This five-part seminar features Dr. Mitchell T. Maki, Acting Dean, College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Los Angeles, and author of Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress, in conversation with noted scholars, activists, and artists as they respond to propaganda artifacts displayed in the exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community. This session will examine the period covering the late nineteenth century through the Great Depression era and include comments by Akemi Kikumura-Yano, PhD?, National Museum Senior Vice President, author of Through Harsh Winters: The Life of a Japanese Immigrant Woman, and curator of the National Museum's inaugural exhibit Issei Pioneers: Hawai`i and the Mainland 1885 - 1924.

In this second of a five-part seminar features Dr. Mitchell T. Maki, Acting Dean, College of Health and Human Services, California State University, Los Angeles, and author of Achieving the Impossible Dream: How Japanese Americans Obtained Redress, in conversation with noted scholars, activists, and artists as they respond to propaganda artifacts displayed in the exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community. This session will examine the World War II period with actor George Takei. Mr. Takei was incarcerated in the Jerome and Tule Lake Concentration Camps. In his autobiography, To the Stars: The Autobiography of George Takei, Star Trek's Mr. Sulu, he writes how this odyssey propelled him to become and actor, writer, businessman and politically active individual.

Please note: Actor Pat Morita was originally scheduled to be part of this discussion. Unfortunately he sends his regrets as he's been called to service - he will be the emcee for a major welcome home of troops from Iraq in Honolulu.

In this third of five sessions, we continue our examination of selected propaganda artifacts displayed in the exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community featuring Dr. Mitchell T. Maki, Acting Dean, College of Health and Human Services at California State University, Los Angeles to reflect on propaganda prevalent during the resettlement era post-World War II. He will consider what lessons we can learn from the past to address current attempts to defend the incarceration of Japanese Americans and justify assaults on civil liberties.

In this fourth of five sessions that examines ways propaganda has been used to perpetuate negative ethnic images and stereotypes, Dr. Mitchell Maki is joined by Johnn y Mori from the groundbreaking band Hiroshima. During the 1970s, the band impressed the music scene with jazz that effortlessly integrated East and West. Their music, as well as their commitment to the communities in which it was born, speak volumes about the ability of artists--and the arts--to subvert ethnic stereotypes and bridge cultures.

This collection of essays outlines how the National Museum operates in collaboration with other institutions, museums, researchers, audiences, and funders. Authors will speak on their case studies which explore collaboration with community-oriented partners in order to document, interpret, and present their histories and experiences and provide a new understanding of what museums can and should be in the United States. Book signing to follow.

The last session in this seminar reflects on propaganda post-September 11 using select objects in the exhibition Common Ground: The Heart of Community. Guest speaker to be announced.