FRESNO — Performer, writer and agrarian artist Nikiko Masumoto will make two appearances this week.
• Wednesday, April 17, at 11 a.m., at Fresno City College’s Old Administration Building, Room 251. Join Masumoto for an in-depth talk about her creative process, her early years, and her acclaimed one-woman show, “What We Could Carry.” She will perform a short excerpt of her show and then sit down for an interview with Lee Herrick, author of “Gardening Secrets of the Dead” and “This Many Miles from Desire.”
This special event, which is free and open to the public, is part of Fresno City College’s Asian American History Month celebration and sponsored by the Asian American Studies Department. For more information, call Student Activities at (559) 443-8688.
• Friday, April 19, at 7 p.m. (doors open at 6 p.m.) at Willow International Community College Center, Room 150, 10309 N. Willow Ave., Fresno. Masumoto will perform “What We Could Carry,” which is about Japanese American memory and redress. The show asks us to consider what memory we carry about Japanese American experiences before, during, and after internment and World War II. Based almost entirely on the 1981 testimony of individuals from the Los Angeles hearings of the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians, Masumoto performs 13 individuals’ testimonies (in addition to her own) about internment and the weight of these memories.
This event, which is free and open to the public, is part of Willow International’s Asian American Heritage Month.
Masumoto holds degrees from UC Berkeley and the University of Texas, Austin. She co-authored “The Perfect Peach,” a family cookbook, which is coming out this summer. To learn more: www.whatwecouldcarry.wordpress.com