traci kato-kiriyama
@traciakemitraci kato-kiriyama is a performer, actor, writer, author, educator, and art+community organizer who splits the time and space in her body feeling grounded in gratitude, inspired by audacity, and thoroughly insane—oft times all at once. She’s passionately invested in a number of projects that include Pull Project (PULL: Tales of Obsession); Generations Of War; The (title-ever-evolving) Nikkei Network for Gender and Sexual Positivity; Kizuna; Budokan of LA; and is the Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project and Co-Curator of its flagship “Tuesday Night Cafe.” She’s working on a second book of writing/poetry attuned to survival, slated for publication next year by Writ Large Press.
Updated August 2013
Stories from This Author
Seize—transformation & renewal
Jan. 21, 2021 • Brian Komei Dempster , traci kato-kiriyama
Leaving the end of a long 2020 while entering 2021 with a combination of uncertainty, excitement, determined joy, and perpetual angst, I thought it fitting to have this month’s theme derive its inspiration from the writer and the title of his latest book of poetry, Seize. This month’s feature, Brian Komei Dempster—a Sansei author and educator based in the Bay Area of California—graciously provided us with a handful of beautiful pieces from Seize, based upon my request to think on …
Wonder
Dec. 17, 2020 • Curtiss Takada Rooks , Mariko Fujimoto Rooks , traci kato-kiriyama
To close out 2020 and recognize it as a time of challenge, reckoning and coming together, we are excited to end on a strong and beautiful note with this month's feature. We are happy to host the return to Nikkei Uncovered by Mariko Fujimoto Rooks and, this time, feature Mariko alongside her father, Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks (while it's his first time in this poetry column, he is certainly no stranger to Discover Nikkei). You'll want to check out essays …
Moonlight
Nov. 19, 2020 • Boshichō Okamura , traci kato-kiriyama
We have the immense pleasure of presenting several haiku from Boshichō Okamura for November. Ever since his grandson, Michael Okamura (of the Little Tokyo Historical Society), began sharing his haiku with me, I've dreamed of recreating a haiku club in Little Tokyo in homage to the Agosto-Sha poetry club that Boshichō co-founded in the early 1920s. No matter what time of year or moment of strife we are going through in the world, there's a wonderful light and solace I …
Reflections
Oct. 15, 2020 • Yukiya Jerry Waki , traci kato-kiriyama
Hello to you all in the midst of October and the beginning of our final quarter for 2020. I’ve asked the folks we’re featuring this quarter to share pieces of reflection, whether of the immediate, or of a lifetime thus far. Today’s piece from San Francisco-based, Shin-Nisei, Yukiya Jerry Waki, is a look at many voices and stories over time that have crossed his path on a journey of moments, and memories made. Enjoy... — traci kato-kiriyama * * * …
Return
Sept. 17, 2020 • Juan de la Fuente Umetsu , traci kato-kiriyama
This month, we have the honor of presenting a single poem by Juan de la Fuente Umetsu, poet, journalist and editor born in Lima, Peru, in 1963. After reading it using an informal translation (read: Google translate) of the poem, I asked my partner to call her mother, a pianist who also happened to be a native Spanish speaker from Lima, Peru. Together we went over each line and I had a greater appreciation of the poem. This piece is …
Inspiration
Aug. 20, 2020 • Amy Uyematsu , G Yamazawa , traci kato-kiriyama
Hello Discover Nikkei network! I am beyond thrilled this month to bring this pair of poets to the Nikkei Uncovered poetry column. LA-born and raised, veteran Sansei poet and our inaugural feature for the column back in 2016, Amy Uyematsu returns to us with a beautiful piece about Tanko Bushi (that had me yearning ever more for Obon this summer). And first time with this column, we have National spoken world champ and hip hop artist, G Yamazawa out of …
What we hold - Part Two
July 16, 2020 • Christine Miyazato , Donna Ghassemi , Seiji Igei , Amina Abuthahir , Nora Fujita-Yuhas , Miyako Noguchi , traci kato-kiriyama
Over the past several years, Vigilant Love (an organization working towards safety and justice of communities impacted by Islamophobia and violence), has hosted a community Iftar bringing together hundreds of Muslim, Japanese American and other LA community members in the spirit of many years of solidarity practice between our communities. This was the first year the program had to be virtual due to Covid-19, but over 170 people still came together for the online breaking of the fast. I had …
What we hold
June 18, 2020 • Asuka Lin , Aaysha Memon , Christie Yamasaki , Angie Azad , Safira Patel , Yukino Torrey , Elise Umetsu , traci kato-kiriyama
Over the past several years, Vigilant Love (an organization working towards safety and justice of communities impacted by Islamophobia and violence), has hosted a community Iftar bringing together hundreds of Muslim, Japanese American, and other Los Angeles community members in the spirit of many years of solidarity practice between our communities. This was the first year the program had to be virtual due to Covid-19, but over 170 people still came together for the online breaking of the fast. I …
On the inside
May 21, 2020 • Vicky K. Murakami-Tsuda , Joy Yamaguchi , traci kato-kiriyama
Welcome to another special edition of Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column. Two staff I work closely with at the Japanese American National Museum, public programs extraordinaire Joy Yamaguchi and digital guru Vicky Murakami-Tsuda, allowed me to facilitate a process with them to write poetry grounded in this particular era of Covid-19, lockdowns, missing and finding family, and the overall unknown of now. They took a risk, trusted the process, and ran with it and crafted some really lovely work. We …
Comfort
April 16, 2020 • Kendall Tani , Susan Yamamura , traci kato-kiriyama
This month, we feature California-based Yonsei writer, Kendall Tani, and Arizona-based Sansei writer, Susan Yamamura. Susan’s is a lighthearted parody poem that heralds where we look for some solace during a time of major strife, while Kendall’s first piece featured here, soft bodies, speaks to a relationship with oneself through an intimate practice of shaping earth (and future) by hand. Both reminded me of the ideas of comfort and doing something good for ourselves...like poetry, a vessel through which we …
