Spring CicLAvia with the KOs

On a Sunday morning in April, they shut down about 7 1/2 miles of LA streets for people to walk, ride, scoot, push a stroller, or whatever at the 2nd CicLAvia.  What a great sense of community.  So of course, we went to J-town.  I realized though, that it was Maiya's first bike ride not around the block, so the going was slow.  I had thoughts we might go across the 1st Street Bridge, but with me on Tony's folding bike, possibly the first time since I did the 20+ mile Bike Marathon a few years ago, and Maiya on training wheels, it wasn't going to happen.  We only went a few blocks, but we made a lot of stops. What a fun day it was.  I loved being able to ride bikes down First Street in Little Tokyo with my family.

Love this picture.  Corner of 3rd & San Pedro St.

Tony and Maiya at the J-town Mural

Thousands passed Tony's mural "Home is Little Tokyo" 

Bumped into Mike in front of Far East Cafe

DREAM ACTivists getting the message out & representing.

Community, exercise and family time, love it.

Community, exercise, family time & JA history.

Toyo Miyatake plaque at the Sakura Crossing in Jtown

"so this kind of injustice never happens again!" - Toyo Miyatake

This was our first of hopefully many CicLAvia's.  Somehow I just deleted a few photos I wanted to share, one of us in Fugetsu-do ordering manjuu for the road.  Well, there's NaBloPoMo#8.  Peace. Cycle. Out.

Moments in Manzanar 2010

Drove up to Manzanar for the day this year.  Left around 9am, got up there just after noon, stayed for the program and then went to the interpretive center, then hit the road to go home.  It was nice that my brother Darin's family came up, as did Nobuko and Dan.  Nice to visit with our friends from NCRR.  It was the first time I've been there in 12 years that I wasn't working, running around behind or onstage.  It was nice to kind of sit, eat the hummus, pita, tabouleh, carrots, apples and stuff that Tony packed for us.  And that, in a photo nutshell, was the 2010 Manzanar Pilgrimage... Maiya's 5th trip in her 5 years.

We Can. We Will. (NBPM#17)

I post this in solidarity with UCLA students arrested and even tasered while protesting a 32% fee hike today. As background, I wrote this poem back in the depressing days of Bush in office, before I had ever heard of Barack Obama and his "Yes, We Can" slogan, after attending the 2007 Manzanar Pilgrimage and Manzanar After Dark program.
We Can. We Will.
dedicated to and inspired by mari, traci & tad

Today in the sun, my 2 year old ate watermelon and collected rocks at Manzanar. Too hot for a 2 year old, I thought. Tonight, After Dark, I witnessed the passion, heat & intensity of 250 people both young and old, eager to learn, hear, share, speak, heal…

Then later in the after-madness, I heard my sistah Mari say:

The president is never going to listen. To. Me.

Maybe not.

But We.
We have power.
We can change things.
We have the power.
We can start a boycott.
We can start ethnic studies.
We can rise up in the fields.
We can sit down at the front of the bus.
Not because we’re tired, but because enough is enough.
We can stop a jail in Little Tokyo.
We can fight redress.
We can write a poem.
We can make a film.
We can write a column.
We can. We will. We have the will.
We can start a letter writing campaign.
We can do our own petition. Online, myspace, mass email, in the paper.
We can organize the students, Nikkei, JA, Hapa, Latino/a, Chicano/a, Black, Muslims, gay, straight, transgender.

Mari also said:
It’s not just me.
There are a lot more people like me behind me.
They’re going to come here.
They’re going to be asking questions.

(It’s not a threat. It’s a fact.)

We have the power. We have the Baka guts*.
We can. We will.

4/29/07
manzanar, ca.

* Baka guts in reference to Manzanar Committee Chair Sue Kunitomi Embrey's family phrase about having the courage and guts to stand up for what you believe in, no matter what it is (baka in Japanese is stupid/idiot).

(NaBloPoMo#17)

Manzanar 2009 - Part 1

Well, this year we celebrated the 40th annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, 210 miles from Los Angeles, the site where 10,000 Japanese and Japanese Americans were incarcerated during WW2. By my finger count, it is only my 16th pilgrimage, coming almost every year since 1992. It was actually Maiya's 4th time, which is a lot considering that she's 4 years old. It started out pretty cold and windy, but then warmed up a bit in the afternoon. Here's a few of the 100 pictures we took.

Arriving early, we take a family photo.

Excited that Skyler Mariko came up on the bus with her family!

When you're 4, you bring a shovel and pail to collect rocks.

For the pilgrimage, we estimated about 1,500 people this year, and about 14 buses. I acted as stage manager again this year. Things seemed more laid back this year and ran more smoothly than in the past.
When you run the stage, you can get your family to hold the Gila River banner, an honor, in honor of Maiya's grandpa Walt's family. The original signs were contributed by each of the 10 camps back around the year 2000. In 2004, they were placed in the Manzanar Interpretive Center. The flags below are reproductions of the originals, and used for the first time in 5 years.
I'm sorry that Tony and others had to hold the flag in the wind for over an hour at the Interfaith portion of the program. But it was cool because Kaz' parents were part of the Interfaith service for the first time.
It was so fun to visit with Kaz. I think Kaz was there for the first camping trips for Manzanar After Dark (MAD-ness!) back in 1997 and 1998. Baby Gavin slept through most of the odori dancing.
Maiya and Skyler were eating fruits behind the stage and playing in the sand so they missed the dancing. When the dancing was over, the girls were done with the day.

Another pilgrimage program finished! See you in '10!

Still to come, photos of the newly restored Mess Hall, swimming at the Dow Villa pool with Daddy, and the Manzanar at Dusk program.

Manzanar next weekend

Photo credit: The fabulous Rafu photographer Mario Reyes

Next Saturday, you will find the Kuida-Osumi's at Manzanar, somewhere near the stage, since I will be stage managing again this year. One of my jobs is to help find people to hold the plaques representing the various camps. Here's a photo from last year, Tony and Maiya holding the Poston sign, where her great grandparents Chie & Yoshio were incarcerated during WW2. Here's a link to the press release for next Saturday's Manzanar Pilgrimage. We'll look forward to seeing you there! Don't want to drive? Take the bus from Little Tokyo.
http://www.rafu.com/en/2009/0412/comm.html

Manzanar from Maiya's eyes

We took Maiya to the 39th Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage on Saturday. At 3 years old, this was her 3rd time attending. We had been reading the book Maiya Goes to Manzanar I wrote about her experience last year, so she kind of knew what to expect. We drove up on Saturday morning leaving at 7:30 am, and spent the night in Lone Pine.

Mommy & Daddy woke me up so so early.
But I got to eat breakfast bento in the car!

"Mommy, I thirsty again"

"My friends Mickie & Stacy, the college ladies talked at the pilgrimage"

"Looks like we're at the beach, I even brought my shovel & bucket"
"My favorite thing today was playing in the desert"

"Right before Daddy & I went up to hold the sign for
Poston where my Great Grandma Chie was in camp"

"We took the Poston marker to the Cemetery"

"I was happy to be part of the show. Can't you tell?"

"Then Daddy & I danced the Tanko Bushi"
"Mommy was kind of a mess afterwards. But not me."

"I am ready for a nap."

Stay tuned for Mommy's take on the event... and a special happy 45th wedding anniversary to Grandma Machi & Grandpa Walt.
dad.

Maiya Goes to Manzanar

Another homemade Christmas gift we made this year was a book I wrote, Maiya Goes to Manzanar about Maiya's 2nd trip to Manzanar. It was inspired by my Literacy and Language Arts for Young Children class and written to share our experiences of teaching Maiya about our family's history. Click on the link above to view the book.

Goodbye is not Sorro(w)

Bill & Al at Manzanar Pilgrimage in 2000

Bill & Al hand-making "No More Manzanars" political buttons in 2003

NaBloPoMo#20: I met Bill Sorro in 1997 at the Manzanar Pilgrimage. He and his buddy, the Filipino poet Al Robles, drove to Manzanar with a bunch of student activists from City College of San Francisco. That was the first year that we did the Manzanar After Dark (MAD-ness!) program and camp-out, which I created in order to make the pilgrimage events more relevant for young people, with an evening program that centered around intergenerational group discussions focusing on the camp experience and making connections to current day issues, and an open mike with spoken word and performances.

Bill and his group quickly got involved with the organizing of the MAD program and brought 2 vanloads new student activists each year. Over the 8 years that he came, he brought his sons, Guilio and Joaquin, who are among my most favorite spoken word artists/activists/teachers, as well as countless numbers of students eager to learn about the camp experience.

Tony and I immediately connected with Bill. He was one of those revolutionary activists from back in the day. He was involved in the tenants struggle fighting against the evictions of the I-Hotel in San Francisco in the 70s, and was a founder of the Manilatown Heritage Foundation. He was passionate about sharing his stories about the I-Hotel (and more) with us and he was an amazing man who made us laugh and taught us about the people's history.

Here is a quote Bill sent me after 9/11 which is still displayed on my original geocities website from more than 5 years ago:

"We too, are trying to figure out our 'collective' moves and response in the wake of 911. Sure did change the course of World History real fast didn't it? Anyway... in spite of the ever present dangers of the country moving quickly to the far right. We got to keep on keepin on... Intensify the Struggle in all our areas of work... we have to dig deeper within ourselves not to let the false patriotism, jingoism and other ideological bullshit push aside all the important gains that we have made in our struggles for civil rights and civil liberties. Sound like 'old hat' don't it? But yes indeed... Freedom IS a Constant Struggle." - Bill Sorro

The last time I saw Bill was at the 2004 Manzanar Pilgrimage (I didn't go in 2005 because Maiya was only 2 months old at the time). I didn't know that it would be our last time seeing each other. He passed away this August in San Francisco. Bill will always be in my heart, especially on the last Saturday in April at Manzanar. My best to Bill's family--Rest in Peace...Out!

Bill's Website
KQED spotlight on Bill's family
California Story Fund - Bill Sorro: His Life & Activism
San Francisco Gate story

Remembering Bill Sorro (by Pete Yamamoto on Manzanar)

Post-Pilgrimage Fun

After spending all day at the Manzanar Pilgrimage, afterwards, we went back to the motel and hung out in the swimming pool for 2 1/2 hours. Hanging out with us were children of the Manzanar Committee, two boys, Sam (age 6) and Miro (age 3). The big pool was "icy code" as Maiya kept saying, but it didn't keep her from going in the pool about 10-15 times. We were going back and forth between the jacuzzi and the big pool. It was lots of fun. Even though it's been 2 years since we did swim class at the Y, Maiya enjoyed kicking and paddling around the pool, with me holding her trunk and walking back and forth in the shallow end. She also had fun jumping from the edge into my arms over and over again.

The day after the pilgrimage, we drove up to Whitney Portals, which is about 11 miles from Lone Pine, and is near the base of Mt. Whitney. They have a little pond stocked with trout, which we watched people catching fish every few minutes. It was great that in addition to taking Maiya to the pilgrimage, we were able to go to the mountains and had a little bit of fun before heading home.