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Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
An Unstoppable Fluttering
Kelsey Kawana, traci kato-kiriyama
Yonsei entrepreneur and writer Kelsey Kawana was introduced to me by kindred friend and artist Beau Sia, and I was honored to support them both in co-producing an upcoming short film, The Unreachable Star (more in Kelsey’s bio). It was such a delight to later come across her wonderful poetry …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Burst
José Natsuhara, traci kato-kiriyama
This month, again with the help of my partner's mother (a Nikkei artist born and raised in Peru), I came to appreciate this poem for its intensity, written by Lima, Peru-based Nikkei poet José Natsuhara. Strong imagery abounds throughout this poem, full of impressive images, from the everyday to a …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Gnawing
W. Todd Kaneko, traci kato-kiriyama
This month’s feature comes to us from Grand Rapids, Michigan, with selections from This Is How the Bone Sings, a poetry collection by Todd Kaneko. These pieces resonated at a gut level for me—they poke and prod, nudge and whack, muse and gnaw at our past through a present lens …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Memory and labyrinths
Kazuko Kikushima, traci kato-kiriyama
This month we are pleased to present the Peruvian poet and psychologist Kazuko Kikushima. Once again, my partner's mother helped me understand the beauty and depth of this poem, a moving piece that calls to the memory of a loved one and the things we call and let go in …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Baachan
Shizue Seigel, traci kato-kiriyama
This month, we are happy to present two poems from San Francisco-based writer and visual artist, Shizue Siegel. As the founder/director of Write Now!, Shizue amplifies many voices throughout the Bay Area, and here we are honored to share her voice with pieces about her Baachan. Through this writing, we …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Murmurs and Bones
Lee Ann Roripaugh, traci kato-kiriyama
We are honored to present three pieces here from South Dakota State Poet Laureate (2015-2019), Lee Ann Roripaugh. A personal and clanging reflection on the 2011 Tōhoku tsunami and earthquake, these poems are stunning murmurations of memory hitting against bone, of shadows that never quite evaporate, of ghosts alive and …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Specks and Shadows
Kou Sugita, traci kato-kiriyama
Portland-based writer and musician Kou Sugita gives us several pieces in this month's column that nudge us into a quiet space of listening—to past echoes that still reverberate; to colors that heed our remembrance; to “the shadow of a shadow of a sound.” Kou’s pieces here are shown with a …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Remembrance
Rey Fukuda Salinas, Greer Nakadegawa-Lee, Noriko Nakada, Kurt Yokoyama-Ikeda, traci kato-kiriyama
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
Bite
Sawako Nakayasu, traci kato-kiriyama
It is a wonderful thing to be able to start the year with weather and words that are crisp, refreshing, new. This is the energy coming forth in prose poetry from Massachusetts based artist, Sawako Nakayasu, and here we are treated to her English and Japanese language versions for two …
Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column
As we continue...
Christine Kitano, traci kato-kiriyama
What speaks as we continue on, through the generations or through a single moment we need to survive? What does that breath or utterance or silence sound like? In New York-based Professor Christine Kitano’s work that is shared with us here, we are treated to an urgency related to memory …