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
An Unstoppable Fluttering
Sept. 15, 2022 • 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 and we’re excited to present a few pieces from her 2018 book, The Long Drive Home. The three pieces shared here give insight to her voice and what she is …
Burst
Aug. 18, 2022 • 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 supernatural coming of age... A poem on the attack. Enjoy... —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * José Natsuhara is a Nikkei poet from Lima, Peru, director of the poetry …
Gnawing
July 21, 2022 • 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 that is close, sometimes overwhelmingly close, to the ghosts, the land, the sentient cries. This beautiful writing points us toward Minidoka as much as it positions us firmly in the …
Memory and labyrinths
June 16, 2022 • 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 the labyrinth of complex relationships. Enjoy! —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Kazuko Kikushima is a psychologist and communicator. His greatest references in poetry are Jose Watanabe (Trujillo, Peru) …
Baachan
May 19, 2022 • 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 are treated to her history and endeared cultural context, the many layers of compassion from and for a grandmother, the images of Shizue's childhood and the resilience of her Baachan's …
Murmurs and Bones
April 21, 2022 • 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 well in our presence. Enjoy… —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Lee Ann Roripaugh’s fifth volume of poetry, tsunami vs. the fukushima 50 (Milkweed Editions, 2019), was named a “Best …
Specks and Shadows
March 17, 2022 • 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 light of subtle beauty and a depth of exploration that beg for more than one reading. Enjoy... —traci kato-kiriyama * * * * * Kou Sugita was born in Japan …
Remembrance
Feb. 17, 2022 • Rey Fukuda Salinas , Greer Nakadegawa-Lee , Noriko Nakada , Kurt Yokoyama-Ikeda , traci kato-kiriyama
Upon this 80th anniversary since the signing of E.O. 9066 during WWII that led to the family separation, house arrest, coerced and forced removal, imprisonment, and mass incarceration of Nikkei throughout North America and especially on the West Coast of the U.S., I wanted to reach out to several writers we have featured in past editions of Nikkei Uncovered, to see if they'd like to share a piece related to this month of commemoration and countless Day Of Remembrance programs …
Bite
Jan. 20, 2022 • 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 pieces here from her latest work. Her writing allows us to savor, with amusement and wonder, the placement and meaning of characters in the abstract, and emerge renewed. Happy New …
As we continue...
Dec. 16, 2021 • 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 and a voice that expands beyond those moments—“...a story without an ending...” and all that allows us to continue. Her striking pieces here let us reflect on the breathlessness of …
