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 to 8 p.m. Pacific Time on Saturday, April 24, live and online via Zoom.
The Manzanar At Dusk program follows the 52nd annual Manzanar Pilgrimage that same day, to be released at noon 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, CSU Fullerton, CSU Long Beach, UCLA, UC Riverside, and UC 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 of the CSU 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 Manzanar At Dusk. To register, go to: https://forms.gle/x6xwLTU1iH3XJyzy5
For more information, call (323) 662-5102 or email 52ndpilgrimage@manzanarcommittee.org.