Perspectives in the Arts – April 18

Rey Fukuda (he/him, they/them) is a Japanese-Paraguayan singer-songwriter currently based in Los Angeles. They grew up internationally in places like Japan, the Dominican Republic, Guatemala, and Norway. They found music to find safety as a bi-racial transgender queer young person. Rey is self taught in guitar and is inspired by many artists such as Susana Baca, Mon Laferte, and Bill Withers. When he is not working on being a City planner and finding ways to bring social equity to City planning, he writes mixed language songs about long distance & chosen family, what it means to be a transgender immigrant and freedom. 

Jill Guillermo-Togawa (she/they), a yonsei, is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher of the Alexander Technique. In 1992 she founded Purple Moon Dance Project, the first dance company committed to increasing visibility for lesbians and women of color while incorporating AAPI traditions in American dance – in a groundbreaking vision that explored the continuum of intimacy between women. In 2009, Purple Moon premiered its seminal work, “When Dreams Are Interrupted,” a site-specific multi-disciplinary piece threading personal stories from the mass Japanese removal during WWII. Jill has offered their work and programs for women with no formal dance training, across the U.S., China and Canada, partnering with many artists and organizations serving LGBTQ+ and Women of Color communities, using the arts as a vehicle for social change, healing and peace.  Jill teaches in the Dept. of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai’i and lives with her wife, child, cat and dog, on the island of O‘ahu, where she is from.

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning artist, community organizer and cultural producer; Performer/Principal Writer of PULLproject Ensemble (TALES OF CLAMOR world premiere in 2019 at the Aratani Black Box); Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project (presenter of Tuesday Night Cafe -in its 23rd year- the longest-running Asian American-produced, public arts series in the country), founding member of Vigilant Love, organizer with Nikkei Progressives.  traci has been presented in hundreds of venues throughout the country as an author, theatre deviser/performer, storyteller, actor, lecturer, facilitator, artist organizer, and arts & culture consultant.  tkk’s writing, commentary, and work have been presented by a wide swath of media and literary publications (incl. NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, Elle.com, The Hollywood Reporter, Regent Press, Heyday Books, Bamboo Ridge Press, Chaparral Canyon Press, Tia Chucha Press, Entropy).  traci’s forthcoming book is being published this year by Writ Large Press/The Accomplices. traciakemi.com

IG:  traciakemi1 / https://www.instagram.com/traciakemi1/

Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) is an organic farmer, memory keeper, and artist. She is Yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese American, and gets to touch the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic nectarines, apricots, peaches and grapes for raisins. She activates her facilitation, leadership, and creative skills as a performer and leader in the following organizations: co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, team member of Center for Performance and Civic Practice re-imagining group, member of University Advisory Board (CSU Fresno) board of Trustees of Western States Arts Federation, board of directors of Art of the Rural, and perennial volunteer change-worker. In 2021, she was named one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100. Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening.  Profound Grief and Radical Joy, published by Alliance for California Traditional Arts, June 2020.

Michael Matsuno is a flutist based in Los Angeles, CA. His versatility as a performer encompasses work in classical, experimental and improvised music. He has collaborated with established musicians and composers on new music for the flute, often dealing specifically with issues of tuning, timbre and physicality. He has been featured on festivals of contemporary music including La Rara Noche, June in Buffalo, Harvard Group for New Music, and LA’s Monday Evening Concerts. Michael is currently a doctoral candidate in contemporary music performance at UC San Diego. His research follows various paths towards understanding how music shapes contemporary life. His original study published in Psychology of Music engaged a group of autistic programmers and creatives working in video game design. The piece highlights the importance of everyday music-listening in constituting identity and subjectivity among autistic adults.

On the Frontiers of Gender Identity – Mar 21

Elliott Fukui (he/him) is an organizer, facilitator and trainer with two decades of experience working with Queer, Trans, Mad, Disabled, low income and BIPOC communities. He has a special love and passion for movement history, coalition and solidarity work, popular education, and abolishing systems that keep folks in cages physically, spiritually, and mentally. Currently he’s on the Education Team of Fireweed Collective and runs Mad Queer Organizing Strategies, scheming with and supporting Disabled and Mad folks surviving the apocalypse. He’s also working on a Sci-Fi/Fantasy book for kids experiencing forced treatment and/or detainment.  

Tomo Hirai (she/her) is a queer trans Shin-Nisei writer and artist working out of the San Francisco Bay Area. She is a staff writer for the Nichi Bei Weekly and an editor for Anime Feminist. Her latest credited project is for the cyberpunk tabletop adventure game: Hard Wired Island, where she served as one of the game’s diversity and sensitivity consultants. Her artistic credits include A Place of Her Own, featured at the Marin Museum of Contemporary Art and J-Sei.

JJ Ueunten (they/them) is a queer yonsei Okinawan and Japanese person, who was raised in Honolulu, Hawai’i, before moving to the Chicago area 20 years ago. They serve as the Community Engagement Coordinator at the Japanese American Service Committee. They are also part of Nikkei Uprising, a group of Japanese American activists in Chicago working toward the collective liberation of all people, and Tsuru for Solidarity. Though it’s on pause right now, they have a massage practice called Blue Turtle Bodywork, which strives to center the needs of queer and trans people of color.

Mia Yamamoto (she/her) is a Japanese-American transgender woman, former public defender and current criminal defense and civil rights lawyer, past President, California Attorneys for Criminal Justice, past President, Japanese American Bar Association, past President, Asian Pacific American Women Lawyer’s Alliance.  Co-founder, Multi-Cultural Bar Alliance, co-founder, Asian Pacific American Bar Association.  Board member, International Bridges to Justice, an international human rights organization dedicated to defending accused persons and eliminating investigative torture worldwide.  She is a recipient of a number of awards, including  one of the inaugural Stonewall Awards for the American Bar Association, as well as from Women Lawyers Association of Los Angeles, Los Angeles County Bar Association, and Philippine American Bar Association.  She is a frequent commentator in print and television media.

a.t. furuya (moderator,they/them) is a queer transgender yonsei born and raised on Kumeyaay land also known as San Diego. a.t. experienced unstable housing throughout their childhood mostly growing up in Barrio Logan and a flower shop run by their mom and aunt. They are a U.S. Historian with an emphasis on the experience of Japanese American women who were incarcerated during WWII and LGBTQ history. They continue to challenge systemic oppression in institutions they are working in, within their communities, and themself. a.t. is the first Japanese American to receive a nonbinary gender marker in United States. a.t. currently works at a national nonprofit supporting LGBTQ+ inclusion in K-12 schools. a.t. and their spouse Dominic are full time caretakers for Aunty Joy, her sweet dog Mochi, and their bunny Mina. 

Lessons from Two Pandemics – March 7 

Lisa Fujie Parks is a multiracial Japanese and white queer parent who lived in Japan for part of her childhood and has made home in Oakland, California for the past 25 years. Lisa’s work as a public health professional focuses on safety and healing for all families and communities through intersectional equity and justice. She is also a mindfulness and dharma practitioner and teacher-in-training who volunteers with East Bay Meditation Center’s family practice group and other sanghas. She serves as the Board Co-Chair of Our Family Coalition, a San Francisco Bay Area nonprofit that advances equity for the full and expanding spectrum of LGBTQ families and children through support, education, and advocacy.

Kris Mizutani, born in Japan and raised in West LA, is a Gen X and Yonsei emergency room nurse who resides in the San Francisco Bay Area. Prior to nursing, they started off in HIV/AIDS work, an experience that greatly shaped their entry into acute care nursing. Kris currently works with dual and triple-diagnosed clients in the SF Shelter Health system and the Emergency Department. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, she has noticed a rise in high-risk behaviors in patients. Outside of nursing, Kris serves on the Okaeri Connects’ planning committee and organizes for Omusubi, a space for queer women and trans people of Japanese descent.

Robert Nakatani was born in Honolulu, Hawaii 75 years ago to Nisei parents.  18 years later, he went to college at Stanford and has lived in Berkeley since graduating, except for a three-year stint as a Peace Corps Volunteer in the early 70s and a four-year gig with the ACLU LGBT Project located in New York in the late 90s.  Robert worked as an estate planning and civil rights attorney in a small firm in the Castro District of San Francisco in the 80s where the large majority of his clients were people with HIV.  Robert later worked for the ACLU of Northern California until he retired in 2015.

Lance Toma  is the CEO of San Francisco Community Health Center (SFCHC) and has been dedicated to the work of SFCHC since 1999. Under Lance’s leadership, SFCHC transformed into its current brand after a 30-year history of being known as Asian and Pacific Islander Wellness Center – or API Wellness – and in 2015 became the newest federally qualified health center in San Francisco in over 30 years. Lance is passionate about his work in service of A&PI, LGBTQ, HIV/AIDS, and people of color communities. Lance was recently appointed by the California State Senate to serve on the Commission of Asian Pacific Islander American Affairs. He was recognized by the San Francisco Pride Board of Directors in 2020 as a San Francisco LGBTQ Pride Celebration 2020 Community Grand Marshal. He was honored with the 2011 Community Catalyst Award by the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance.

Eric Arimoto, (moderator) is a psychotherapist who works with the Department of Mental Health.  Eric lives in Long Beach with his partner Paul and has two wonderful families (birth and chosen). He identifies as a 56 yr old, 4th gen. Japanese American gay man.   Eric came out while in the US Army and as a result of many years of therapy and sobriety, returned to college to get a masters degree in clinical psychology.  Eric has been a part of Okaeri since its inception in 2012 and continues to champion his pet project -to invite LGBTQ people over 40 yrs old back to the “village” and to reclaim history and community for JA LGBTQ folk.  Eric also has a private practice that focuses on providing support for LGBTQ adults, adolescents and couples.