No Murallas

Published Feb. 20, 2025 comments

Tkaronto/Toronto, Ontario-based writer-artist Erica Isomura lends us a moment of action captured in this month’s dynamic poem, “Haibun for February 19”—harkening back to efforts to shut down down detention centers in 2020, while cycling right to the present. This month, there are Day Of Remembrance commemorations all around the country and this selection reminds us to keep showing up now. The dream is still ahead of us—No Walls, indeed.

This poem is featured in the forthcoming anthology, The Gate of Memory: Poems by Descendants of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration (eds., Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, Haymarket Books, 2025). We will have a special pre-launch reading at the Democracy Forum of the Japanese American National Museum on Thursday evening, March 27. Please come meet Erica and several other poets from the anthology. Enjoy…

—traci kato-kiriyama

* * * * *

Erica H Isomura is a writer-artist who was born and raised beside the Stó:lō (Fraser River). Her creative practice incorporates written language, drawing, bookmaking, and mixed-media art. Erica’s work appears in Ruth Beer: Seep/Swell (Burnaby Art Gallery, 2025), The Gate of Memory: Poems by Descendants of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration (Haymarket Books, 2025), The RAVEN Essays (University of Toronto Press, 2025) and elsewhere. Erica is currently working on a visual book which explores her family history on B.C.’s north coast. Erica holds an MFA in creative writing from University of Guelph. She lives in Tkaronto/Toronto, ON.

Haibun for February 19

After the Tsuru For Solidarity & Densho Day of Remembrance, Day of Action on February 23, 2020 at the Northwest Detention Centre in Tacoma, WA

We stand // huddled together // drenched // along barbed wire fence
strung with hundreds upon hundreds of origami cranes
such delicate paper frames // creased wings flap in the wind
clouds spinning

I never thought somebody could camouflage into a mass
of rainbow rain jackets // Each person arrived dressed in layers
as if destined for a Pacific Northwest trailhead

Instead // this protest not pilgrimage // led me to drive across the border
into Tulalip-Duwamish-Puyallup- territories

I find myself in Takhoma // named after a snowy white peak
which could have been more peaceful if not for the sheer ICE
detention centrer

Confronting bad climate // a crowd chants

// LIBERTAD! NO MURALLAS! //

Hoping the people locked up inside know how much
we value their lives

On the mic a survivor dreams of marching on Washington DC
to close the camps and convene the largest gathering of Japanese
Americans since forcible removal from their homes
seventy years ago

ume blossom embraces
the tree branch—
seagull flies away

*This poem is copyrighted by Erica H. Isomura and will apper in forthcoming The Gate of Memory: Poems by Descendants of Nikkei Wartime Incarceration (eds., Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, Haymarket Books, 2025).

Canada collective behavior concentration camps crowds Day of Remembrance demonstrations (political) immigration literature Ontario people poems poetry protests public meetings Tacoma Toronto United States Washington World War II camps

About this series

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column is a space for the Nikkei community to share stories through diverse writings on culture, history, and personal experience. The column will feature a wide variety of poetic form and subject matter with themes that include history, roots, identity; history—past into the present; food as ritual, celebration, and legacy; ritual and assumptions of tradition; place, location, and community; and love.

We’ve invited author, performer, and poet traci kato-kiriyama to curate this monthly poetry column, where we will publish one to two poets on the third Thursday of each month—from senior or young writers new to poetry, to published authors from around the country. We hope to uncover a web of voices linked through myriad differences and connected experience.

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About the Authors

Erica Isomura

Updated February 2025

traci kato-kiriyama @traciakemi

traci kato-kiriyama, they+she, based on unceded Tongva Land, is a queer Sansei/Yonsei Nikkei inter/multi/transdisciplinary artist, poet, actor, educator, and cultural producer. They are principal writer/performer of PULLproject Ensemble; author of Signaling (2011, The Undeniables) and Navigating With(out) Instruments (2021, Writ Large Projects), Director/Founder of Tuesday Night Project, and an award-winning audiobook narrator. traci is a community organizer with Nikkei Progressives and the National Nikkei Reparations Coalition and a recipient of several distinguished lectureships, fellowships, and residencies. traci's writing, work, and commentary has been featured in a wide swath of publications including NPR, PBS, and C-SPAN. Hosts for tkk’s performance, storytelling, poetry, teaching/facilitation, and speaking include The Smithsonian, The Getty, Skirball Cultural Center, Hammer Museum, and many more.

tkk has been curating the Nikkei Uncovered: poetry column since its inception in 2016, and has recently been dabbling in a new passion with film (co-directing, dramaturgy, production). (Profile image by Raquel Joyce Fujimaki)

Updated December 2024