Memories of Grace Lee Boggs (1915-2015)

Tuesday Night Café, Little Tokyo, Los Angeles

Jenni Kuida with Tony Osumi & Maiya Kuida-Osumi

10/6/15

Thank you to Sean Miura for inviting us to share at tonight’s Tuesday Night Cafe.  Our deep condolences to Grace’s family and friends in Detroit and around the country, and our thanks to friends like Shea Howell at the Boggs Center who have taken care of her, especially in the last years.

My husband Tony and I met Grace Lee Boggs in 1998, the year her autobiography “Living for Change” was published.  Grace stayed at our house when she came for the “Serve the People” conference at UCLA organized by Scott Kurashige.  I had never heard of Grace, but Tony had read Grace and Jimmy Boggs’ 1974 groundbreaking book, “Revolution and Evolution in the 20th Century.”

I remember Grace, then 83 years old, so full of life and interest in everything; sleeping on our futon couch, rummaging through the bookshelves in our den, showing us VHS tape of her husband Jimmy speaking, reconnecting with Nobuko Miyamoto after 30 years (and who will dedicate her performance to Grace later tonight), and having dinner with Grace and Yuri Kochiyama.  Yes.

After seeing the Aloha Grocery mural that Tony and I collaborated on in the Venice Culver community in LA, Grace invited Tony and I to Detroit to help envision a mural with Detroit Summer, whose passion it was to rebuild and re-spirit Detroit, from the ground up.  That’s what she does, she offers invitations, and challenges.  We had no funding, and no agenda; we just went, and it changed our lives.

We found ourselves baling hay from an abandoned crack house into the trunk of our rental car with Farmer Paul, sweating and hauling logs down city streets with Detroit Summer teenagers for a new community garden, and a crash course in Detroit’s history.  Since I had never been to Detroit, I knew nothing of its post-industrial decay, 10,000 empty houses or 60,000 abandoned lots.  

At the time, I was working for Nobuko at Great Leap, and we had been engaging communities in performance residences in Watts, Boyle Heights and Phoenix, so with Grace’s invitation to explore ideas for Great Leap, we went back to Detroit.

Grace introduced us to Gerald Hairston, who created over 200 urban gardens on vacant lots with youth and elders. In 2001, Gerald passed away unexpectedly, and Nobuko was inspired to write “I Dream a Garden,” a Japanese American Obon circle dance, Detroit-style, incorporating multi-ethnic rhythms and movements.  The Fandango Obon, which will take place at the JACCC on October 25^th, was born out of the “I Dream a Garden” project.

On our many visits, we stayed at the Boggs Center, upstairs from Grace’s home.  Each morning and night, we would stop in to see her, and she would ask us how our day was, and give us more names of people in the community to meet and connect with.  

Tony and I went back to do another mural in Detroit’s Chinatown Association building in 2003.  The success of these projects would not have been dreamable without Grace’s guidance, the spark, energy and soul behind everything.

Grace continued to be part of our life after our daughter Maiya Grace was born in 2005.  Named after Grace, we continued visiting Grace every year or two. In the last 5 years, filmmaker Grace Lee’s documentary “American Revolutionary” and Grace’s book with Scott Kurashige, “The Next American Revolution” brought her more attention from the API and film communities, progressive, ethnic and mainstream media, and although she slowed down a bit, she seemed to gain energy from the good vibes of everyone she came in contact with.

Grace encouraged us all to think deeper, more creatively and more critically, thinking of ways to meet new demands and consider new approaches.  Grace’s circle of positive change is filled with murals, urban gardens, renovating vacant buildings, intergenerational book clubs, freedom schooling, teens and elders, neighbor to neighbor, with “visions for what Detroit can be and what America ought to be,” as she would say.

For all of you tonight, as activists, creators and producers of community arts, spoken word, music, and comedy, we should draw from Grace’s influence by listening, watching, and interacting with each other.

Grace lived 100 years.  You can read all of the amazing quotes that were trending all over Facebook, Instagram and Twitter yesterday, and even what Obama said about her.

I know that if she were here, and she is, with rockets on her wheelchair soaring high, she would love what happens in this space, on this stage in Little Tokyo on the 1^st and 3^rd Tuesday from Spring to Fall, and she would challenge us to continue to struggle and keep the conversations going.  We love you Grace.

CicLAvia @ MacArthur Park - April 2012

For our 3rd CicLAvia in April 2012, Maiya and I drove down to MacArthur Park and again brought our scooters.  Maiya had just learned how to ride a bike that week, and I was concerned that she would be a little unsteady with all the thousands of bike riders en the route.  We joined Great Leap, for their performance of "Cycles of Change," bicycle stories directed by Dan Kwong and based on peoples personal stories created in Collaboratory workshops.

 The performance, "Cycles of Change" with George and Danny on taiko and percussion.

These photos tell a story all by themselves.  

I'm going to call it a blog and sign off NaBloPoMo12 #8!  Peace. Out.

Grace's Groupies in SF

So it's been 10 years since I've been to San Francisco, when we went up with NCRR for a Report Back on our trip to Cuba in 2001.  When we heard our friends Grace Lee Boggs and Scott Kurashige (aka Tula's dad),  were going to be in San Francisco on a speaking tour of their new book, The Next American Revolution, Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century in March 2012, we decided to drive up to San Francisco to see them.  It's been two years since the US Social Forum, which was the last time we saw Grace and visited in Detroit.  Since it's late and I'm tired, this will have to be another photo caption blog post.  These are the top 13 out of 118 photos from the trip.

By kismet, our friend Joe Reilly was in Berkeley performing a
children's concert at La Pena Cultural Center that same morning.
It so happens that we met Joe through Grace at the Boggs Center, and our other friends in Detroit,
who at the time were part of the Long Hairz Collective.

Joe's latest CD is "Let's Go Outside," is one of his many works with
children, animals, nature and all things eco and Michigany.

Maiya with Daddy at the La Pena Cultural Center mural

One of a dozen or more self-portraits taken from the backseat.
I think this is one going over the Oakland Bay Bridge.

Maiya Grace wearing her Grace Lee tee

Visiting with Grace before her talk

Event sponsored by the Chinese Progressive Association (or whatever CPA stands for).
I liked how progressive and diversely API the crowd was, numbering around 400 people.
The previous day Grace had engaged in a conversation with
Angela Davis at UC Berkeley at a woman's conference with 1200 people attending.

Shea, one of our favorite and most knowledgeable Detroit-based activists
who we met in our summers volunteering with Detroit Summer

View from our hotel room

Grace Lee and Maiya Grace at an after party in Grace's hotel room

Tony talking with Grace about education or activism, I'm sure.

One of Daddy's original 3x5 cards

Meeting Tish!!!!

So, there's another one of our short trips, barely gone a day and a half.  I think we left at 4 am, and got up there in time to see Joe's 10am concert, then drove across the Bridge to SF to see Grace in the afternoon.  We then drove out to Grace's hotel near the airport to hang out, then back to our hotel near Chinatown.  The next morning, I went walking around San Francisco and loved it, and walked over to visit/meet Tish, one of my favorite blogger friends (and first blogger friends back in the days before FB when everybody was blogging) who I have been good friends with for 10 years, but had never met in person.  Something non-bloggers don't really get.  Tony and Maiya came to pick me up and ended up hanging out with us, just talking and catching up.  It was a great visit, and one that I hope to do again one day soon.  

Our only regret is that we didn't have time to see Manilatown, home of our Manzanar friends Al Robles and Bill Sorro, both who passed away in recent years, or our friend Jiro Kobashigawa, Tony's former landlord, an Okinawan activist, poet, artist, writer, who passed away this summer at the age of 97.

Peace. Out.
NaBloPoMo12 #7
(Backblogging March 2012)

Maiya's 7th Bday Mottainai Party

We celebrated Maiya's 7th Bday Party again at the park by our house.  Seems like every year gets bigger, this year about 75 people came, having invited the basketball team, friends from school, old preschool friends, and extensions of family.  I'm thinking that this might be the last year of a party of this size.  Big as it was, we still managed to do a fairly green low-waste party.  Plastic utensils and reusable party chopsticks go in the bucket, Grandpa Larry's coffee mugs, no single-use drink containers, cloth tablecloths, recycled paper plates, hot pots for tea and coffee.  I'm always amazed at how little trash is in the trash can at the end of the day.  The main thing we take home to recycle is the 1/2 gallon juice and 2 liter bottle sodas.

 During arts and crafts time, the kids made Tenegui towels... which they later needed for learning the Mottainai dance from Auntie Nobuko, who came and did a little obon dance workshop, teaching the kids the dance.  It was a lot of fun to watch the kids and parents joining in.

 Then afterwards, we went back home and celebrated Grandpa's birthday at our house.  The kids always bring out the yogurt cups every time they come over.  We just can't get rid of them.

Until next bday, peace out!

(Posted on: 10/25/12)

Baby Evan

Tony's friend Hector's & his wife Erika had their baby on April 1st.  Here are some pictures of the baby gift bag decorated by Maiya, and the day Baby Evan came home from the hospital when he was 2 days old.  It was nice to hold a newborn baby in my arms.  Got that awwwww feeling.  Although I love that baby period, if anything, I wish we had had a 2nd sooner, and wish that we had started earlier.  Anyways, water under the bridge.  Even though Maiya always reminds me that she wishes she had a brother or a sister so she would have a built in playmate, there's a lot of things to like about only having one kid.  

NaBloPoMo#6.  Peace. Gaga goo goo.  Out.

Maiya Turns 6 (in Feb!)

SIX:  So Maiya turned 6 in February.  We had the party at a park walking distance from our house.  Mista Cookie Jar came and performed some great music for the kids.  We had seen him perform at a couple of community events and Maiya loves his CDs.  I have always wanted to do a concert for a birthday party, but Joe Reilly and Chic Street Man don't live in town and we don't really know Ice Cream Man (reggae kids performer that we've seen at the Farmer's Market).  You know that thing about invite 6 kids for a 6th bday?  Well we times'd it by 10, and over 60 people came, including 4 kids from Kindergarten.

GAMES:  The theme was not Barbie or Bakugan, it was FRUIT!  So my friend Mickie gave me some suggestions (via Skype from Japan) for games.  You'll see in the pictures we did relay race games with orange on a spoon, banana on your neck, and oranges between your legs. Oh my goodness, how fun is that?  The cake was fruit, and the party favor was reusable shopping bags that fold up into fruits.  

ECO-PARTY:  We did another ECO-party.  It's easy to use dishes and real utensils when you have a party at home, but when you do it elsewhere, you have to lug the stuff back and forth.  I got paper plates made of bamboo and recycled materials.  We brought a bucket so that the nice plastic cutlery and hashi (used at several parties including her 5th bday) could be tossed in, taken home, and rewashed.   I re-used some plastic tablecloths from past parties, and also now have 4 cloth tablecloths that can be washed and used again.  We brought real mugs for drinks. Drinks were by the half gallon (no throwaway one-time use plastic bottles or juice boxes), and since it was cold, I made pots of coffee (not enough though) and brought them in the hot pots.  The nice thing is that we didn't even fill one trash barrel at the park; although I did have to fish out a few forks and hashi.

Here's around 20 pictures to share.  I know it's a lot, but we took about 130 pictures and filled up a video card, so you get the gist.  (If you were there, and you want individual pics of your kids, we have almost all the kids with either a piece of fruit between their legs or behind their neck.)

Happy 6th Bday.  At the time of this writing, Maiya is almost 7.   Oh, the time goes by so quickly.  Peace. Out.  (NaBloPoMo#5)