by Jill Shiraki | Apr 4, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured, Other News
Healthy Aging: How to Keep Our Brain Healthy and Active
Wed, April 24th, 11 am
Brain Health includes cognitive health, the ability to think, learn and remember, as well as motor, emotional, and tactile functions. What are healthy lifestyle practices we can incorporate to keep our brain healthy? According to the National Institute on Aging, while some age-related changes to the brain due to injury, stroke or disease cannot be changed, there are many lifestyle changes that can make a difference. Hear from Dr. Michael Goldrich, Director of Geriatrics and Nursing Home Care at Lifelong Medical Care.
Bring your questions and experiences and join us in dialogue. RSVP for in-person or online to jill@j-sei.org with “Brain Health” in the subject line.
by Jill Shiraki | Apr 3, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured
Children’s Day Book Event: “The Bridges Yuri Built: How Yuri Marched Across Movements” with author Kai Naima Williams
Sunday, May 5th
Origami Activity at 2 pm. Book Reading at 3 pm.
Meet author Kai Naima Williams, great-granddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama, for her debut children’s picture book that intimately chronicles the experiences, people and places that shaped Yuri’s life. From Yuri’s incarceration in a Japanese-American concentration camp during World War II to her participation in movements organizing for better schools in Harlem to her close friendship with Malcolm X, Yuri never wavered in her belief in the power of people to bring about social change. THE BRIDGES YURI BUILT by Kai Naima Williams with illustrations by Anastasia Magloire Williams, inspires young readers to embrace Yuri’s unswerving belief that together we can build a bridge to a better world.
Meet the author, buy a book, and join us for a hands-on activity with Jun Hamamoto of San Quentin Origami in celebration of Kodomo no Hi (Children’s Day). The author talk will be moderated by Miya Saika Chen. Bring the family. Bring friends. March with us!
RSVP for in-person or online.
Kai Naima Williams is a multidisciplinary writer and performer based in Harlem. She is the author of the poetry collections He Tried To Drown the Ocean, I Waved and Tomorrow Maps, and a co-founder of Eat At The Table Theatre Company. Her work has been honored by the Asian American Arts Alliance, MoCADA, the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival and The New York Times.
by Jill Shiraki | Apr 2, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured
Mother’s Day Tour: Chiura Obata at SFMOMA
“One of California’s most influential 20th century artists.”
Friday, May 10
Visit SFMOMA for a tour with granddaughter and family historian Kimi Kodani Hill. In this exhibition, forty jewel-like watercolors, woodblock prints, and ink paintings trace Obata’s long, influential career as a Bay Area artist and professor. Visit thie exhibit and view other works by Asian artists currently on display, including Ruth Asawa, Isamu Noguchi, Saburo Hasegawa, and more. Take BART together or meet at the museum. Gallery talk begins at 10:30 am. Space is limited. RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with SFMOMA in the subject line.
by Jill Shiraki | Apr 1, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured
Day Trip to South San Francisco: “Kay Sekimachi Weaving Traditions” at SFO and Tanforan Memorial
Thursday, May 16
Just across the bay, enjoy an outing to see great art in South San Francisco: “Kay Sekimachi: Weaving Traditions” at the SFO Museum, lunch and visit to the Tanforan Memorial. Space is limited. RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with SSF in the memo.
“Kay Sekimachi: Weaving Traditions” presents defining work by Kay Sekimachi (b. 1926), a pioneering fiber artist whose complex work reflects an elegant impression of simplicity. For more than seven decades, she has mastered a wide range of media and techniques, including on- and off-loom textiles, stitched-paper forms, and molded-fiber bowls. Considered a “weaver’s weaver,” Sekimachi has created an oeuvre of textile art and sculpture that is without parallel.
The Tanforan Memorial offers a combination of story, art and experience to educate the public on the detention of Japanese Americans in 1942 and to honor those who were forced to live at the former racetrack. The memorial includes a bronze statue of the Mochida sisters from an iconic Dorothea Lange photo, a replica horse stall, poetry from incarcerees, a memorial wall of names, amidst striking cherry trees and a beautifully landscaped garden. Inside the Bart Station, a photo exhibit by Paul Kitagaki and art curated by Na Omi Shintani provide context and depth in telling the story of the post war legacy.
by Jill Shiraki | Mar 30, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured
Cactus Blossoms: Poetry In (and Beyond) Gila River
Saturday, May 18
Archeologist Koji Lau-Ozawa and poet Brynn Saito share their journey rediscovering Cactus Blossoms, an anthology of poetry written by high school students who were incarcerated at the Gila River camp during World War II. From striking desert imagery to prayerful longings for freedom, the poems express the complex inner life of those confined in the Arizona desert. Brynn and Koji—both yonsei descendants of grandparents incarcerated at Gila River—embarked on a quest to find and interview the Cactus Blossom poets. They’ll share about their journey and discuss the unique intersection of poetry, memory, and history.
Brynn Saito will close the event with a reading from Under a Future Sky, her latest book of poems inspired by a pilgrimage she took with her father to Gila River in 2019. RSVP for in-person or online.
by Jill Shiraki | Mar 29, 2024 | Classes & Events, Featured
Introduction to Mokuhanga
April 12, 19, 26, May 10, 17, 24
Fridays, 9:30-12:30
Mokuhanga – a water-based Japanese woodblock printmaking – is environmentally friendly and can be done at home, any time, and anywhere without a press! Participants will learn the basics of this unique process, carving the woodblock, using kento (registration system), and printing with water-based ink on Japanese paper. Participants will create a small edition of beautiful, multicolor prints. All levels are welcome.
The suggested donation for the 6- class session will be $150( includes $45 materials fee).
Limited space is available. RSVP to jill@j-sei.org with “Mokuhanga” in the subject.
Student Artwork: Favianna Rodriguez 2007, unidentified, Sam E. Spetner 2008, K.Davidson, Yin Yin Hong 2003, Y. Walu 2009
