The yonsei memory project
A collaboration led by two yonsei (4th generation Japanese American) artists, Nikiko Masumoto in the Central Valley of California and Patricia Miye Wakida in the Bay Area. Brynn Saito is one of the founding members of YMP.
Yonsei Memory Project (YMP), founded in 2017, utilizes arts-based inquiry to generate dialogue connecting the WWII incarceration of the Japanese American community with current civil liberties struggles. YMP recently received a grant from California State Civil Liberties Public Education Program administered by the California State Library to fund the “Living Memory Lab," a project which seeks to awaken the archives of Japanese American history by creating cross-cultural and intergenerational memory practices culminating in an interactive "Day(s) of Remembrance" weekend.
We are grateful to our fiscal sponsor, the Fresno Arts Council and the support and donations from the community!
Learn more about our past gatherings in "California Yonsei Lead Memory Work," published in the Pacific Citizen, “The Yonsei Memory Project: Keeping Stories Alive Through Intergenerational Healing,” in Discover Nikkei, and on our blog.
NIKIKO MASUMOTO (she/her) is an organic farmer, memory keeper, and artist. She is Yonsei, a fourth generation Japanese American, and gets to touch the same soil her great-grandparents worked in California where Masumoto Family Farm grows organic nectarines, apricots, peaches and grapes for raisins. With her family, she’s co-authored 2 books: Changing Season and The Perfect Peach. She activates her facilitation, leadership, and creative skills as a performer and leader in the following organizations: co-founder of Yonsei Memory Project, team member of Center for Performance and Civic Practice, member of University Advisory Board (CSU Fresno) board of Trustees of Western States Arts Federation, board of directors of Art of the Rural, and perennial volunteer change-worker. In 2020, she was named one of the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts 100 and Creative 10. Her most cherished value is courage and most important practice is listening. More about Nikiko's work at www.masumoto.com.
PATRICIA MIYE WAKIDA (she/her) is a Japanese American artist, writer, and community historian. At the heart of her practice is a deep respect for the power of storytelling, both in its visual and literary forms. She has done editorial, curatorial, or development work with numerous cultural institutions such as the Densho Encyclopedia, the Japanese American National Museum, the Oakland Museum of California, Topaz Museum, Discover Nikkei, and has served on numerous non-profit boards. She studied as an apprentice papermaker in Gifu, Japan and apprentice printer and hand bookbinder in Berkeley, California; to this day, she still maintains her own linoleum block and letterpress business, handcarving and cranking out prints on 100 year old equipment. She is a yonsei, whose parents were incarcerated as children in the Jerome and Gila River concentration camps.
If you are interested in donating to the Yonsei Memory Project, please address checks to the Fresno Arts Council, our fiscal sponsor, and mail to:
The Fresno Arts Council
1245 Van Ness Ave
Fresno, CA 93721
