Navigating With(Out) Instruments, a Bay Area book event with traci kato-kiriyama

Navigating With(Out) Instruments, a Bay Area book event with traci kato-kiriyama

by | Feb 1, 2022 | Classes & Events, Other News

Navigating With(out) Instruments

A Bay Area book event with traci kato-kiriyama

Saturday, March 12, 2 pm

“traci kato-kiriyama’s Navigating With(out) Instruments will expand your heart and spirit in all directions – in the marrow of your bones, deep into the earth, out into the streets, and into the stars and beyond where our collective radical imagination and our ancestors of past, present and future beckon us to listen more, ask more questions, stoke our hunger for justice, and love in ways that crack us open beyond what we believed possible.” Yumi Sakugawa; author of Your Illustrated Guide to Becoming One with the Universe

In Navigating With(out) Instruments, traci kato-kiriyama uses her present—political unrest, family love and loss, her own cancer diagnosis—to bridge the traumas of the past generations with the hope of the future ones. Often seamless, often with a loud bang, kato-kiriyama moves from genre to genre, from poetry to prose, essay to monologue to letters—framed by US colonialism and war mongering alongside the intimate navigation through memory, death, and transformation—to urge readers to protect and to share their legacies, both personal and communal, as a means of global survival.

Join us for an engaging and inspiring time at this Bay Area release celebration with traci kato kiriyama. The event is co-presented by Omusubi and J-Sei.

traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning multi-, inter-, and transdisciplinary artist, recognized for their work as a writer, performer, theatre deviser, cultural producer, and community organizer.

Join us for a hybrid book event with an online reading, followed by a Meet the Author book sales and signing to follow at J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville (near Hollis St).

RSVP on Eventbrite for the ZOOM link.

Love in the Library – A Book Event with Maggie Tokuda Hall

Love in the Library – A Book Event with Maggie Tokuda Hall

by | Feb 1, 2022 | Classes & Events

Love in the Library – A Book Event with Maggie Tokuda Hall

Sat, April 2

  • Author Talk with Maggie Tokuda Hall and special guest Wendy Tokuda – 1 pm
  • Book Sales & Signing – 2 pm
  • Pre-Event Bento – 11:30-12:30 pm pick up and picnic outdoors at J-Sei.

To fall in love is already a gift. But to fall in love in a place like Minidoka, a place built to make people feel like they weren’t human-that was miraculous. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, Tama is sent to live in a War Relocation Center in the desert. All Japanese Americans from the West Coast elderly people, children, babies-now live in prison camps like Minidoka. To be who she is has become a crime, it seems, and Tama doesn’t know when or if she will ever leave. Trying not to think of the life she once had, she works in the camp’s tiny library, taking solace in pages bursting with color and light, love and fairness. And she isn’t the only one. George waits each morning by the door, his arms piled with books checked out the day before.

Beautifully illustrated and complete with an afterword, back matter, and a photo of the real Tama and George-the author’s grandparents, Maggie Tokuda-Hall’s elegant love story for readers of all ages sheds light on a shameful chapter of American history.

Maggie Tokuda-Hall is the author of Also an Octopus, illustrated by Benji Davies, the novel The Mermaid, the Witch, and the Sea, and the graphic novel Squad. She lives in Oakland, California.

Yas Imamura is the illustrator of The Very Oldest Pear Tree by Nancy I. Sanders, Winged Wonders by Meeg Pincus, and other books for children. She lives in Portland, Oregon.

Wendy Tokuda (Special Guest)  is an award-winning journalist who worked as a primetime anchor in local TV news for almost 40 years, primarily in the San Francisco Bay Area.

BOOK EVENT – details

11:30-12:30 pm – Pre-Event Bento Picnic – Pick-up To-Go or eat outdoors at J-Sei.

1:00-2:00 pm – Hybrid Book Event – an in-person or online reading. Limited seats are available. Contact jill@j-sei.org to reserve your seats. Participants must show proof of vaccination.

2:00 – 3:00 pm – Meet Author Maggie Tokuda Hall –  book sales and signing to follow outdoors at:

J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville (near Hollis St).

RSVP on Eventbrite

 

Buy A Book

Purchase your book at the event or pre-order book from Eastwind Books.  Use coupon code “JSEI” at checkout. Indicate pick up on April 2nd at J-Sei or request shipping.

PRE-ORDER BENTO

With the spring season, we thought it would be fun to have you join the community for Pre-Event lunch outdoors.

Order from MY FRIEND YUJI.

Love In The Library Menu

Kids Huli Chicken & Salmon Donburi – $8 

marinated huli chicken / salmon / macaroni salad / broccoli / rice


Tuna Poke over rice – $18 
marinated tuna / sushi rice / macaroni salad / edamame salad

Loco Moco – $18
llano seco pork and akaushi beef patty / gravy / soft egg / rice / macaoni salad / cabbage slaw

Lomi Opae – $9
1/2 pint Opae(dried and fresh shrimp) / tomato / sweet onion / pepper / green onion/ vinegar / shoyu 

 

 

Order from MY FRIEND YUJI.

Instructions: Click “Order Now”. Select pick-up times of 11:30, 12:00 or 12:30. Choose menu item. Add item. View order. Then, continue to payment.

Pick up at J-Sei, 1285 66th Street, Emeryville.  Enjoy lunch outdoors.

 

Hope & Peace in 2022

Hope & Peace in 2022

by | Jan 27, 2022 | Classes & Events, Other News

HOPE & PEACE in 2022!

We invite you to a Virtual Oshogatsu Celebration, a special program with Claudine Naganuma to share her work with Dance with PD and their trip to Kyoto on Friday, January 28th, 1 pm

With more challenges to endure, we call on the Year of the Tiger to bring strength and determination to carry us through.

A special chirashi bento is available by pre-order for pick-up.  Suggested donation: $12  

To RSVP for ZOOM link, email jill@j-sei.org with “Hope & Peace” in subject line.

Peace About Life: Dancing with Parkinson’s

featuring Claudine Naganuma, artistic director of dNaga Dance Company

Friday, January  28, 2022 1 to 2pm PST

 

Celebrating 20 years with dNaga, artistic director Claudine Naganuma will share about the artistic process, art as a tool for healing, Dance for Parkinson’s and their performance at the World Parkinson’s Congress in Kyoto. Claudine will be joined by Cathy Wake Quides who will share reflections on Dance for PD and performing with dNaga in Japan.

For more information about Dance for PD® or dNaga visit dNaga.org

Photo by Solitaire Miguel, dancer Claudine Naganuma

Book Cover Photo by Matt Haber

Oshogatsu Bento

We do miss dining with you.

Although we cannot be together in person, we are offering a limited number of chirashi bento by Chef Yuji for a $12 donation.  The bento pick up times on Jan 28th will be assigned for 12 or 12:30 to maintain social distancing protocol.

Please complete your order below. You can indicate the number of bento you are ordering by clicking on the comment box and adding a note to us.

If you have any questions or would like to order by phone, please call J-Sei  at (510) 654-4000

Peace About Life, Support the Work

Peace About Life: Dancing with Parkinson’s, a book in both English and Japanese, offers first-hand accounts of struggling, thriving, re-defining identity, and finding peace while living with Parkinson’s disease. Claudine Naganuma, artistic director of dNaga Dance Company and certified Dance for PD® instructor, spent years interviewing dancers living with Parkinson’s disease, as well as some of their neurologists. The interviews were then taken into the studio to inspire and serve as audio for dance pieces.

The book is available for $20 with all proceeds to support Dance for PD free workshops.  Order the book below or make a donation to support dNaga Dance Co.

Senior Housing: Finding the Right Fit

Senior Housing: Finding the Right Fit

by | Jan 26, 2022 | Classes & Events, Other News

Senior Housing: Finding the Right Fit
Thurs, Feb 10, 2 pm

With advanced age, transitions in the home, health and mobility concerns, isolation, and other care needs, how do we determine what options are available and what is the best fit for ourselves or our loved ones.

Learn about the different types of senior housing scenarios and level of care provided. Consider your priorities and what questions to ask when you visit different senior housing locations.  Miyuki Iwata and Veta Jacqulin, J-Sei Case Managers, will provide a framework to begin this conversation. We invite you to bring your questions and share your experience with finding senior housing options.

Consider options in advance for yourself and loved ones. Begin the conversation.

RSVP for the ZOOM link with “Senior Housing” in the subject line.

J-Sei COVID-19 – Delay of On-Site Class Re-Opening

J-Sei COVID-19 – Delay of On-Site Class Re-Opening

by | Jan 8, 2022 | COVID-19, Other News

UPDATE 1/24/22:  We will delay re-opening of In-Person classes until March 14, 2022. Stay safe and let us know if we can assist you in any way. We look forward to seeing you.

Due to the highly contagious Omicron variant of COVID-19, J-Sei is delaying the re-opening of In-Person classes until February 1, 2022.  Most of the classes will offer online options. The instructors will provide more information for online options.

J-Sei continues to monitor the information provided by the Center for Disease control for the State of California and the Department of Public Health in Alameda and Contra Costa counties.  And while the news and information is a lot to filter through, we aim to do our best to maintain the safest practices and protocol.

The following recommendations from the City of Berkeley, you may find helpful as we “up the tools” for our safety and precautions.

Please let us know if we can assist you or your family members as we navigate this set back.

 

RECENT NEWS from the City of Berkeley – January 7, 2022

WITH UNPRECEDENTED SPREAD OF COVID-19, UP THE TOOLS FOR YOUR PANDEMIC GAME
Know how and when to isolate, test, vaccinate and mask

Berkeley, California (Friday, January 07, 2022) – You may just feel like you have the sniffles or a common cold, but you should treat it as COVID-19: stay home unless you get a negative test, isolate as required locally and notify those you may have seen recently.

For the rest of us, blunting Omicron’s spread and severity requires upping our game with the tools we’re already familiar with. Use boosters to stay up to date with vaccination. Double mask or, better, use an N95 or KN95. Meet outdoors with others and keep indoor spaces well ventilated. Budget your risk knowing that risk is extremely high.

These steps now take on greater importance as the hyper-infectious Omicron variant tears through our community, doubling the cases of even our highest previous spike. While these acts help protect you and those you love, they are particularly important for the vulnerable among us, such as the elderly or immunocompromised. [READ MORE]