle with his sister Kazuko when the Japane
 se attacked Pearl Harbor on December 7\, 1941.\n\nExecutive Order 9066 for
 ced Jimmy and his sister to leave their home and move to separate internme
 nt camps hundreds of miles apart. Jimmy was sent to Tule Lake War Relocati
 on Camp\, located about 150 miles south of the Oregon-California border. H
 e renounced his U.S. citizenship in protest there. After the war ended\, J
 immy and hundreds of others continued to be held without charge\, first in
  Tule Lake\, then in a Department of Justice INS camp in Crystal City\, Te
 xas. He was transferred to “relaxed internment\,” working the 12 hour 
 night shift\, 6 days a week\, sorting vegetables on an assembly line at Se
 abrook Farms in New Jersey\, and was released from there in August of 1947
 . A single lawyer\, Wayne Collins\, worked for decades to help Jimmy and 5
 \,000 other renunciants reclaim the citizenship they had given up under du
 ress.\n\nJimmy arrived in New York City in the early 1950s to attempt to r
 esume his art career. When an art professor found him sleeping in the Colu
 mbia University library\, he was referred to the New York Buddhist Church 
 where he was provided with room\, board\, and training as a cook. For year
 s\, he traveled the East Coast working seasonal jobs.\n\nJimmy’s U.S. ci
 tizenship was finally restored in 1959\, but by then he had moved so often
  that the government’s letter never reached him. Eventually\, Jimmy beca
 me a live-in cook on Park Avenue. But when his employer died in the late 1
 980’s\, Jimmy found himself without home or job. Within a year he was ho
 meless and living in Washington Square Park in New York City\, selling his
  artwork to survive. He was homeless for two decades.\n\nIn 2001\, he met 
 Linda Hattendorf\, who later produced a documentary film\, <em>The Cats of
  Mirikitani</em>\, about Jimmy’s life and work. She helped him apply for
  Social Security\, SSI\, and housing benefits\, and in 2002 he moved into 
 an assisted-living retirement center. Later that same year\, he was reunit
 ed with his sister Kazuko for the first time in 60 years.\n\nPortland show
 ing made possible by The Wing Luke Asian Museum. Curated by Roger Shimomur
 a\, American artist and former internee. Exhibit graphic design by Wilmer 
 Galindo and Michelle Kumata. Thanks also to Linda Hattendorf\, director of
  the documentary film The Cats of Mirikitani.\n\nExhibit hours:\nTuesday -
  Saturday 11 am to 3 pm\, Sundays noon to 3 pm.\nAdmission is $3 (free for
  Friends of the Legacy Center).\n\nOregon Nikkei Legacy Center\n121 NW 2nd
  Avenue\nPortland\, OR 97209\n503-224-1458\n<a>www.oregonnikkei.org</a>\n<
 a>onlc@oregonnikkei.org</a>\n
DTSTAMP:20240423T204719Z
SUMMARY:Exhibition of artwork by Jimmy Mirikitani
URL:/en/events/2007/06/10/artwork-by-jimmy-mirikitani-portland/
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