Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

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.

Logo design by Alison Skilbred

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Surrender — Part 3

By Miko Shudo , traci kato-kiriyama
18 May 2023

This month we present the final part of the collaborative poem + performative art piece from Bonbu Stories, this time featuring Yonsei musician Miko Shudo. We invite you to view the accompanying video and read this together with the preceding pieces from parts 1 & 2. Miko blends poetics here with reflections on a journey of challenge, pride and privilege, acceptance and self determination…enjoy.

—traci kato-kiriyama

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Miko Shudo is a Yonsei musician, born and raised in Thousand Oaks, CA. Miko found her love for music when her mom placed her in front of the …

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Surrender — Part 2

By Sydney Shiroyama , traci kato-kiriyama
20 Apr 2023

This month we are happy to present both a poem from Bonbu Stories co-founder Sydney Shiroyama and a performance video from the Bonbu Stories collective themselves. Continuing with the theme of Surrender, Sydney’s is part of a linked poem with her Bonbu cohort and it reminds us the seeds we plant - of culture, of values, of resistance - in turn help us to survive, grow, and simply do the best we can…enjoy!

— traci kato-kiriyama

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Sydney Shiroyama (she/her) is a multiracial yonsei Jodo Shinshu Buddhist practitioner. She works as a pediatric occupational therapist …

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Surrender — Part 1

By Kendall Tani , traci kato-kiriyama
16 Mar 2023

We are delighted to present poetry from Mammoth Lake, CA based artist, Kendall Tani. Kendall shares an intimate exploration of tenderness and loss, and also generously provides writing here that includes a piece (Surrender) from a larger, collective process with Bonbu Stories - a multidisciplinary Asian American artists collective I've gotten to know more recently. We'll soon feature other parts of the collective's writing tied to Surrender in upcoming Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry columns, so stay tuned, and enjoy...

—traci kato-kiriyama

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Kendall Tani is an artist and poet currently based in their hometown of …

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Flight

By Genie Nakano , traci kato-kiriyama
16 Feb 2023

South Bay-based poet/writer and dancer, Genie Nakano, lets us celebrate with her as she looks forward to releasing her latest book of poetry, Wings on a Silk Veil. The poems here show her inner light through pieces that are contemplative, open, and free—an honest exploration, from ancestors to an ever-changing body with a youthful heart. Thank you for this work and congratulations, Genie!

—traci kato-kiriyama

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Genie Nakano is a poet/writer and dancer with a master’s degree in dance from University of California, Los Angeles. She currently teaches yoga and tanka at Gardena Japanese Cultural …

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Stone Songs

By Amy Uyematsu , traci kato-kiriyama
19 Jan 2023

Happy New 2023, everyone! What better way to begin than with the beauty of poetry and prose from Amy Uyematsu and her most recent collection, That Blue Trickster Time (What Books Press). Here, we have three selections from a wise and fiery collection with a life force she breathes through her words of the inanimate, the historical, the body, the memory that sings, dances, and cries throughout—enjoy!

—traci kato-kiriyama

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Amy Uyematsu is a Sansei poet and teacher from Los Angeles. She has six published collections, including her most recent, That Blue Trickster Time. Her …