Taste of Mokuhanga: Japanese Woodblock Print Workshop

Saturday, February 3rd, Friday, February 23rd, and Sunday, February 25th — Workshops are FULL, Waiting list only.

Join us for a 3-hour introductory Japanese Woodblock Print workshop. Participants will be introduced to the art of Japanese woodblock printing called Ukiyo-E technique. Tomoko Murakami, a Japanese-born printmaking artist, will demonstrate the carving and printing processes. Participants will create small Ukiyo-E prints while learning to carve their woodblocks! All materials are provided, and all levels are welcome.  Class fee: $45 (includes materials)

RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with “woodblock” in the subject line and indicate your preferred date.

Beginning Ukulele

Tuesdays, 12:45-1:45

The joy of music is good for the soul. Learn and practice the basics of ukulele, from chords to strumming, and fine-tuning rhythm and voice. We offer this beginning class in 8-week sessions. Susan Sullivan has been teaching ukulele at J-Sei for many years. She invites you to join in her love of music.  Suggested donation: $28/for 4 classes, or $8 drop-in. RSVP to jill@j-sei.org

Long-Overdue Reparations for African Americans: Why Japanese Americans and AAPI’s Should Care – Saturday, Feb 10, 2 to 4 pm (Hybrid)

 Don Tamaki, who served on the 9-member California Reparations Task Force, will make the case that the racial pathology that resulted in the incarceration of 120,000 Japanese Americans has its origins in the cultural values, policies, and laws that propped up slavery and its aftermath. Four months after the murder of George Floyd on May 25, 2020, which triggered the largest protests in U.S. history, the California Legislature passed AB 3121 creating the Task Force to Study and Develop Reparation Proposals for African Americans.

 The Task Force convened in June of 2021, and on June 29, 2023 its ground-breaking 1,100 page Final Report was presented to the Legislature.  The Final Report traces the harm of 246 years of slavery, 90 years of racial segregation after slavery ended, and decades more of continuing discrimination—resulting in today’s outcomes.  

 “California’s history is rife with instances of how anti-Black animus so easily morphed to target other people of color too. Decades after California passed Fugitive Slave Laws and adopted Jim Crow policies, the rounding up of Japanese American families was so normal as to be beyond question.”  Don Tamaki is a Senior Counsel at Minami Tamaki LLP, and participated on the legal team that reopened Korematsu v. the United States. 

Co-presented by Friends of Topaz Museum. RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/long-overdue

Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Mine Okubo

Art Talk by scholar ShiPu Wang – Saturday, March 2, 2 pm (In-person only)

Pictures of Belonging brings together over ninety works by three pioneering Japanese American artists from the pre–World War II era. Despite long careers and critical acclaim, Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo have largely been overlooked in traditional American art history. This groundbreaking exhibition reintroduces their work and explores their deep connections with each other for the first time. The traveling exhibition will begin at the Utah Museum of Fine Arts (Feb-June 2024), Smithsonian American Art Museum (Nov 2024-Aug 2025) and will follow at several other sites. 

Curator and scholar Dr. ShiPu Wang returns to J-Sei to talk about the new exhibit he has curated. He is the Coats Endowed Chair in the Arts and Professor of Art History and Visual Culture at the University of California, Merced, and Commissioner of the Smithsonian National Portrait Gallery. Pictures of Belonging: Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi, and Miné Okubo, co-published by the Japanese American National Museum and the University of California Press, will be available for purchase for $50. 

Co-presented by Friends of Topaz Museum. RSVP at http://tinyurl.com/pictures-of-belonging