Presented in collaboration with the Poetry Society of America and the Poetry Coalition’s “Poetry and the Body” theme, this two-part event brings together artists, scholars, poets, and photographers who draw on the history of Japanese incarceration during World War II and its archival, material evidence in their innovative practices. During Part I, poet Kimiko Hahn introduces an in-gallery reading prior to a conversation between poet Christine Kitano and photographer Kevin Miyazaki, moderated by Tom Ikeda, executive director of Densho, an organization dedicated to acquiring, preserving, and disseminating oral histories and other artifactual materials around the unjust incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.

This is a free event, but please register in advance. ICP Members have access to the best seats at our public programs in our reserved members’ section.

Our ICP Museum–public program combination ticket grants $10 entry starting at 4:30 PM to those attending the program. Tickets are only available online when you register for the program.

Bios

Kimiko Hahn is the author of nine books of poems, including Brain Fever and Toxic Flora, both collections prompted by science, and The Narrow Road to the Interior, a collection that takes its title from Basho’s famous poetic journal. Her honors include a Guggenheim Fellowship, PEN/Voelcker Award, Shelley Memorial Prize, and a Lila Wallace-Reader’s Digest Writers Award, as well as fellowships from the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2016, Hahn was honored by the Asian American literary organization Kundiman. She is a distinguished professor in the MFA program in Creative Writing & Literary Translation at Queens College, CUNY, and president of the board at the Poetry Society of America.

Christine Kitano is the author of the poetry collections Sky Country (BOA Editions, 2017) and Birds of Paradise (Lynx House Press, 2011). Recent work is published in Portland Review, Miramar, and Wildness. She teaches at Ithaca College and in the MFA Program for Writers at Warren Wilson College.

Kevin Miyazaki is a fine art and editorial photographer based in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. He attended Drake University in Des Moines, Iowa, where he earned his bachelor's degree in graphic design. Miyazaki’s artwork explores themes of family history and identity through lenses of place and memory. His work has been included in exhibitions at the Center for Photography at Woodstock, Phoenix Art Museum, and the Newspace Center for Photography, and his editorial clients include the New York Times, AARP, and Travel + Leisure.

Tom Ikeda is the founding executive director of Densho. He is a sansei (third generation Japanese American) who was born and raised in Seattle. Ikeda’s parents and grandparents were incarcerated during World War II at Minidoka, Idaho. In addition to leading the organization over the last 20 years, he has conducted over 200 video-recorded, oral history interviews with Japanese Americans. Prior to working at Densho, Ikeda was a general manager at Microsoft Corporation in the Multimedia Publishing Group. He also worked as a research engineer developing hemodializers (artificial kidneys) with Cordis Dow Corporation and as a financial analyst at the Weyerhaeuser Company. Ikeda graduated from the University of Washington with a BS in chemical engineering, BA in chemistry, and an MBA. He has received numerous awards for his historical contributions, including the Humanities Washington Award for outstanding achievement in the public humanities, the National JACL Japanese American of the Biennium award for Education, and the Microsoft Alumni Fellows Award.

TOP IMAGE: Clem Albers, Arcadia, California, April 5, 1942. Courtesy National Archives and Records Administration.