Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora

The time for this event is PST.

First Voice presents the third annual Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora: WE never die, an on-line celebration of life created and conceived by America’s first nationally recognized Asian American storyteller, Brenda Wong Aoki and Asian American jazz pioneer Composer Mark Izu.

WE never die is a healing ritual to celebrate the eternal spirit within. Even after our physical bodies are gone, our spirits live on - in the memories of people whose lives we touch, in the art we create, and in the stories we share.

During the first hour of Story Circle, our presenting artists will share personal offerings they have created specifically for this occasion. Participants will then have the opportunity to engage in facilitated small group discussions with one another where they are invited to share their own stories and any burning issues that may be on their minds and in their hearts.

The Story Circle of the Japanese Diaspora gathers together the lost tribe of people of Japanese descent who were forced to scatter during the incarceration. We embrace our mixed-race children and the Shin-Issei community in order to heal, comfort, and strengthen together through the power of personal story. In sharing our stories we understand how our collective history impacts our present-day lives and lights the way for our future, and future generations to come. The Story Circle is a heart centered event. All presenters and facilitators are artists, healers, or spiritual leaders.

Presenters and artists include:

Andi Wong (digital and teaching artist and arts advocate, based in SF)

Chizu Omori (a Nisei activist, journalist, filmmaker and internment camp survivor)

Eryn Kimura, (a Hapa Gosei filmmaker & multimedia artist based in SF and host of the event)

Derek Nakamoto (veteran producer and composer with an illustrious 30 year career of producing, composing & arranging for artists such as Michael Jackson, Whitney Houston & Janet Jackson, based in LA)

devorah major (SF’s third Poet Laureate, based in SF)

Hafez Modirzadeh (pioneering composer, saxophonist, and music theorist whose musical approach blends American Jazz with Iranian dastgah heritages, based in NY )

Kenny Endo (American musician and Taiko Master, based in Hawaii)

Mas Koga (Shin-Issei musician/composer, based in New York)

Nancy Ukai (A Topaz descendent, writer, researcher, and Project Director of 50 Objects)

Sara Sithi-Amnuai (professional musician, composer, and creative technologist, based in LA)

Satsuki Ina (professor emeritus at CA State University Sacramento, psychotherapist specializing in the treatment of trauma, and founder of Tsuru for Solidarity)

Shoko Hikage (a natori koto master sent from Japan to found the Sawaii School of Koto in America)

Traci Kato-Kiriyama (award-winning multi-, inter- and transdisciplinary artist and author of Navigating With(out) Instruments, based in LA)