Seeing LGBTQ Nikkei – Perspectives on Queerness, Ethnicity and Gender in the Arts
photos: Jill Guillermo Togawa, Nikiko Masumoto, Michael Matsuno, Rey Fukuda (not available), traci kato-kiriyama
Perspectives in the Arts
Sunday, April 18, 4 pm
Perspectives: Queerness, Ethnicity and Gender in the Arts – April 18, 4:00 pm (PST)
Artists reflect and interpret cultural anxieties while also creating visions that inspire us to consider alternatives to current realities. How have ethnic identity, gender, and sexual orientation influenced the works of queer Nikkei artists? What other factors have impacted LGBTQ+ Japanese American artists of different generations? Participants: Jill Guillermo Togawa, Nikiko Masumoto, Michael Matsuno, traci kato-kiriyama (moderator)
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RELATED PROGRAMS
Seeing LGBTQ Nikkei – The experiences of LGBTQ+ Japanese Americans are seldom the focus of community attention. Yet, the wisdom of LGBTQ Nikkei – forged through confrontations with racism, homophobia, transphobia, and sexism – is a vital resource as we create a more inclusive and compassionate society. Join us for this series of programs centered on the perspectives and insights of different generations of LGBTQ Japanese Americans. Seeing LGBTQ Nikkei, a series of programs, is a collaboration of J-Sei and Okaeri, with funding support by Masto Foundation.
This series is a collaboration between J-Sei and Okaeri in association with the exhibit Seen and Unseen: Queering Japanese American History Before 1945.
Speaker Bios
Jill Guillermo-Togawa (she/they), a yonsei, is a choreographer, dancer, and teacher of the Alexander Technique. In 1992 she founded Purple Moon Dance Project, the first dance company committed to increasing visibility for lesbians and women of color while incorporating AAPI traditions in American dance – in a groundbreaking vision that explored the continuum of intimacy between women. In 2009, Purple Moon premiered its seminal work, “When Dreams Are Interrupted,” a site-specific multi-disciplinary piece threading personal stories from the mass Japanese removal during WWII. Jill has offered their work and programs for women with no formal dance training, across the U.S., China and Canada, partnering with many artists and organizations serving LGBTQ+ and Women of Color communities, using the arts as a vehicle for social change, healing and peace. Jill teaches in the Dept. of Theatre and Dance at the University of Hawai’i and lives with her wife, child, cat and dog, on the island of O‘ahu, where she is from.
traci kato-kiriyama (they+she) is an award-winning artist, community organizer and cultural producer; Performer/Principal Writer of PULLproject Ensemble (TALES OF CLAMOR world premiere in 2019 at the Aratani Black Box); Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project (presenter of Tuesday Night Cafe -in its 23rd year- the longest-running Asian American-produced, public arts series in the country), founding member of Vigilant Love, organizer with Nikkei Progressives. traci has been presented in hundreds of venues throughout the country as an author, theatre deviser/performer, storyteller, actor, lecturer, facilitator, artist organizer, and arts & culture consultant. tkk’s writing, commentary, and work have been presented by a wide swath of media and literary publications (incl. NPR, PBS, C-SPAN, Elle.com, The Hollywood Reporter, Regent Press, Heyday Books, Bamboo Ridge Press, Chaparral Canyon Press, Tia Chucha Press, Entropy). traci’s forthcoming book is being published this year by Writ Large Press/The Accomplices. traciakemi.com
IG: traciakemi1 / https://www.instagram.com/traciakemi1/
Nikiko Masumoto (she/her) is an organic farmer, memory keeper, and artist. She is Yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese American, and gets to touch the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic nectarines, apricots, peaches and grapes for raisins. She activates her facilitation, leadership, and creative skills as a performer and leader in the following organizations: co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, team member of Center for Performance and Civic Practice re-imagining group, member of University Advisory Board (CSU Fresno) board of Trustees of Western States Arts Federation, board of directors of Art of the Rural, and perennial volunteer change-worker. In 2021, she was named one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100. Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening. Profound Grief and Radical Joy, published by Alliance for California Traditional Arts, June 2020.
Michael Matsuno is a flutist based in Los Angeles, CA. His versatility as a performer encompasses work in classical, experimental and improvised music. He has collaborated with established musicians and composers on new music for the flute, often dealing specifically with issues of tuning, timbre and physicality. He has been featured on festivals of contemporary music including La Rara Noche, June in Buffalo, Harvard Group for New Music, and LA’s Monday Evening Concerts. Michael is currently a doctoral candidate in contemporary music performance at UC San Diego. His research follows various paths towards understanding how music shapes contemporary life. His original study published in Psychology of Music engaged a group of autistic programmers and creatives working in video game design. The piece highlights the importance of everyday music-listening in constituting identity and subjectivity among autistic adults.
Amy Sueyoshi is the Dean of the College of Ethnic Studies with a joint faculty appointment at the rank of Professor in Race and Resistance Studies and Sexuality Studies at San Francisco State University. She holds a Ph.D. in history from University of California, Los Angeles and a B.A. from Barnard College of Columbia University. Amy has authored two books, Queer Compulsions: Race, Nation, and Sexuality in the Intimate Life of Yone Noguchi and Discriminating Sex: White Leisure and the Making of the American “Oriental.” She additionally wrote the section on API queer history titled “Breathing Fire” for the National Parks Foundation’s landmark LGBTQ theme study, which won the Paul E. Buchanan Award from the Vernacular Architecture Forum. Amy served as a founding co-curator of the GLBT History Museum, the first queer history museum in the United States, and also seeded the Dragon Fruit Project, a community oral history project for API Equality Northern California, a queer Asian Pacific Islander advocacy group in San Francisco Chinatown. She has won numerous community recognitions including the Clio Award for her work in queer history and the Phoenix Award for her contribution to the Asian Pacific Islander queer women and transgender community. In 2017, San Francisco Pride honored Amy as a Community Grand Marshal.
Stan Yogi is co-author of the award-winning books Wherever There’s a Fight: How Runaway Slaves, Suffragists, Immigrants, Strikers, and Poets Shaped Civil Liberties in California (2009) and Fred Korematsu Speaks Up (2017). He is the co-editor of two books, Highway 99: A Literary Journey Through California’s Great Central Valley (1996) and Asian American Literature: An Annotated Bibliography (1988). His essays have appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle, Los Angeles Daily Journal and academic journals and anthologies. He co-curated the traveling exhibits Art of Survival: Enduring the Turmoil of Tule Lake and Wherever There’s a Fight: A History of Civil Liberties in California. He is a Co-Chair of Okaeri, a group of LGBTQ+-identified Japanese Americans.