GARDENA — The Gardena Valley Japanese Cultural Institute (GVJCI) would like to invite you to an afternoon with acclaimed playwright and author Velina Hasu Houston on Saturday, Nov. 14, from 2 to 4 p.m. at GVJCI’s Nisei Veterans Memorial Hall, 1964 W. 162nd St. in Gardena.
She will read selections from her book “Green Tea Girl in Orange Pekoe Country,” a collection of her plays, and discuss her process as a writer and how her experiences in life influenced her writing. Additionally, she will sign her books and answer questions from the audience.
Houston is an internationally produced and published writer with 22 commissions for her working theater and opera. Her plays include “Tea,” “Cinnamon Girl” (music by Nathan Wang), “Asa ga Kimashita (Morning Has Broken),” “Kokoro (True Heart),” “Waiting for Tadashi,” “Ikebana (Living Flowers),” “Calligraphy,” “American Dreams,” “Kapiolani’s Faith,” and “The Matsuyama Mirror.”
She is involved in three U.S.-Japan film projects, “Path of Dreams,” “Rising Soul,” and “Like the Flow of a River.” She is the only U.S. playwright to amass a body of work that explores the U.S.-Japan relationship through a bilateral, global view of identity.
This event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will be available.
For more information, call (310) 324-6611 or email info@jci-gardena.org.