National Museum Courtyard Kids Festival Saturday Aug. 12

Date: Aug. 12, 2006

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‘EVERY DAY IS CHILDREN’S DAY’ THEME FOR 8TH ANNUAL
COURTYARD KIDS FESTIVAL SET FOR NATIONAL MUSEUM AUG. 12

LOS ANGELES.—The Japanese American National Museum presents its 8th Annual Courtyard Kids Festival with the theme, “Every Day Is Children’s Day”, on Saturday, August 12, from 1 to 7 p.m. as part of the 66th Annual Nisei Week Japanese Festival in Little Tokyo, which runs August 12 to 20. The Courtyard Kids Festival is free and open to the public and includes a family concert, arts and crafts activities, readings of children’s literature and book signings.

The Courtyard Kids Festival originated when the National Museum constructed and opened its modern Pavilion in 1999, which also created an outdoor plaza that connects to its renovated historic building. That presented an opportunity for families to place the names of their children permanently into the stone courtyard just outside the Aratani Central Hall of the Pavilion. As new names are etched into the ground, the National Museum invites all Courtyard Kids to return to Little Tokyo.

This year, the Courtyard Kids Festival will be highlighted by a free family outdoor concert from 5 to 7 p.m. Among the performers will be a Kawalea Polynesian dance group, a samba group and a taiko group. Kinnara Taiko, the oldest taiko group in Southern California and the second-oldest group in the United States, will perform. There will also be a drawing for an American Girl® Jess Doll and author Mary Catherine Casanova will sign her book, Jess - American Girl® of the Year. Also outdoors, Kaeru’s House of Hop, an inflated bouncy house, will be available to visitors.

Indoor activities include Whimsical Arts ‘n Crafts, where participants will put together giant koinobori, kites and windsocks. There will be a Toddler Play Zone containing fun things like pinwheels and streamers. Actress Momo Yashima will read Crow Boy and Umbrella. The daughter of children’s author and illustrator Taro Yashima and the sister of actor and East West Players Theater founder Mako, who just passed away, Momo Yashima has worked as an actress in television and on the stage for three decades.

Artist Kip Fulbeck, whose photographic exhibition, kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa, is currently on view at the National Museum, will also appear and will be available to sign books. Visitors to Fulbeck’s exhibition will have the opportunity to have their photograph taken and write a response to the question that all the subjects in the gallery were asked: “What are you?”

kip fulbeck: part asian, 100% hapa is on view at the National Museum through October 29. On Aug. 19 and 26, Fulbeck is conducting a two-session photography and art workshop limited to 15 participants. Attendance is mandatory for both sessions and fees are $25 for National Museum members and $35 for non-members. Disposable cameras will be provided. A selection of participants’ work will be put on display on September 9 at the National Museum as part of the Target Free Family Saturday.

Another program related to Fulbeck’s exhibition has been rescheduled from its original October 7 date to October 28. The program, “Chasing Daybreak: A Film About Mixed Race in America”, is a film screening of a documentary of five individuals who travel the country to initiate a national dialogue on the subject of mixed race people. The MAVIN Foundation, the nation’s largest mixed race organization, sponsored the Generation MIX National Awareness Tour, which created the basis for the documentary.

The “Hapa Comedy Showcase” set for Thursday, August 17, was canceled.

For more information on the 8th Annual Courtyard Kids Festival, contact the Japanese American National Museum at (213) 625-0414, or go to www.janm.org.

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