Artist Vicky Murakami will discuss selected works of Henry Sugimoto followed by a hands-on workshop.

Cheryl Walker, artist and art instructor at Santa Monica Emeritus College and UCLA Extension art courses, will discuss selected works of Henry Sugimoto followed by a hands-on workshop.

Featuring: Prof. Masako Notoji (Tokyo University), Dr. Carol Gluck (Columbia University), Dr. Richard Wood (Yale University), Professor Nagayo Homma (Seijyo University), and moderated by E. Barry Keehn, President of the Japan America Society.

Panelists will examine the relationship between the US and Japan over the last 50 years, in particular, how each country impacts each other culturally, economically and socially. Co-sponsored by the National Museum, the Japan-U.S. Friendship Commission, Town Hall of Los Angeles, Los Angeles World Affairs Council and UCLA Center for Japanese Studies.

Emily Anderson, Curatorial Associate at the National Museum, will discuss selected works of Henry Sugimoto followed by a hands-on workshop conducted by Flora Ito, Education Associate at the National Museum.

In honor of Father's Day, the National Museum presents this special opportunity to hear first-hand stories about artist Henry Sugimoto (1900-1990) from the perspective of his daughter, Madeleine. This program is held in conjunction with the exhibition Henry Sugimoto: Painting an American Experience and will reveal the person behind the art. Audience members will be able to participate in a question and answer period moderated by Exhibition Curator Kristine Kim.

Ron Stroud, artist and the designer of the Henry Sugimoto: Painting an American Experience exhibition, will discuss selected works of Henry Sugimoto.

Sugimoto Exhibition Art Talk
Emily Anderson, curatorial associate at the National Museum will discuss works on loan from Wakayama City, Sugimoto's birth place. A hands-on workshop conducted by artist Flora Ito will follow the discussion.

Eddie Kurushima, professional artist, began studying under Henry Sugimoto while incarcerated in Arkansas. His story highlights the significant role art and art education played in the lives of Japanese Americans incarcerated in America's concentration camps. The panel also features curators Kristine Kim and Karin Higa.

Allyson Nakamoto, National Museum Educator, will lead a gallery tour exploring Sugimoto's life, followed by a unique hands-on workshop.

Please refer to the May 2 calendar listing for further information.

Kip Fulbeck, the “world’s premier artist� exploring Hapa identity will present a multimedia performance piece. Fulbeck will also discuss The Hapa Project, which seeks to promote awareness and recognition of the millions of multiracials of Asian/Pacific Island descent in the United States.

Professor Fulbeck teaches Art Studio and Asian American Studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and has spoken and exhibited award-winning videos, performances, photography, and paintings throughout the world. For more information visit www.hapaproject.com. National Museum members $8, non-members $10. Advance purchase recommended.

Inspired by an experience with his own father, writer and director Dean Yamada will present his award-winning dramatic short film about a farmer who is forced to choose between holding on to the bitterness of his youth, which arose out of his incarceration in an American concentration camp during World War II, and letting go of that past to restore his broken relationship with his wife. Integral to the story is the farmer’s decision to either accept or decline $20,000 in reparations from the U.S. government.

After the screening, Yamada will discuss how he formulated this personal story into film.

Ibuki Hibi Lee compiled a selection of her mother’s journal notes and art, which offer an insight into the daily life of a woman who would not abandon her art or betray her spirit. Kristine Kim, director of Program Initiatives, will talk about Hisako Hibi’s life. From her days as an art student in Japan, to her role as an art instructor in the Topaz Concentration camp, and finally as a celebrated painter in San Francisco where she exhibited her work in numerous shows.

The National Museum presents a panel discussion exploring issues raised by the exhibition Black Belt. Originally organized by the Studio Museum in Harlem and on view at SMMOA through February 12, Black Belt probes the interconnected effects of multiculturalism on popular culture and art practice. Panelists will include artists, scholars, and others who consider the impact of political movements, demographic shifts, and the fantastic idolatry of Bruce Lee on the complex history of co-existence between Asians and African Americans in 1970s Los Angeles.

In 1993, Velina Hasu Houston published the play Tea about five Japanese "war brides" who find themselves living in rural Kansas alongside their American GI husbands after World War II. Tea went on to become one of the most produced Asian American plays, shedding light on "the immigrant spirit that is the spine of America." As part of Women's History Month, Houston will revisit some of its groundbreaking themes and discuss her latest work involving Japanese international brides of World War II. Reservations recommended.

Ann Yonemura, curator of Japan After Perry and Senior Associate Curator of Japanese Art at the Arthur M. Sackler Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, discusses the exhibition's extraordinary, colorful woodblock prints in the context of the momentous historical events that propelled Japan into the modern age.

Taking Care of Their Own chronicles the thirty-year evolution of Yellow Brotherhood, an Asian American self-help organization, through its founders who started the group in the 1960s, and their children who carry on its legacy through a youth basketball program. Coming to grips with their parents' unjust camp experience during World War II and overcoming their own struggles with drug abuse and gang violence, the original members are now fathers who pass their hard earned lessons on to succeeding generations. Post-screening discussion with director Tadashi H. Nakamura. Reception to follow.

Through performance monologues, poems, and prose, David Mura will explore the often neglected theme of Asian Americans and sexuality. His presentation will address subjects such as racial-sexual stereotypes, interracial relationships, and the effect of internment on Japanese American sexuality. The reading will be followed by a discussion and book signing.

Fat Man/Little Boy is an art piece that explores the events of the atomic bomb and the experiences of artist Clement Hanami's mother, who is a hibakusha, or atomic bomb survivor. The installation chronicles the fundamentals of the atomic bomb and its impact on a life's meaning and purpose.

"Hanami's sprawling series of faux lab experiments asks you to consider, from multiple vantage points, the ways in which the Fat Man and Little Boy atomic bombs dropped on Nagasaki and Hiroshima nearly 60 years ago have irrevocably altered our perceptions of space, time and the human body." -- Los Angeles Times

The atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki will forever remain an object of deep reflection. To mark the 60th anniversary of those fateful days, the National Museum's Art Director, Clement Hanami, installs his stirring work, Fat Man/Little Boy in the Aratani Central Hall. The day will end with spoken word performances and messages of peace.

The second of three conversations featuring groundbreaking Japanese American ceramicists profiles Setsuko Morinoue. The Kona-based artist will "talk story" about the influence of Toshiko Takaezu, the deep connections Morinoue makes with clay, and her passion for teaching ceramics to children.

Two projects explore the contributions of master drummer Seiichi Tanaka, founder and the director of the renowned San Francisco Taiko Dojo.

The Way of Taiko written by Heidi Varian and Gayle Yamada’s documentary, The Spirit of Taiko, are musts for anyone fascinated by the power of taiko as experienced by one of its leading practitioners.

The third of three conversations focusing on significant Japanese American artists who work with clay features Jun Kaneko.

Kaneko began his career as a painter, becoming a sculptor when he arrived in the U.S. from Japan in the 1960s. His work can be seen in the public collections of the Shigaraki Ceramic Museum in Japan; the Philadelphia Museum of Art; Detroit Institute of Art; and the Renwick Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution, among others. In March 2006, Opera Omaha will premiere a new production of Madama Butterfly with sets and costumes designed by Kaneko.

Deborah Willis, Professor of Photography and Imaging at NYU, is an internationally respected authority on photographs and family history. A recipient of the MacArthur? Foundation “Genius� award, Willis brings fresh and accessible perspectives on the role of photographs in the making and carrying of meaning among families.

The final weekend of Big Drum: Taiko in the United States features a spirited concert by one of Okinawa?s most vibrant taiko ensembles, Zampa Ufujishi-Daiko. Don?t miss this rare opportunity to experience the power and beauty of these gifted young musicians from Japan?s southernmost prefecture.

Tickets $20 National Museum members, $25 non-members. Advance purchase recommended. For tickets and information, please call 213.625.0414.

Conceived by Frank Chin, this dramatic reading?based on Chin?s book Born in the USA and by Greg Robinson?s By Order of the President?focuses on the issues surrounding the U.S. government persecution of Japanese America based on challenges to civil liberties and the resistance to the draft by Americans behind barbed wire.

Read by actual resisters, the presentation sheds light on gaps that have divided the Japanese American Community since World War II.

Born in the USA and By Order of the President are available for sale at the Museum Store. Order toll-free 1.888.769.5559 or at www.janmstore.com.

A three-part composition created by Dave Iwataki, J-Town/Bronzeville Suite explores a fascinating and seldom told chapter of Los Angeles' history. While Japanese Americans were incarcerated, newly arrived African Americans from the South settled in Little Tokyo, where they remained until the War's end. Known as "Bronzeville," it became a community hub with restaurants and clubs featuring some of the most recognized names in jazz.

The debut performance of J-Town/Bronzville Suite includes members of Kokin Gumi and local jazz musicians. Pre-performance talk by Martha Nakagawa. Reception to follow. Seating extremely limited. Reservations required.

In 2004, when the Ted Tanouye Memorial was dedicated in Torrance, California on the sixtieth anniversary of his heroic action on Hill 140, eight ethnically diverse high school students began to research and piece together his story and that of his family incarcerated in Jerome, Arkansas. What starts as a quest for the history of their local (and national) hero of the highly decorated 442nd Regimental Combat Team quickly develops into a universal story about how a people's struggle for acceptance as Americans and one man's action sixty years earlier can profoundly affect the lives of today's youth.

The National Museum presents a special screening of Citizen Tanouye, the award-winning documentary that follows the three-day journey of these eight students as they uncover the lost story of local World War II hero and Medal of Honor recipient Technical Sgt. Ted Tanouye. Following the screening students, veterans, and historians will share their experiences.

Did you attend the Camp Connections conference in Little Rock, Arkansas?

Join the National Museum for a special reunion and release of the new video documentary Life Interrupted: A Special Arkansas Reunion, produced by the award-winning Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center.

Relive and reflect on this remarkable trip to Arkansas. Light reception to follow.

Visit www.janm.org/media/lifeinterrupted to learn more about the DVD and to view selected clips.

The DVD is available for sale through the Museum Store. Please order through the Museum Store Online or call toll-free at call 888.769.5559.

LA Menu Munchies is a digital magazine that portrays Los Angeles' urban fabric through the needle and thread of food.

Join its creators, Collage Ensemble Inc.--Alan Nakagawa, Mona Kasra, and Alex Alferov--in the world premiere of their DVD, where cooking-show meets cultural explosion.

The DVD will be available for sale through the Museum Store. Please call 888.769.5559 or order through the Museum Store Online in September.

* * * *

POSTPONED!
Due to circumstances beyond our control, this program has been postponed. The new date will be posted online as soon as it is determined.

Thank you and apologies for any inconvenience caused.

* * * *

How are contemporary artists using portraiture and portrait-making processes to examine, reflect, and/or challenge constructions of identity?

Join us as an eclectic group of artists gather to discuss the role of ethnicity, race, class, age, gender, and sexuality, among others, in shaping their work. The conversation promises to be a lively commentary on ways of the seeing the self and others.

In 2005, the MAVIN Foundation, the nation's largest mixed race organization, sponsored the Generation MIX National Awareness Tour to shed light on America's growing number of mixed heritage youth and families. Chasing Daybreak follows five of the tour crewmembers as they travel across the country and initiate a national dialogue about mixed race people, families, and diversity. Throughout the process, they share their hopes, fears, and aspirations for the future of race in America.

Sponsored, in part, by Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

Pilgrimage tells the inspiring story of how a small group of Japanese Americans in the late 1960s uncovered their lost history and created the Manzanar Pilgrimage, which transformed the once-abandoned WWII American concentration camp into a vibrant symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races, and nationalities. Pilgrimage is a timely and engaging film that brings new and much-needed insight to the lessons of the past.

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

Pilgrimage tells the inspiring story of how a small group of Japanese Americans in the late 1960s uncovered their lost history and created the Manzanar Pilgrimage, which transformed the once-abandoned WWII American concentration camp into a vibrant symbol of retrospection and solidarity for people of all ages, races, and nationalities. Pilgrimage is a timely and engaging film that brings new and much-needed insight to the lessons of the past.

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

This musical play will once again bring that unique mixture of laughter, tears, and song to the National Museum. Set in 1943 as World War II is raging and some 120,000 Japanese Americans have unconstitutionally been placed in concentration camps. This critically acclaimed musical is the story of a group of inmates who attempt to celebrate the Christmas holidays despite being behind barbed wire.

Please join us for Opening Night and Reception!

Special Ticket Price: $15 Museum members, $20 non-members

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

This musical play will once again bring that unique mixture of laughter, tears, and song to the National Museum. Set in 1943 as World War II is raging and some 120,000 Japanese Americans have unconstitutionally been placed in concentration camps. This critically acclaimed musical is the story of a group of inmates who attempt to celebrate the Christmas holidays despite being behind barbed wire.

Tickets (excluding December 8 and 17 performances) $10 National Museum members, $15 non-members. Advance purchase recommended. For tickets call 213.625.0414.

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

This musical play will once again bring that unique mixture of laughter, tears, and song to the National Museum. Set in 1943 as World War II is raging and some 120,000 Japanese Americans have unconstitutionally been placed in concentration camps. This critically acclaimed musical is the story of a group of inmates who attempt to celebrate the Christmas holidays despite being behind barbed wire.

Tickets (excluding December 8 and 17 performances) $10 National Museum members, $15 non-members. Advance purchase recommended. For tickets call 213.625.0414.

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

This performance has been cancelled.

This musical play will once again bring that unique mixture of laughter, tears, and song to the National Museum. Set in 1943 as World War II is raging and some 120,000 Japanese Americans have unconstitutionally been placed in concentration camps. This critically acclaimed musical is the story of a group of inmates who attempt to celebrate the Christmas holidays despite being behind barbed wire.

Tickets (excluding December 8 and 17 performances) $10 National Museum members, $15 non-members. Advance purchase recommended. For tickets call 213.625.0414.

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

This musical play will once again bring that unique mixture of laughter, tears, and song to the National Museum. Set in 1943 as World War II is raging and some 120,000 Japanese Americans have unconstitutionally been placed in concentration camps. This critically acclaimed musical is the story of a group of inmates who attempt to celebrate the Christmas holidays despite being behind barbed wire.

Please come join us for the Closing Performance and a Dessert Reception!

Special Ticket Price: $15 Museum members, $20 non-members

Sponsored, in part, by California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and Department of Cultural Affairs, City of Los Angeles.

On June 23, 1942, forty orphans arrived at Manzanar. By the time the camp closed, more than sixty joined their ranks. As assistant superintendent, Lillian Matsumoto oversaw the operation of the facility and care of the orphans. Now in her nineties, Matsumoto shares her memories in a very special program that includes her daughter, Karyl Matsumoto, and oral historian, Greg Marutani. Reservations recommended.

This program is made possible, in part, by the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

To mark the 30th anniversary of the telecast of Farewell to Manzanar, the National Museum hosts a screening followed by a conversation with Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston and her husband James D. Houston. The film is a poignant portrayal not only of the Wakatsukis' experience, but a celebration, as well, of the resilience of the human spirit. Panel also includes participants of the original film.

This presentation is made possible, in part, by a grant from the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

Learn more about the legacy of Farewell to Manzanar at the Museum Store Online.

Groundbreaking researcher, Barbara Kawakami, makes a rare visit to the National Museum for a conversation about the critical role Issei women played in shaping the socio-cultural life of pre-World War II Hawai`i. By "talking story" about women both remarkable and ordinary, Kawakami uses the treasure trove of textiles and oral histories found in her collection to shed light on the legacy of the Issei pioneers. Light reception to follow. Reservations recommended.

In 1965, Ruth Asawa's friend and teacher, Josef Albers, recommended her for a fellowship at the Tamarind Lithography Workshop. Based in Los Angeles at the time, the Workshop, funded by the Ford Foundation, was the most recognized printmaking workshop in the country. Join June Wayne, artist and co-founder of the Workshop, and Ernest de Soto, artist and one of Asawa's printers at Tamarind, as they share their fond memories of Asawa's work with Tamarind lithographers. Tobey Moss (Tobey Moss Gallery, West Hollywood) also joins Wayne in conversation and presents some of Asawa's most remarkable works on paper. Free with Museum admission. Reservations recommended.

In conjunction with Wack! Art and the Feminist Revolution at the Geffen Contemporary, Museum of Contemporary Art

Ruth Asawa was probably unaware that she was flouting an artistic tradition that considered sculpture as a primarily masculine enterprise. Instead of creating pedestaled works of stone or bronze, Asawa selected wire as the material to create her most memorable works, which she then hung from the ceiling as if suspended in mid-air. Art Historian Laura Meyer, assistant professor, Department of Art & Design at California State University, Fresno, talks with artists Anna Sew Hoy, Elizabeth Turk, and Yuriko Yamaguchi about the gendering of sculpture to challenge notions that associate art with masculinity and craft with femininity. Reservations recommended.

To mark the opening of Landscaping America: Beyond the Japanese Garden, this program explores the poetry of Japanese gardeners. Author and Edgar Award-winner Naomi Hirahara and Sunny Seki, director of the Rashin Senryu and author of The Tale of the Lucky Cat discuss the creative parallel between beautifully crafted senryus and Japanese gardens. Poetry readings by retired gardener and director of the Pioneer Senryu group, Shotaro Dofuku, will be accompanied by a presentation of photographs by Japanese gardeners from the National Museum's collection.

The National Museum will host a mini festival of films funded by CCLPEP. Titles include From a Silk Cocoon, 9066 to 9/11, and Stand Up for Justice, among others.

This program is made possible by the generous support of the California Civil Liberties Public Education Program.

CANCELLED.

Produced by the National Museum's Frank H. Watase Media Arts Center, Mamo's Weeds is about Mamo Ikeda, a Kibei gardener, besieged with a destructive weed epidemic and a series of strange phone calls. In his search for answers -- from the Southern California Gardeners' Federation to a retro Little Tokyo chop suey house to the lawns of Japanese American neighborhoods -- Mamo finds that the weeds are keys to both his past and his future. Following the screening, scriptwriter Naomi Hirahara joins technical adviser Roy Imazu, director Akira Boch, and actor Ken Takemoto in conversation. Reservations recommended. Free with Museum admission. Dessert reception to follow.

Mamo's Weeds is included in the Beyond the Japanese Garden: Short Stories and Documentaries exhibition DVD available through the Museum Store Online.

"Make art not war" is Jimmy Mirikitani's motto. This 85-year-old Japanese American artist was born in Sacramento and raised in Hiroshima, but by 2001 he is living on the streets of New York with the twin towers of the World Trade Center still ominously anchoring the horizon behind him. What begins as a simple verite portrait of one homeless man becomes a rare documentary of daily life in New York in the months leading up to 9/11. Discussion with the filmmaker Linda Hattendorf to follow.

Free with museum admission

Join the artists of Giant Robot Biennale: 50 Issues for a roundtable discussion moderated by Eric Nakamura. Light refreshments will be served following the program.

Confirmed: Pryor Praczukowski, Souther Salazar, and Seonna Hong.

Special hours!
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Extended Hours: 5:00 - 7:00 pm

Walkthrough of One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now.

Karin Higa, exhibition co-curator, will lead gallery tours of One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now.

Walkthrough of One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now.

Walkthrough of One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now.

Walkthrough of One Way or Another: Asian American Art Now.