Behind these Bars: Film Screening and Poetry Reading

November 4, 2023

The Japanese American Museum of Oregon, The Soul Restoration Center, and Vanport Mosaic invite you to an evening of film screening, poetry, and storytelling:

BEHIND THESE BARS is an opportunity to intersect our communities sharing Japanese American history through poetry, film and cultural stories. This event honors and celebrates cultural connectedness with communities of color in Oregon. Minoru Yasui Day is recognized every March 28th in the State of Oregon. He is the only Oregonian in the state who was awarded the highest civilian Medal of Freedom by President Obama. And yet this date and individual are still not widely known. Japanese American history is often omitted in our education and yet its inclusion is necessary to understand racism, cultural erasure, loss of community wealth and land rights in America.

On November 4, we will gather together to create a “community altar” in remembrance of our legacies, ancestors and our connections to each other. Zachary Stocks from the Oregon Black Pioneers, Dr. Renee Mitchell from the Soul Restoration Center, and Juliana Posada will share people we should all know, but will meet together. Heath Hyun has portrayed Yasui in Portland, Seattle, and New Mexico and poet Juanito Cervantes will share his work along with a translated poem that Chisao Hata wrote as a tribute to Holly Yasui, Minoru’s daughter who passed from Covid on Dia De Los Muertos in Mexico, where she lived for two decades.