JANM’s Democracy Center Presents Symposium Echoes of History on January 23

Editors please note: JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus and at other locations at janm.org/OnTheGo.

Press gallery available here

LOS ANGELES, CA – The Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center) at the Japanese American National Museum (JANM) presents the symposium, Echoes of History: Inspiring Civic Action and Building Democracy, on Friday, January 23, 2026. The symposium will be from 9 a.m.–6 p.m at JANM and will also be live streamed virtually. Tickets are $25–$150 and are available at janm.org/democracy.

“As a growing tide of authoritarianism echoes some of the most troubling chapters in US history, history informs our response to the present. Echoes of History challenges us to imagine how we can build a democracy that endures by recognizing the threats before us, learning from communities resisting them, and envisioning new civic spaces and shared legacies for the future,” said Ann Burroughs, JANM President and CEO. 

The day-long symposium will bring together thinkers, artists, organizers, and civic leaders who are confronting authoritarianism today. Keynote speakers are Agnès Callamard, Robert Evans, and Glenn Kaino. Callamard is a globally respected human rights leader, scholar, and advocate. She currently serves as Secretary General of Amnesty International, and was previously the UN Special Rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions. Renowned for her fearless defense of human rights and accountability, she brings decades of experience advancing justice, freedom of expression, fighting authoritarianism, and protecting human rights defenders worldwide. Evans is a journalist and host of the podcasts Behind the Bastards and It Could Happen Here. His writing has appeared at Bellingcat, New Lines Magazine, Rolling Stone, Business Insider, and more. Kaino is an acclaimed contemporary artist whose practice spans across sculpture, painting, filmmaking, performance, installation, and large-scale public work. His works In the Light of a Shadow and With Drawn Arms bridge the past to the present by exploring the power of collective action to forge a more just world and reckoning with racial injustice in America. His critically acclaimed virtual reality work, Aki’s Market, was commissioned by JANM in 2023. 

The symposium is centered around three panels. The morning will begin with the panel, Antiauthoritarianism: Building a Legacy for the Future, followed by the afternoon panel, How Does a City Respond?, and the evening panel, Memory as Resistance—Defending Culture in Authoritarian Times. Panelists, moderators, and speakers include Gustavo Arellano, columnist for the Los Angeles Times; Special Assistant Attorney General of California Damon Brown; JANM President and CEO Ann Burroughs; Surdna Foundation President Don Chen; Grand Performances President and CEO Rafael Gonzalez; Tyler Green, the host of The Modern Art Notes Podcast; Margaret Huang, former president of the Southern Poverty Law Center; Scot Nakagawa, co-founder and co-director of 22nd Century Initiative; Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights Executive Director Angelica Salas; California Community Foundation President and Chief Executive Officer Miguel Santana; Renee Tajima-Pena, professor of Asian American Studies at the University of Southern California; Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize–winning author and professor of English, American Studies and Ethnicity, and Comparative Literature at the University of Southern California; L.A. Taco Director of Engagement Memo Torres; and Hamza Walker, Director of The Brick and co-curator of the exhibition Monuments.

The symposium will also feature tours of the timely exhibition Monuments at MOCA and shopping at the JANM Store and at Bloom Wild Bookshop, a Los Angeles–based mobile bookstore and California native seed shop that pairs the transformative power of literature with the healing beauty of nature. A closing performance with visionary artist-activist Nobuko Miyamoto inspires participants to celebrate memory, joy, and collective action. 

###

About the Japanese American National Museum (JANM)

Established in 1985, JANM promotes understanding and appreciation of America’s ethnic and cultural diversity by sharing the Japanese American experience. Located in the historic Little Tokyo district of downtown Los Angeles, JANM is a center for civil rights, ensuring that the hard-fought lessons of the World War II incarceration are not forgotten. A Smithsonian Affiliate and one of America’s Cultural Treasures, JANM is a hybrid institution that straddles traditional museum categories. JANM is a center for the arts as well as history. It provides a voice for Japanese Americans and a forum that enables all people to explore their own heritage and culture. Since opening to the public in 1992, JANM has presented over one hundred exhibitions onsite while traveling forty exhibits to venues such as the Smithsonian Institution and the Ellis Island Museum in the United States, and to several leading cultural museums in Japan and South America. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @jamuseum.

About the Daniel K. Inouye National Center for the Preservation of Democracy (Democracy Center)

The Democracy Center is a place where visitors can examine the Asian American experience, past and present, and talk about race, identity, social justice, and the shaping of democracy. It convenes and educates people of all ages about democracy to transform attitudes, celebrate culture, and promote civic engagement; educates and informs the public and public officials about important issues; creates strength within and among communities to advocate for positive change; and explores the values that shape American democracy. The Democracy Center looks for solutions that engage communities in self-advocacy, explore the evolving idea of what it means to be an American, and result in actions that bring everyone together. JANM’s Pavilion is closed for renovation; Democracy Center programs will continue on the JANM campus, throughout Little Tokyo, Los Angeles, and Southern California, and beyond from early January 2025 through late 2026. For more information, visit janm.org/OnTheGo or follow us on social media @democracyjanm.