SAN FRANCISCO — “Race, Identity, and Incarceration: A Centennial Tribute to Wakako Yamauchi” will take place on Thursday, Oct. 3, from 6 to 8 p.m. at Fromm Hall 120, Xavier Auditorium, University of San Francisco, 2130 Fulton St., San Francisco.
Wakako Yamauchi (1924-2018) was a trailblazing pioneer of Asian Pacific American theater and literature who penned numerous short stories and plays, including the widely acclaimed “And the Soul Shall Dance.” A resident of Gardena and a member of Pacific Asian American Women Writers West, she published two books, “Songs My Mother Taught Me: Stories, Plays and Memoir” and “Rosebud and Other Stories.”
This intergenerational event gathers poets and writers who will read excerpts of Yamauchi’s works as well as their original writings reflecting enduring themes explored in her art: familial relationships and tensions; gender roles, identity, and race; and the trauma of the Japanese American wartime incarceration and its lingering effects through generations.
Featured readers are Brian Komei Dempster, Lillian Howan, Brynn Saito, Maw Shein Win, and special guest Garrett Hongo.
The presentation will be both in-person and live-streamed with a reception to follow. For registration link, go to: https://www.usfca.edu/event/wakako-yamauchi-centennial-reading/11580098
Sponsors: Center for Research, Artistic, and Scholarly Excellence (CRASE), Master’s in Asia Pacific Studies, Master’s in International Studies
Co-sponsors: Academic English for Multilingual Students Program, Asian Pacific American Studies, Asian Studies, Center for Asia Pacific Studies, Critical Diversity Studies, English Department, Gleeson Library, Honors College, MFA in Writing, Rhetoric and Language