Chisao Hata

Chisao Hata is a performing artist, community organizer and global citizen artist. Her work shares the Japanese American story to communities from Hiroshima, Japan to Cuba, and New Mexico to Ontario, Oregon. As an arts educator her perspectives are shared as an Oregon Humanities Conversation Leader and Vanport Mosaic Festival Stories in Movement artist. She originated Gambatte Be Strong, stories of Japanese American displacement and resilience in Portland, Oregon and is a guest artist at the Dance Exchange in Takoma Park, Maryland.

Chisao is on the Board of Directors for the Oregon Nikkei Endowment, American Music Program, and Advisory Board of the Physicians for Social Responsibility. She is a founding member of Portland Taiko, Theatre Diaspora and serves on the Regional Arts and Culture Council Arts Education Committee.

Updated May 2019

Stories from This Author

Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column

Holding

May 16, 2019 • Chisao Hata , Ken Yoshikawa , traci kato-kiriyama

This month’s column features two friends I made when I participated in a movement response workshop in Chicago last summer, led by Chisao Hata, featuring our physical reaction to poetics expressed by actor & poet Ken Yoshikawa. With the emphasis on an intergenerational lens through which we shared, I looked forward to being able to featuring both of them someday here. The two hail from Portland, Oregon and continue to work together amongst their own creative projects aplenty. They hold …