SAN FRANCISCO — The Nichi Bei Foundation Author Series, funded by The Henri and Tomoye Takahashi Charitable Foundation, presents Franklin Odo’s new book “Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii” (Oxford University Press) on Sunday, March 2, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California, 1840 Sutter St. in San Francisco’s Japantown. The event is free and open to the public.
Through the poetic lyrics of folk songs known as holehole bushi, Odo traces the experiences of Japanese immigrant plantation sugar workers caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the 19th and 20th centuries. Hear Odo, founding director of the Smithsonian Institution’s Asian Pacific American Program, talk about his book with a selection of readings, song and film. With music by Genyukai and Friends.
Attendees are invited to learn and sing holehole bushi after the program.
Sponsored by the Nichi Bei Foundation and the JCCCNC. Co-presented by the National Japanese American Historical Society, Japanese American National Library, Edison Uno Institute of Nikkei and Uchinanchu Studies (San Francisco State University), SFSU Asian American Studies, and Hawaii Chamber of Commerce of Northern California.