Kintsukuroi Screening and Restoring Our Brokenness

by | Mar 19, 2025 | Classes & Events, Other News

 KINTSUKUROI

FILM SCREENING
followed by Q&A with cast and crew

Thursday March 13, 6:00 pm
Rialto Cinemas Cerrito, 10700 San Pablo Ave, El Cerrito, CA

Tickets: $20

For tickets: https://rialtocinemas.com/coming-soon-cer/

Back by popular demand, join us for a theatrical screening of KINTSUKUROI. The film, with its cleverly written script, interwoven stories and depth, this movie is a must see and must see again favorite.  Get your tickets now! 
About the Film
The philosophy of KINTSUKUROI shows us that something shattered can be restored and made stronger and more beautiful. The term is an apt metaphor for the Japanese American experience of WWII.

Forced from their homes, farms and businesses, more than 120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly imprisoned simply because of their race. Our new feature-length film KINTSUKUROI follows the Ito family from pre-war San Francisco to the concentration camps of the American West to the battlefields of Europe as it endures one of the most shameful periods in American History.

RESTORING OUR BROKENNESS

Join us for an intergenerational conversation inspired by the film KINTSUKUROI by director Kerwin Berk.

Saturday, March 22
12pm to 3pm
J-Sei, 1285 66th St., Emeryville, CA

Free registration: https://bit.ly/3WE7cVV

Please note that the film will not be shown at the event but all are welcome, whether or not you have seen the film.

Kintsukuroi is the Japanese art practice of piecing together shards of pottery to repair, then using gold leaf to restore beauty and make it whole again. The film touches on the legacy of the Japanese American incarceration, a range of experiences, from loyalty to resistance, despair and loss, and rebuilding of lives. What is your connecting point and how does it impact you today?  Connecting Across Generations is an evolving collaboration of individuals and Japanese American community groups interested in broadening cross generational relations.

Connecting Across Generations including J-Sei, Japanese American Women Alumni of UC Berkeley, Japanese American Youth Alliance, Nikkei Student Union of UC Berkeley, Berkeley JACL, Berkeley Buddhist Temple, Okaeri Northern Cal, and Friends of Topaz Museum.

Letters to Home, an anthology of LGBTQ+ Nikkei experiences

by | Mar 18, 2025 | Classes & Events, Other News

Okaeri Northern California presents

Letters to Home: Art & Writing by LGBTQ+ Nikkei and Allies

Saturday, April 5, 2025, 1:30 pm

Join Okaeri for the Northern California launch of Okaeri’s book Letters to Home: Art & Writing by LGBTQ+ Nikkei and Allies. Hear from contributors eri oura, Ellen Tanouye, and Tomo Hirai for a live reading and engaging dialogue with moderator Stan Yogi. Book sales and signing, and light refreshments will follow. 

Live stream will be available. To access the live stream, please register and we will send out a link in advance. J-Sei is ADA-accessible, and there is a free parking lot and street parking available.  This event is co-presented by J-Sei & Omusubi. 

RSVP: https://bit.ly/Okaeri Nor Cal-booklaunch

Letters to Home

Edited by: Cody Uyeda, Michael Matsuno, and Rino Kodama

Letters to Home is among the first anthologies to spotlight LGBTQ+ Nikkei experiences and allyship through an intergenerational lens. Bringing together art, poetry, and story-telling from nearly 50 contributors across the US and Japan, it offers a nuanced exploration of the trials and triumphs of finding community, and the process of co-constructing a sense of belonging for queer and trans Nikkei.

 

Okaeri Community’s mission is to create visibility, compassionate spaces, and transformation for LGBTQ+ Nikkei and their families by sharing our stories and providing culturally-rooted support, education, community-building, and advocacy.  Okaeri is fiscally sposored by LTSC.

Criminals, a book reading and conversation

by | Mar 18, 2025 | Classes & Events, Featured

Criminals, a book reading and conversation

Saturday, April 26, 2 pm

Join Host Steven Okazaki with guests Judi Nihei and Jan Masaoka, for a book reading and conversation on Ben Masaoka’s Criminals and the Post-War Sansei Experience.  Masaoka’s moving debut novel tells the story of a brother and sister struggling to break out of a small Japanese American community in the late 1950s and early 60s.  

Criminals follows the lives of a sister and brother, Ruth and Hank Tanazaki, as they struggle to free themselves from the weight of their parents’ generation in a small Japanese American community in Los Angeles in the late 1950s and early 1960s. This poignant story of the double-edged nature of community—a force that supports the group, at cost to the individual—explores the possibilities and limits of seeking personal freedom through creativity. Masaoka’s dazzling, deeply-moving debut is also an eloquent addition to the canon of Asian American literature.

In Criminals, America is Godzilla rising from the sea at Venice Beach to stomp on the Japanese American Dream, barely noticing the dreamers below as they fight back with rocks, sticks and gaman. Masaoka’s hang-loose brilliance takes us on a vividly observed, wonderfully quirky, and deeply moving exploration of generational trauma. He captures the desires, blows, and little victories of a family on the fringes of a community where everyone is trying so hard not to rock the boat, they don’t notice their children are adrift. —Steven Okazaki, Academy Award-winning filmmaker

Join us for a book reading, book sales, and conversation.  

RSVP for this Free Event

About the Author

Ben Masaoka (1952–2024), born and raised in Venice, California, took off for Hawai’i as soon he could, living on the beach and working odd jobs so he could surf.  He eventually settled in Seattle where he married, taught High School English, and raised a family. His short stories have been published in the Chicago Review of Books and Catamaran Literary Reader. CRIMINALS is his first and only novel.  He died in September 2024 a few weeks before it was published.  

Hosted by

Steven Okazaki was in an All-Japanese American Boy Scout Troop with Ben Masaoka in 1964.  “It was a time when Japanese Americans did nearly everything together,” he says. “And then it started to change.  Especially in Venice, where we grew up, there was a lot of stuff coming at you really fast.  In high school, I was the artist and Ben was the surfer, that was his identity.  He was the coolest person I knew.”   

In conversation with

Judi Nihei met Ben at a screening of Steven‘s Unfinished Business in Seattle.  She says, “I’m grateful his voice is being heard.”

Jan Masaoka, Ben’s first cousin, says: “Ben’s book is a time machine.  It transported me back to the Japanese American world and our family life in LA in the 1950s.”

A Storied Career in Filmmaking: John Esaki

A Storied Career in Filmmaking: John Esaki

by | Mar 18, 2025 | Classes & Events, Featured

A Storied Career in Filmmaking: John Esaki

Saturday, May 10, 2 pm

Filmmaker John Esaki will share selected clips of his work and stories from his long career in film, which was shaped and guided by a community spirit of pioneering Asian American filmmakers.

John Esaki retired from the Japanese American National Museum in 2024 after more than 25 years. At JANM he was videographer, director and editor for several documentaries, including: Words Weavings & Songs, a profile of three Nisei women artists, and Harsh Canvas—The Art & Life of Henry Sugimoto. He later served as Director–Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center, V.P. of Programs, and Senior Philanthropy Officer.

He pursued an MFA in film at UCLA in the late 70’s. Under Prof. Robert A. Nakamura, who had recently founded Visual Communications Asian Pacific Media Arts Center, John volunteered as a production assistant for Hito Hata: Raise the Banner (1980) and eventually became involved with the scripting. The lure of making films about one’s own history and community enticed John to remain in SoCal for the next 5 decades.

For 20 years on staff at Visual Communications, John worked in development and production, directing Yuki Shimoda–Asian American Actor, Maceo: Demon Drummer from East L.A. the taiko odyssey of a Chicano teen, and Stand Up for Justice, a short film about Ralph Lazo, a Mexican/Irish American high school student who voluntarily accompanied his classmates to the Manzanar concentration camp during WW2. John also worked as a freelance videographer and sound recordist and he remains grateful to have been hired and mentored by several prominent Bay Area filmmakers: Loni Ding, Michael Chin, Steven Okazaki, Emiko Omori, Spencer Nakasako, Curtis Choy and Wayne Wang.   

The event is presented by Friends of Topaz Museum and J-Sei, with funding support by Topaz Museum.

Photo credits: Jeff Liu, Visual Communications

RSVP here
Botanical Printing on Paper 2025

Botanical Printing on Paper 2025

by | Mar 10, 2025 | Classes & Events, Featured, Other News

 BOTANICAL PRINTING ON PAPER

Saturday, May 31 or Sunday, June 1, 10 am to 4 pm

Learn to make prints on paper with natures own special botanicals. We will look at how to make papers print what nature can give. You can use the results for cards, origami, books and more.  Delve into the world of botanical printing, using natural leaves, flowers, roots or fruits of naure.  All materials will be provided for the workshop. Instructor Dorothy Yuki, an innovative designer.

Dorothy Yuki began as a fashion designer immediately after college but soon she became a partner of a manufacturing company, In Good Company, and designed kitchen soft goods and linens. She served as a production and design consultant for music production companies and start-ups, She returned to designing linens for Macy’s in the 80’s and lived internationally.in Barcelona Spain, Lisbon, Portugal, Montevideo Uruguay and Tequisquiapan Queretaro Mexico.  Now in her 70’s and living in San Francisco, she is engaged in many volunteer activities, Ruth’s Table, Artseed, SCRAP-sf, and FabMo. She also mentored at Bay High School. She was past President of Friends of Calligraphy and presently a Master Educator for the Macy’s Fashion Incubator San Francisco. She still has the time to do ‘art’ and has worked on projects for MMOCA, Flax Art and Design and Kalligraphia.

This workshop has been generously sponsored by Steve Ichinaga.  Discounted Workshop Fee: $50  Space is limited.  RSVP byMay 15th and indicate your preferred date.  A list of dried and fresh plants that you can bring with you will be provided after you sign up.