Mitsuye Yamada's 100th Birthday: September 23, 2023

The Poetry Center presents a poets' reading and tribute in honor of Mitsuye Yamada's 100th birthday, hosted by Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda, and co-organized with them and Hedi Yamada Mouchard. This online event features readings and tributes by Marilyn Chin, Chrystos, doris diosa davenport, W. Todd Kaneko, traci kato-kiriyama, Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, Mia Ayumi Malhotra, Cherríe Moraga, and Nellie Wong. Their presentations are followed by a reading by Mitsuye Yamada of her poetry, from Full Circle: New and Selected Poems (UC Santa Barbara Asian American Studies, 2019), recorded to video the day before the September 23, 2023 webcast. The video program concludes with a gathering of photos as shared at the start of the webcast.

This program is supported in part by the National Endowment for the Arts.

Publisher
American Poetry Archives
Location
The Poetry Center (Remote Access Event)
Date
2023-09-23
Event Run Time
01:39:00
Contributors
Brynn Saito
Brandon Shimoda
Rights

©© American Poetry Archives. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License. For all other uses please email poetry@sfsu.edu. 

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Mitsuye Yamada's 100th Birthday (01:34:08)

Brynn Saito and Brandon Shimoda open the program welcoming the audience and poets, and offering a brief introduction to Mitsuye Yamada's life and work.

Cherríe Moraga speaks next, addressing Yamada and their history, then reads her foreword to Yamada's book Full Circle: New and Selected Poems.

Mia Ayumi Malhotra follows, reading "Portrait of Isako In Wartime" and "Balloon Bombs" from her own work, Isako Isako, after sharing the story of a book featuring Yamada that was in the family as she was growing up.

Next is doris diosa davenport, speaking to the long history and friendship she and Yamada shared.

Following is traci kato-kiriyama, who reads a poem based on one by Yamada called "A Name."

Marilyn Chin, via a prerecorded video, reads her own poem "For Mitsuye Yamada on Her 90th Birthday."

Next is W. Todd Kaneko, who reads "Harmony at the Fairgrounds" from Yamada's book Camp Notes.

After is Shirley Geok-Lin Lim, who via prerecorded video pays brief tribute to Yamada.

Chrystos is next, via prerecorded video, reading a poem specially written for the event.

Nellie Wong appears, speaking generously to her and Yamada's longstanding friendship, then reading a newly written piece, "For Mitsu."

And finally, Yamada reads her own poems (prerecorded the day before the September 23 webcast), starting with "Desert Storm," followed by "Minedoka Idaho," "The Night Before Goodbye," "Cincinnati," "In Some Countries," "What You Left Behind," "Pareidolia," and "Sphere."

The afternoon program concludes with a brief convocation between the poets, followed by a slideshow of photos from throughout Yamada's life, which ran at the opening of the program as the audience was coming in.

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