Memoirist, Book Designer, UCLA Professor, and Librarian
Among Speakers for Song Sparrow Writing Workshop

Gardena Workshop Is Designed for Those Writing Family and Organizational Histories

A librarian at the University of Chicago, UCLA professor in Asian American Studies, Japanese American National Museum senior vice president and memoirist, and book designer and cartoonist are among the varied speakers scheduled for the Song Sparrow Writing Workshop, organized by Naomi Hirahara's Midori Books and the Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California.  Co-sponsored by the Uchima Writing Fund, this event will be held at the Ken Nakaoka Community Center in Gardena, California, on Saturday, November 3, from 8:30 AM to 4 PM.

This all-day workshop will present various sessions on how to research, write and publish family and community histories.  The morning keynote speaker, Akemi Kikumura-Yano, will speak on "Writing Truth in a Memoir" at 9:30 AM. The author of Through Harsh Winters and Promises Kept, Kikumura-Yano is senior vice president at the Japanese American National Museum.  She received her Ph.D. in anthropology from UCLA and has curated several exhibitions for the National Museum, including its inaugural exhibition Issei Pioneers:  Hawaii and the Mainland, 1885-1924.  Her numerous academic publications related to an international research project she directed have led to the establishment of an award-winning Web site at www.DiscoverNikkei.org that is accessible in English, Japanese, Spanish and Portuguese.

From 10:30 AM-12 noon will be breakout workshops on writing and research.  Chester Hashizume, an expert on family tree research, and Dale Sato, a community historian, will be giving presentations on family tree and mapping communities.  Hashizume, the author of the booklet, "Discovering Your Japanese American Family Tree," has conducted numerous of genealogical workshops for organizations such as the Japanese American National Museum.  He is also the president of Pacific Film Currents, a nonprofit organization that develops, produces, and distributes educational films on Asian American history.  Sato has 12 years experience in conducting local oral histories primarily to document Issei-Nisei history in South Bay communities (South Bay JACL Oral History Project, 40 Families Project and founder of the JAHMP- Japanese Historical Mapping Project).  With JAHMP research team members, she is currently gathering photos for an Arcadia Press photo-history book, Japanese Americans in the South Bay, with the South Bay JACL chapter.

Held concurrently will be beginning writing and intermediate writing classes led by Iku Kiriyama of JAHSSC and editor and novelist Naomi Hirahara, respectively.  Kiriyama, a retired teacher with Los Angeles Unified School District, taught English at the secondary level and various subjects in Adult Education, served as a teacher advisor on the Human Relations Education Commission, and worked as a teacher advisor in Title I compliance in the District 7 local district office.  Active with JAHSSC, she has been involved in the creation of the organization's Nanka Nikkei Voices anthology series.  Hirahara, the founder of Midori Books and a former editor of The Rafu Shimpo, is the Edgar Award-winning author of the Mas Arai mystery series.  Her middle-grade book, 1001 Cranes, will be published by Delacorte in August 2008.  She has also produced a number of nonfiction books and memoirs on the Asian American experience.

At 1 PM will be a keynote afternoon speech on "Beyond Our Local Borders: The Global Significance of Japanese American History" by University of Chicago librarian Eizaburo Okuizumi, who gained his librarian of science degree from Keio University in Tokyo.  A Japanese Studies librarian, Okuizumi works with Bunsei Shoin Booksellers in Japan to reprint notable Issei historic resources through print-on-demand technology. 

Another set of breakout sessions related to publishing will be held from 2 to 3 PM.  Professor Lane Ryo Hirabayashi will speak on "Demystifying Scholarly Journals and Presses: Publishing in Academic Venues." A professor with and chairman of the UCLA Asian American Studies department, Hirabayashi is the first holder of the George and Sakaye Aratani Professorship in Japanese American Redress, Internment and Community.  Lane was trained in the field of socio-cultural anthropology at the University of California, Berkeley, where he received his master's and Ph.D degrees.  With Akemi Kikumura-Yano and James A. Hirabayashi, he has edited Common Ground: The Japanese American National Museum and the Culture of Collaborations and New Worlds, New Lives: Globalization and People of Japanese Descent in the Americas and from Latin America in Japan.  He is also the author of The Politics of Fieldwork: Research in an American Concentration Camp and has produced publications related to Gardena Valley and strawberry growing.

Another afternoon breakout session will be on "Book Design and Subsidy Publishing," led by cartoonist Deb Aoki, a Sansei from Hawaii who now lives in Northern California.  The creator of the Bento Box  weekly comic strip for The Honolulu Advertiser, she used the subsidy publisher, Lulu, to create two books, Deb Aoki's Bento Box: Selected Comics from the Honolulu Advertiser, 1996-2006 and Deb Aoki's Slice O' Life: The UH & Post-Grad Years/Jon J. Murakami's University of Diversity: UH Comics 1989-1993.  Besides her work in comics and children's book illustration, Aoki is currently working as a content strategist for eBay in San Jose and writes about manga for About.com at her site, http://manga.about.com. 

The third afternoon session will be on "Selling and Marketing the Book," by Naomi Hirahara.  This workshop will be limited to those who have published or are close to publishing a book.

Carolyn Sanwo of Heritage Source will be selling books by the participants for personalize signings.  At 3 PM a special signing will take place for Fighting Spirit: Judo in Southern California, 1930-1941, written by Ansho Mas Uchima and Larry Akira Kobayashi.

Preregistration for the workshop will be $45, $50 at the door.  Download a registration form (PDF). They are also available at the Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California and Midori Books.

The Ken Nakaoka Community Center is located at 1670 W. 162nd St. in Gardena.

For more information, e-mail bachi (at) naomihirahara.com, write Midori Books, P.O. Box 60614, Pasadena, CA 91116, or call Iku at (310) 326-0608.

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