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
Minidoka
Sept. 19, 2024 • Lawrence Matsuda , traci kato-kiriyama
This month calls back Minidoka survivor Lawrence Matsuda into the Nikkei Uncovered poetry column and has inspired me to begin, from time to time, presenting columns with poetry related directly to a singular site of incarceration. Mr. Matsuda’s poems on Minidoka come from the perspective as a child in the camps and, from tears to night terrors to indelible scars, this is poetry that is not is easy to take in…and I am grateful for what it reveals and insists …
Recollections
July 18, 2024 • Christine Kitano , traci kato-kiriyama
This month, we are so delighted to feature poetry by writer and professor Christine Kitano, with two pieces from her latest chapbook Dumb Luck & other poems (Texas Review Press). Her pieces have us reflecting on the paths of the past that lead us to exactly where we are now, and the things we may hold in our bodies, our memories, despite the passage of time. I am excited that we get to feature Professor Kitano this month and look forward …
Burning
June 20, 2024 • Mariko Fujimoto Rooks , traci kato-kiriyama
We hope this finds everyone well and able to find rest and rejuvenation amidst all of daily grinds and strife that too easily abounds. I’m always grateful to provide some poetry, as a balm and as hopeful fire for our greater work in the world. This month is of course no exception—from the wondrous Mariko Rooks, community health practitioner and creative, we share their poem on the “carcinogenic caverns” of time, on “...war and cigarettes...”—taking us on a search through the …
Remembering through Fire
May 16, 2024 • Matthew Mejia , traci kato-kiriyama
Recognizing the intersectionality and many-layered aspects of our community, we’re excited this month to present poet, educator and writing warrior, Matthew Mejia. Based in Hacienda Heights and hailing from Indigenous, Mexican, and Japanese ancestry, Matthew takes us through two streams of consciousness, orienting us to the gifts of dreaming, of surviving beyond the fire of struggle, of remembering all of it. Enjoy… — traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Matthew Mejia is an American poet and an award-winning professor …
Hoping for a Rainbow
April 18, 2024 • Curtiss Takada Rooks , traci kato-kiriyama
We are overjoyed to again feature Dr. Curtiss Takada Rooks in this springtime edition of the Nikkei Uncovered poetry column. Professor and Los Angeles-based creative, Dr. Takada Rooks offers us two wondrous and personal pieces of memory, homage, and hope - inviting us to recall the songs of our families, learn those of another, and lean into the love that is sometimes offered to us by a simple, storied kneading of dough. Enjoy... —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * …
Between Query and Legacy
March 28, 2024 • Susan Hayase , traci kato-kiriyama
This month, we feature the fierce and insightful voice of San Jose-based Susan Hayase. While I am most familiar with Susan in intergenerational community organizing and activist spaces, I am grateful always to read her writing, as she has so much to share and teach us. Here we present pieces of both query and homage, from three distinct grandparents of Susan’s to the singular Alan Nishio. Enjoy… —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Susan Hayase was a part of …
Remembrance
Feb. 15, 2024 • Carolee Okamoto , Kathy Nishimoto Masaoka , traci kato-kiriyama
In the spirit of “remembrance” with Day Of Remembrance programs happening all around the country — we feature personal tributes by two Sansei writers, Carolee Okamoto, based in Washington, and Kathy Masaoka, based in Los Angeles. Carolee’s poem honors the warrior within her grandmother, a samurai’s daughter and a farmer’s wife. Kathy’s essay pays homage to her late, older sister Judy Nishimoto and the influence of her passionate, determined, and powerful spirit. Enjoy... — traci kato-kiriyama * * * * …
Half-empty/half-full
Jan. 18, 2024 • Aaron Caycedo-Kimura , traci kato-kiriyama
As we welcome 2024, we welcome another new writer to the Nikkei Uncovered space. We have three pieces of prose and poetry from Aaron Caycedo-Kimura, a Bloomfield CT based writer. The pieces here remind us of the transition through the in-between, what is at once behind and in front of us…the things of the past we might begin to let go of as we grasp onto them in the present moment. As we enter into a new year, we by …
Tribute to Amy Uyemastu: After — Part 7
Dec. 21, 2023 • Amy Uyematsu , traci kato-kiriyama
Here we share a final installment of a long series tribute to the late, great Amy Uyematsu. Since July, following her passing on June 23, I’ve had the honor and pleasure of sharing many voices in celebration of Amy through Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column. And as I continue to work on my own cycle of homage pieces for Amy, it has been wonderful and inspiring to witness poem after poem come in from some of my favorite writers and …
Tribute to Amy Uyemastu: After — Part 6
Nov. 16, 2023 • traci kato-kiriyama , Pam Ward
This month, we have the pleasure of featuring two poems from the great Pam Ward in our continued homage to the late Amy Uyematsu. In the mid 1990’s, Pam and Amy, along with Gloria Alvarez, Jiseh James, and Nancy Padron, organized Cantaluz (“sing light”) to come together and read as a collective of women of color poets. They had a reunion performance in 2017 and of course the legacy of each poet lives on. Here, Pam lends her fierce voice …
Discover Nikkei Updates
Be in our video celebrating Nikkei worldwide. Click to learn how to submit! Deadline extended to October 15!
November 12
5pm PDT | 7pm PET
Featured Nima:
Graciela Nakachi
Guest Host:
Enrique Higa
Presented in Spanish
Sign in with Google
Sign in with Facebook