It is February 2022, and the 80th anniversary of the signing of Executive Order 9066 has just passed with a groundswell of events commemorating a National Japanese American Day of Remembrance. I am grateful to have participated in a few, and proud of the Japanese American community for all of …
Yonsei artist Lauren Iida and I first met online years ago when I interviewed her from Cambodia. Since that conversation her arts practice has expanded and deepened, as has her entrepreneurship and mentorship—all of these factors making her career an exciting one to watch. Her beautifully evocative paper cutting artworks …
In 2014, I was training to be a discussion leader for the intergenerational dialogues that are an integral part of the Tule Lake pilgrimage. In the training session with 20+ participants, we were given three minutes to introduce ourselves to each other, in pairs. I was sitting next to a …
Strings of origami cranes, circles of wish lanterns, maneki nekos and daruma figures—for decades I’ve watched my sister Teruko grow as an artist. I remember Teruko’s pencil sketches and charcoal drawings that our mother framed in our hallway to Teruko’s first solo show in Sacramento to public art installations in …
A maneki neko statue keeps moving mysteriously around a “sort of” Japanese restaurant in Boyle Heights. A music teacher keeps hearing some drumming in Leimert Park, with no visible drummer. A team of kid detectives roams Los Angeles, looking for ghosts—not to vaporize or “bust” them, but to listen to …
Was I looking at a pile of charred kindling, a set of raven’s wings or feathers?
In a heightened wave of anti-Asian racism, including attacks on Asian elders and the murders of 8 Asian women in Atlanta, I have felt the need to reach out—to family, to friends, to community. (For more about what’s been happening in the Seattle area, including a response from Yonsei professor …
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