Rachel Maddow and her team at MS NOW completed the final two episodes of her Burn Order podcast on the wartime incarceration only last Friday, just in time for the series launch before a live audience on Sunday, December 15, at the ornate Orpheum Theater in Los Angeles. Her team invited Satsuki Ina, Lori Bannai, and me to speak on the first of two panels.
Continue reading “BURN ORDER” launches before a live audience in Los Angeles
Many thanks to Rachel Maddow and her team at MS NOW for reaching out to me and others in the community to help connect the dots between the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans and the abductions of non-white immigrants and citizens on the streets of America today. Their six-part podcast series, “Burn Order,” dropped the first two episodes today, preceded by this video trailer:
Continue reading Featured in new Rachel Maddow podcast, “BURN ORDER”
Audience is who we make theater for, and it was a privilege to have such a lively one witness the first staged reading of our new theatrical adaptation of John Okada’s No-No Boy at the Seattle Rep on Thursday, May 8. Continue reading First live audience for staged reading of “NO-NO BOY” adaptation
Prepared remarks for a public talk presented April 22 at Wellesley College in the Pendleton Atrium. See below for video of an updated version presented in Oakland on June 22, 2025.
One year ago, when Elena Creef and I first discussed my speaking here, I never thought my talk would take such a dark turn. Then came the election. Elena asked me for a title for the program. By then, we knew the general direction things would take, but not the precise details. So this umbrella title seemed likely to stick by the time April 22nd rolled around.
Continue reading What Japanese American Wartime Incarceration Tells Us About Mass Deportation Today
I’m grateful to the Seattle Rep and artistic director Dámaso Rodriguez for another opportunity to develop the script for this new stage adaptation of John Okada’s No-No Boy.
Continue reading Public reading set for “No-No Boy” work-in-progress
At the March 1 Lunar New Year banquet for the Seattle chapter of the Asian American Journalists Association, I was asked to say a few words as one of the chapter founders on its 40th anniversary. I felt I had to say what is apparent — that in the last six weeks our nation has been turned upside down.
Continue reading The manufactured hysteria over diversity, equity, and inclusion
On this date we’re in a strange transitional phase, preparing to defend democracy and civil liberties, books and libraries, history and knowledge and education, as they all come under concerted and coordinated attack in the four years to come. The example and literature of Japanese American resistance to wartime incarceration is more relevant than ever, and the script will continue to be written and rewritten to confront events as they unfold. Without question, we will look back at this time of relative peace and grace with nostalgia and a degree of anger at how we got here. However, we press forward, and here’s what’s on tap for the first half of 2025.
Continue reading Asserting our history and defending civil liberties in 2025
“A Celebration of Art Hansen” was the centerpiece of the first-ever Nichi Bei Book Fest in San Francisco Japantown on July 27. Art and wife Debbie caught Covid from a cruise the week before so had to join us by Zoom in the Koho Co-Creative Space in the Peace Plaza, but it was still a celebratory event with stories told, tributes made, and city proclamations presented. Continue reading REVIEW: “A Capstone Collection from a Beloved Historian”
