APA Spotlight
"APA Spotlight" is a regular interview series on 8asians.com by Koji Steven Sakai interviewing Asian American community leaders from around the country.
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Stories from this series
Claire Mix, Producer/Writer/Director of Gila River and Mama: The Ruth Mix Story
Jan. 26, 2012 • Koji Steven Sakai
The first national organization to speak out against the illegal incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II was the Quakers. The Quakers have a long standing commitment to progressive causes. Many don’t know this but they were one of the first groups to fight to abolish slavery and have advocated for women’s rights and later civil rights as well. (To see some of the causes they are currently fighting for, click here.) Although the Quakers were the only national …
Sonia Sakamoto-Jog, Executive Director, Toronto Reel Asian International Film Festival
Oct. 21, 2011 • Koji Steven Sakai
Sonia Sakamoto-Jog (pictured on the left) joined Reel Asian as Executive Director in May of 2009 after graduating from the MBA program at the Rotman School of Management at the University of Toronto.Prior to being hired at Reel Asian, she worked at Maximum Films International (now a division of Entertainment One) where she was involved in all aspects of acquisitions, marketing, and sales. Her previous experience includes two years working as a strategy consultant for a branding agency in Tokyo, …
Helen H. Ota, Artistic Director, Cold Tofu
Oct. 13, 2011 • Koji Steven Sakai
Helen H. Ota is the Artistic Director of COLD TOFU, the nation’s premier Asian American comedy improvisation group. A member since 1993, she has performed in and produced numerous COLD TOFU improv and sketch shows. She is also the co-founder of Yes, And…Productions which produced Songs for a New World at the Tateuchi Democracy Forum in Downtown Los Angeles. They are currently working on a new musical which will make its world premiere in 2012. Helen is also a performing …
SHOKORA's Junichi Hernandez Yoshikai
Aug. 23, 2011 • Koji Steven Sakai
Last year I was lucky enough to be invited to Japan and meet with other Nikkei (Japanese migrants and their descendants) from around the world. As an Asian American, I admit I sometimes forget that there are people of Asian ancestry who live in Mexico. In fact, there are strong nikkei communities throughout the Americas. The biggest Nikkei population (outside of Japan) is in Brazil (with the United States coming in second). One of the people I met in Japan …
Ellen Somekawa, Executive Director, Asian Americans United
Aug. 3, 2011 • Koji Steven Sakai
Ellen Somekawa is a third-generation Japanese American from Minneapolis. There she was an activist in the Asian American student movement, the anti-apartheid movement, the anti-nuclear movement and the movement against uranium mining and for indigenous land rights in the Black Hills. Ellen received her M.A. in history at Penn, where her research focused on Southeast Asian refugee resettlement in Philadelphia. She was active in the Asian American Student Alliance, a group that successfully fought for Penn to change the offensive …
Lane Ryo Hirabayashi, George & Sakaye Aratani Chair, UCLA Asian American Studies Center
July 19, 2011 • Koji Steven Sakai
Lane Ryo Hirabayashi is professor in the Asian American Studies Department, and affiliate of the Asian American Studies Center at UCLA, where he is also the inaugural “George & Sakaye Aratani Chair in Japanese American Internment, Redress, and Community.” Lane earned an M.A. (1976) and then a Ph.D. (1981) in Socio-cultural Anthropology from the University of California, Berkeley. Subsequently, he held a post-doctoral fellowship at the UCLA’s Asian American Studies Center in 1981-82. Lane is author of over thirty scholarly …
