Seen and Unseen: Opening and Meet Curators Amy Sueyoshi and Stan Yogi

Sunday, October 11, 4 pm

Celebrate the launch of Seen and Unseen: Queering Japanese American History before 1945, a virtual exhibit co-curated by Amy Sueyoshi and Stan Yogi and hosted by J-Sei. Be among the first to get a glimpse of the exhibit. Hear from the curators on their inspiration for Seen and Unseen and the discoveries they made in putting the exhibit together. Prepare for a virtual toast and raise a glass with us as we take a new look at same sex relations in early Japanese America.

Seen and Unseen: Queering Japanese American History Before 1945 is the first-ever exhibit focused on Nikkei (Japanese Americans) who were involved in intimate same-sex relationships or defied gender roles in the early 20th century.

Queer Compulsions: Love, Sex and Scandal in Turn of the Century Japanese America

Sunday, November 8, 4 pm

As poet Yone Noguchi wrote letters of love to his “Daddy” Charles Warren Stoddard, Kosen Takahashi declared himself the “queerest Nipponese” to Blanche Partington. And, while Joaquin Miller most preferred Japanese “boys” to come live with him in the Oakland Hills, San Franciscans involved in a “fellatio ring” found each other in front of Japanese and Chinese storefronts. Join historian Amy Sueyoshi in a talk about how Issei forged queer love in the first two decades of the twentieth century and its indelible impact on the formation of a modern gay identity.

Amy Sueyoshi is a historian by training with an academic appointment at San Francisco State University. Amy has authored two books and numerous articles at the intersection of queer studies and Asian American studies.

We Were Here and Queer Before the Issei

Tues, November 17, 7 pm

Japanese words for generational identity, from Issei to Gosei, are now taken for granted by Japanese American community members and the scholars who study them.  However, these terms only entered common use in the mid-1920s, four decades after the beginning of mass Japanese emigration to Hawai’i and the continental United States. Professor Andrew Way Leong documents how early Japanese immigrant community leaders developed and used the idea of generation to promote ideas of stable, permanent settlement through heterosexual marriage and child-rearing. This turn to generational thinking has, despite good intentions, reduced our awareness of less settled and more impermanent forms of queer and same-sex intimacies in early Japanese American communities. How has this shift obscured queer lives?

Andrew Way Leong is a dai-nisei/4.5 generation Japanese/Chinese American and Assistant Professor of English at the University of California, Berkeley. He is the translator of Lament in the Night (Kaya Press 2012), a collection of two novels by Shōson Nagahara, an author who wrote for a Japanese reading public during the 1920s. Leong is completing a book manuscript entitled A Queer, Queer Race: Origins for Japanese/American Literature. This book examines Japanese and English language texts written by Sadakichi Hartmann, Yoné Noguchi, Arishima Takeo, and other authors who resided in the United States between 1885 and 1924.

Queer Cinematic Visions of Nikkei History

Tuesday, December 1, 7 pm

Join award-winning filmmaker Tina Takemoto for a screening and discussion of two short experimental films engaging with the tactile and sensory dimensions of queer Japanese American history. Takemoto combines found footage and archival materials with performance art and popular music to conjure immersive fantasies that honor queer Asian Americans who lived, loved, and labored together during the prewar era and beyond.

Tina Takemoto is a filmmaker and scholar who has exhibited widely and was awarded Grand Jury Prize for Best Experimental Film at Slamdance and Best Experimental Film Jury Award at Austin LGBT Film Festival. Takemoto is a board member of Queer Cultural Center and dean of Humanities and Sciences at California College of the Arts.

The Virtual Exhibit programs are free.  RSVP on Eventbrite is required to receive a ZOOM link. Return to Exhibit Info page to RSVP or for more info via the link below.