Activists Kathy Masaoka and traci-kato-kiriyama To Be Featured Panelists During 2021 Manzanar At Dusk Program

LOS ANGELES — Community activists Kathy Masaoka and traci-kato kiriyama will be the featured panelists during the 2021 Manzanar At Dusk program, part of the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage, scheduled from 5:00 PM PDT to 8:00 PM on Saturday, April 24, 2021, live and online via Zoom.

The Manzanar At Dusk program follows the 52nd Annual Manzanar Pilgrimage that same day, to be released at noon PDT on the Manzanar Committee’s YouTube channel, https://www.youtube.com/manzanarcommittee.

Now in its 23rd year, Manzanar At Dusk is co-sponsored by the Manzanar Committee and the Nikkei Student Unions (NSU) at California Polytechnic University, Pomona; California State University, Fullerton (CSUF); California State University, Long Beach; the University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA); the University of California, Riverside); and the University of California, San Diego.

Born and raised in the Boyle Heights area of Los Angeles, Masaoka came of age in the 1960s. The Civil Rights Movement, the Vietnam War, the struggle for ethnic studies and Asian American Studies clarified her identity as a Japanese American and minority in this country, along with the importance of community and internationalism. She went on to become a teacher, a leader of the Little Tokyo People’s Rights Organization, and a bit later, the National Coalition for Redress/Reparation (now known as Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress), Vigilant Love and Nikkei Progressives.

kato-kiriyama is a writer, performer, actor, theatre artist, organizer, and educator who has been presented in hundreds of venues throughout the country and featured in several print and online media platforms. She is committed to the intersection of arts, activism, and healing praxis through creative solidarity work as an artist organizer with Vigilant Love, member of Nikkei Progressives, and Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project, which is the presenter of the long-standing Asian American arts series, Tuesday Night Cafe. She is also the author of an upcoming book of poetry, micro essays and Notes To Self, titled “Navigating With(out) Instruments.”

Joining Masaoka and kato-kiriyama will be Megan Matsumoto, President, California State University, Fullerton Nikkei Student Union, and member of the 2021 Manzanar At Dusk Organizing Committee.

Both the daytime Pilgrimage program and the Manzanar At Dusk event are free and open to the public. Registration is required for the Manzanar At Dusk program. To register, go to: https://forms.gle/x6xwLTU1iH3XJyzy5.

For more information, call (323) 662-5102 or send e-mail to 52ndpilgrimage@manzanarcommittee.org.

LEAD PHOTO: One of the small group discussions during the 2019 Manzanar At Dusk program. Photo by Gann Matsuda/Manzanar Committee.

The Manzanar Committee is dedicated to educating and raising public awareness about the incarceration and violation of civil rights of persons of Japanese ancestry during World War II and to the continuing struggle of all peoples when Constitutional rights are in danger. A non-profit organization that has sponsored the annual Manzanar Pilgrimage since 1969, along with other educational programs, the Manzanar Committee has also played a key role in the establishment and continued development of the Manzanar National Historic Site. For more information, check out our web site at https://manzanarcommittee.org, call us at (323) 662-5102, and e-mail us at info@manzanarcommittee.org. You can also follow the Manzanar Committee on Facebook, on Twitter at @manzanarcomm, on Instagram at @manzanarcommittee, on Pinterest and on YouTube.

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