Nikkei Stroll through the Generations at UCB

Sunday, September 21 @ 12pm

Join Connecting Across Generations* for an intergenerational stroll through the UC Berkeley campus to learn about Nikkei at UCB history, past to present. 

We will walk from the Westgate (by the cherry trees) to Sather Gate to Sproul Plaza to Alumni House to the First Congregational Church, followed by refreshments at the Jodo Shinshu Center with the opportunity to connect across generations! We will hear stories from Nancy (JAWA UCB), Kimi (Friends of Topaz Museum), Peter Horikoshi (East Bay Japanese for Action) and Alec Macdonald (Hapa Issues), Professor Emeritus Evelyn Nakano Glenn, current NSU students, and more! 

Bring good walking shoes, a water bottle, and sunscreen/hats. Hope to see you there! Let us know you are coming on this RSVP form!

Parking: 11:30am-11:45am the Jodo Shinshu Center parking lot will be open (2140 Durant Ave, Berkeley). Street parking is also available. 

Accessibility: The walking route will be wheelchair accessible, but it is hilly!

Route: The Westgate (by the cherry trees) to Sather Gate to Sproul Plaza to Alumni House to the First Congregational Church to the Jodo Shinshu Center.

*Connecting Across Generations (CAG) is to provide spaces to build community and conversation across generations. It is a collaboration between different Bay Area organizations including: J-Sei, Japanese American Youth Alliance (JAYA), and Berkeley Nikkei Student Union (NSU) at UC Berkeley, Berkeley Chapter of Japanese American Citizens League (BJACL), Friends of Topaz Museum, Tsuru for Solidarity, and Japanese American Women Alumnae of UCB (JAWAUCB).

Nikkei Community Stories Through Art, a pre-festival book event

Sunday, September 28th, 11 am

Join us for a joint book event for Seattle Samurai and Belly Like Drum, as part of J-Sei’s pre-festival program.  How do stories of our past shape our current trajectory? What stories and legacies are remembered through illustrative storytelling? Hear from author Kelly Goto about her father Sam Goto’s legacy as an illustrator.  Meet artist Rob Sato, Roger Oda and Kimi Maru, collaborators of Belly Like Drum, who seek to pass on stories and recipes for building community.

Be drawn into the artistry of Nikkei community. Buy a book. Then, stay and join J-Sei’s Annual Family Festival that follows from 12 to 3 pm. 

Belly Like Drum – Recipes for Building Community from Nikkei Progressives

Belly Like Drum offers recipes for building community through stories, interviews, poems, and artwork. The community cookbook highlights treasured family meals and meaningful dishes from members of Nikkei Progressives—a grassroots group based in Little Tokyo standing against injustice, inequality, and white supremacy.

Belly Like Drumis published in the longstanding tradition of learning from history by telling and retelling the stories that give us courage, insights, and hope. Working for social justice is an ongoing and intergenerational process and, just like food, it is something we must return to every day. As organizers and activists from ages seven to ninety-seven, the contributors to this cookbook believe that as we are nourished by the food we make, eat, and share, so our souls are fed by our involvement in the struggle for justice.

Edited and compiled by Ako Castuera, Alyson Iwamoto, Kimi Maru, Rob Sato, and Tony Osumi (the Nikkei Progressives Oishii Committee); Cover Artwork by Rob Sato; Additional artwork by Rob Sato, Ako Castuera, Alyson Iwamoto, Roger Oda, Aiko Iwamoto Kaoosji, Kate Wong, Kris Chau, and Valerie Fletcher Oda

J-Sei At The Movies (on Zoom)
Friday, July 11, 6:30 pm

J-Sei Movie Night is dedicated to the wonderful and fascinating world of Japanese cinema, as well as Japanese American and AAPI films!

This month’s program is by request from one of our long-time members. (Thank you Mari!) Please join us on Friday, July 11, to discuss an important Japanese film of the 1970s: SANDAKAN No. 8 / サンダカン八番娼館 望郷 (1974), directed by Kumai Kei and starring Takahashi Yoko, Kurihara Komaki, and in one of her final major roles, the great Tanaka Kinuyo. Based on Yamazaki Tomoko’s groundbreaking book about karayuki-san (Japanese girls trafficked abroad in the 1900s), this movie tells the true life story of one woman who as a girl was sold into servitude and forced to work in a brothel on the island of Borneo. It won multiple awards, including Best Actress (Tanaka) at the 25th Berlin International Film Festival, and was nominated for Best Foreign Language Film at the 1975 Academy Awards. [Warning: Sensitive subject matter depicting some sexual violence and nudity.]

If you would like to join us, please RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with “July movie night” in the subject line to receive Zoom info prior to the event.

See you at the movies!

J-Sei Movie Night Bento

Movie night 7/11

Support J-Sei At the Movies

Thanks to you, J-Sei At the Movies is in its Eighth Year! We look forward to more creative programming with educational and inspiring Japanese and Japanese American films. We are especially grateful for the up close and personal chats with filmmakers as we learn so much from the exchange.

We love having a growing and enthusiastic audience. We welcome any donations to help us offset costs for Movie Night. Thanks for considering this.