George Suyama’s second career as an art gallery owner began serendipitously, with a vacant room. In 1996, he moved his architectural firm into a century-old building in Belltown. The 1907 concrete structure was a challenging space with multiple levels above and below the street, connected by ramps. Formerly a livery stable that survived the Denny [...]
Although the Portland Japanese Garden turns 45 this year, as a garden it’s barely an adolescent, says its new landscape architect, Sadafumi Uchiyama.
“In the past, the greatest concern was the health of the plants, and making them grow bigger and better,” Uchiyama said. “Now we’re making a sort of shift from the construction mode to [...]
“What have we done to democracy? … What happens when each of its institutions has metastasized into something dangerous? What happens now that democracy and the free market have fused into a single predatory organism?” —Arundhati Roy
Arundhati Roy raises provocative and sometimes uncomfortable questions in her latest collection of essays, “Field Notes on Democracy: [...]
Over a forty-year career, George Suyama has established himself as one of the masters of Northwest architecture. A Seattle native, his designs are deeply rooted in the culture and environment of this region. He has built a body of work, mostly exquisitely detailed residences that elevate space to art. To further explore that creative ideal, [...]
Dance can often astonish us with technique, energy, and aesthetics. Now, Spectrum Dance Theatre’s new piece also offers us a meditation on national relations of both personal and political kinds.
In “Farewell: A Fantastical Contemplation on America’s Relationship with China,” Spectrum Dance Theatre’s Artistic Director Donald Byrd has teamed up with composer Byron Au Yong to [...]
Highlights
Cincinnati-based musician C. Spencer Yeh (voice, violin, electronics) participates in the annual Seattle Improvised Music Festival and joins Chris Corsano, Bill Horist and Wally Shoup in a concert on Feb. 18 at Ballard’s Sunset Tavern. 5433 Ballard NW.
ACRS 2010 Art Opening with support from Washington State Arts Commission, 4 Culture and Odyssey Enterprises Inc. is [...]
Highlights
“Kurosawa-sensei” brings new prints of five classic films by master Japanese filmmaker, Akira Kurosawa. Includes “Seven Samurai” and “Stray Dog.” Feb. 5 – 15 at SIFF Cinema at 321 Mercer St. (206) 633-7151.
“Farewell: A Fantastical Contemplation of America’s Relationship with China” features Donald Byrd’s Spectrum Dancers with a live score by composer Byron Au Yong. [...]
The University of Washington again brings Indian dance to Seattle. Following a performance featuring the Kathak tradition in October, now comes Shantala Shivalingappa, who will present the Kuchipudi tradition of classical Indian dance.
Previously in Seattle for three weeks in 2001 while touring “Hamlet” with the Peter Brook company, Shivalingappa returns with a sole focus on [...]
Many readers know Abraham Verghese as the author of the memorable “My Own Country” about working as a doctor in eastern Tennessee. My Own Country was an NBCC finalist and 1994 best book for Time; his second work, “The Tennis Partner” was a New York Times Notable Book. “Cutting for Stone” is his first novel. [...]
Highlights
Inspiring Community Through Film: A Night with Tadashi Nakamura” (see elsewhere in this issue for related story) gives us a chance to meet this L.A.-based filmmaker and see two of his community based films. Feb. 6 at 7 p.m. NVC Community Hall. For reservations, e-mail: ryenms@gmail.com.
”TAO: The Martial Art of Drumming” (see related story in [...]
The word Yonsei means fourth-generation Japanese American and Gosei, fifth. Together they form YoGos, a group of Seattleites intent on keeping alive the community, culture and history of Japanese Americans.
On February 6, YoGos will offer two free documentary film screenings to the public. Titled “Inspiring Community Through Film: A Night with Tadashi Nakamura, Asian American [...]
A group of seven cryptic abstract sculptures make up “To be like that which you have,” the latest collaboration by artists Jason Hirata and Sol Hashemi, currently on view at Greg Kucera Gallery. Pieces of lumber, some raw, some painted white, are balanced at odd angles, held together under tension by bungee cords, rubber tie-downs [...]
Seattle has another opportunity to experience a Japanese performance. Following the October 19, 2009 performance of Kabuki at Benaroya Hall, Seattlites can soon experience “TAO: The Martial Art of Drumming.”
Director Ikuo Fujitaka brings his drumming performance company to Seattle as part of its first lengthy U.S. tour, and looks forward to pleasing Seattle audiences.
“Ichiro [Suzuki] [...]
January is a month of new beginnings: a time to reflect on things we want and the aspects of our life that need a change. Allen Say’s newest picture book, “Erika-San” illustrates that it is possible to not only pursue a dream of home and happiness, but also find the answer in a place only [...]
Neither indigent nor uninsured, Harborview was the hospital of choice for former Washington State Governor Albert Rossellini, after breaking his hip in a recent fall. For native Seattle-ites and those who have lived any length of time in the region, Harborview Medical Center, opened in 1931, is synonymous with charity, trauma, and a newscaster’s voice [...]
You may have watched her untying intricate knots, garbanzo beans spilling from boldly dyed fabrics at the Aki Matsuri or Cherry Blossom Festival. For the past 20 years, Kikuko Dewa, has shared her mastery of the shibori arts with young children and adults. The Japanese art of ‘shibori’, meaning ‘to squeeze or press’ integrates stitching [...]
By Alan Chong Lau
Highlights
Noted New York Times science writer Carol Kaesuk Yoon travels from her Bellingham home to Seattle to read from her new book “Naming Nature: The Clash Between Instinct and Science” (W. W. Norton & Co.) in which she shares her observations on how animals (including humans) perceive the world in a [...]
This is one of the many penetrating voices of Asian American activists that you will find in “The Snake Dance of Asian American Activism: Community Vision, and Power”. Tracy Lai and her co-authors offer a brilliant historical account of the Asian American Movement from a grassroots perspective that includes the visions and actions of everyday [...]
The Japanese Consulate-General wants Americans to see Japan in person.
To that end, the Consulate-General works with the Japan Foundation to produce an annual series of events aimed at promoting understanding of Japanese culture. Most recently, this partnership brought to Seattle a lecture and performance of Kabuki entitled “Backstage to Hanamichi: A Behind the Scenes Look [...]
By Alan Chong Lau
Highlights
Pamela Yasutake sings and dances in the role of Mary in Langston Hughes Cultural Center’s production of “Black Nativity” currently on stage at the Intiman Theatre through Dec. 22. 201 Mercer St. (206) 269-1900.
Mochizuki is a traditional Japanese New Year celebration that involves the pounding of sweet rice to make mochi. [...]
Book launch party on December 12th, from 6-9pm at Jefferson Community Center. It’ll be a fun event with World of Martial Arts demonstrations, drawings for 10 minute chair massages and book signing. “A Kung-Fu Master’s Journey” is an 8.5″x11″ formated book with over 150 pictures and 127 pages of memories and personal thoughts! It will be available that night. 6pm [...]
Highlights
Bora Ju, Korean gayageum virtuoso (traditional Korean stringed zither) is the “artist-in-residence” at UW’s School of Music for the fall quarter, 2009. During her time here, Ju is performing around as much as possible. Don’t miss hearing this virtuoso Korean musician while she is in the area. Future performances include Dec. 4 at 7 p.m. [...]
Early in this century, Japanese immigrants cultivated the land east of Lake Washington into verdant acres of strawberries and other crops. World War II banished those farmers to internment camps, their fields to be taken over by suburban blocks, then high-rise buildings. This autumn, a strawberry field reappeared like a ghost in downtown Bellevue; in [...]
View Pacific Reader Articles Here
It’s been a long time coming but we would like to welcome our loyal readers to the return of our Pacific Reader book review supplement that covers new titles by or about Asians in North America as well as new books from Asia. This new issue is a special feature on [...]
Asian Pacific American (APA) parents and community members must challenge publishers to provide more quality literature where the protagonists are strong APA role models. Many books for children draw narrow portraits often shaped by deeply embedded stereotypical caricatures like the karate kid, heavily-accented foreigner, geisha girl, math/science nerd, and rice rockets (modified cars). These fallacies [...]
I thank the America which lets me talk and write freely about people and events which I shall never forget.
—Taro Yashima
This is the quote which introduces a defining account of the life of the artist Iwamatsu Jun’s graphic memoir, “The New Sun”. He had to practice his trade as a painter under the alias of Taro Yashima [...]
The levity at which Shaun Tan weaves visually in “The Arrival” is something that makes his illustrative style an enjoyment to read, though this previous book had not a decipherable word to consume. I don’t state that as a critque—his construct was actually intentional. As with The Arrival the structure of the suburban landscape based [...]
In An Na’s “The Fold”, Joyce Park, a sweet, self-conscious Korean seventeen year-old is a girl that many teenage girls will be able to identify with—from dealing with that big annoying zit that comes at the worst time, to confronting your long-time crush or just having to deal with the insecurities of being a teenager.
In [...]
Even before you open this large-format graphic novel, your first take is absorbing the beauty of this hard-bound book. The cover appears something of a tattered leather-bound volume denoting the ravages of age or just heavy use. Here, we are introduced to the author’s first metaphor of the protagonist’s migrant experience. This character endures a [...]
“When I was a little boy, I lived in an old courtyard in Beijing, China, between the Drum Tower, the Bell Tower and the river…” So begins Guo Yue and Clare Farrow’s “Little Leap Forward: A Boy in Beijing”.
The boy, Leap Forward (Yuejin), is the much-beloved child of a musician father and an educated mother, [...]
