Transformation

Published April 19, 2018 comments

This month’s column gave two writers the theme of “transformation.” One set of poetry was submitted in Spanish, by Rey Fukuda Salinas, born in Japan and raised internationally in places including Japan, Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. One submission came in English, by Candace Kita, born and raised in Chicago and currently based in Portland, Oregon. Enjoy!

- traci kato-kiriyama

* * * * *

Candace Kita is an arts and cultural worker weaving multidisciplinary art practice, social justice organizing, and nonprofit administration. Currently, Candace serves as the Cultural Work Manager at the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon (APANO). She also co-founded grassroots collective Arts Workers for Equity, worked in development, marketing, and programs for the Portland Art Museum and Heidi Duckler Dance Theatre, and served as Visual Art Curator for Asian American art and community space Tuesday Night Project.

Candace received her BA in Studio Art from Scripps College. She has called Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland home. In her spare time, Candace studies astrology, dances, and eats lots of onigiri.

Uranus Enters Taurus

BOOM--SMASH--CRASH
the bull’s in the china shop--
in a flash--horns hooves heaving--
--ton teeth cracking--
--shrieking glass shattering--
perfect wild porcelain
reduced into powder
MAYDAY, MAYDAY--but

four stomachs don’t give a fuck

Dust settles
the bull’s munching
broken blue and white
fields of breakdown
taste so crisp and divine

Silence
the china shop’s in the bull--
exploded cups digested
into strange pearls
oh satisfied mess,
oh Taurus,
you’ve had the best meal of
your life and the pasture will
never look the same

* This poem was copyrighted by Candace Kita (2018)

* * * * *

Rey Fukuda Salinas was born in Japan and is Japanese and Paraguayan. He grew up internationally in places like Japan, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. Fortunate to have discovered writing music to express emotions as a bi-racial transgender queer young person, music kept Rey going during times of being closeted and growing up in an emotionally unstable home. Rey is self taught in guitar and an original song writer inspired by many artists including Frank Ocean, Sia, Nina Simone, Incubus, and Natalia Lafourcade. He writes songs about long distance & chosen family, love, immigration, prisons, freedom but also just random realizations.

Tía

voy buscando alguna foto
de ti
(15 años de pintar tu cara con mi pocas memorias)
y todo lo que encuentro
es la ovejita
del campo.
La foto de mi mamá
cargando a elle
abrazandole
tan fuerte
como si fuera su propio bebé.

Quizás es el imágen justo para dar mis respetos a ti.

Peluche

Casi 1 año y medio de hormonas
Y creció mi cuerpo corporal
mis piernas , mis brazos, mi panza
cada día un poco más como un osito
el peluche marron,
con ojos tiernos
que me regaló mi amorcito de kinder

Conexiones

crecí pensando mucho
crecí dibujando caras de mis compañerxs, vecinxs
papel y lápiz
leyendo y observando
los momentos
el movimiento
entre las palabras
los acentos
el tono…
Qué me estarás diciendo
Y como te lo digo
Cuál es la palabra
Cómo lo descubro
La manera de conectar
Tú
a mi

* These poems are copyrighted by Rey Fukuda Salinas (2018)

Discover Nikkei literature Nikkei Uncovered (series) poetry poets

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.

Logo design by Alison Skilbred

About the Authors

Rey Fukuda Salinas

Rey Fukuda Salinas (he/they) is Japanese-Paraguayan currently living in Los Angeles (Kizh land). He grew up internationally in places like Japan, the Dominican Republic, and Guatemala. Fortunate to have discovered writing music and poetry to express emotions as a mixed race transgender queer young person, art kept Rey going during times of being closeted and growing up in an emotionally unstable home. Rey is self taught in guitar and a song writer inspired by many artists including Frank Ocean, Yo-Yo Ma, Nina Simone, and Pablo Neruda. He writes songs and poetry about long distance & chosen family, love, (im)migration, prisons, freedom but also just random realizations.

Updated February 2022

Remembrance

Candace Kita

Candace received her BA in Studio Art from Scripps College. She has called Chicago, Los Angeles, and Portland home. In her spare time, Candace studies astrology, dances, and eats lots of onigiri.

Updated April 2018

traci kato-kiriyama @traciakemi

traci 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