“BURNING PROVINCE”
June 15, 2020
Presented by The TORONTO NAJC (National Association of Japanese Canadians)
Poems, plays & prose in a time of a pandemic and protests
Tuesday, June 23, 2020
7:30 – 8:30 PM EDT
Introducing poet Michael Prior currently living in St. Paul (Twin Cities), Minnesota and author of “Burning Province” who along with Julie Tamiko Manning & Matt Miwa of “The Tashme Project” will read from their works. Award-winning author of “Floating City” Kerri Sakamoto will moderate a conversation with this talented trio.
At a time when the Premier of British Columbia calls for a National anti-racism strategy and in naming a few historical transgressions committed by his province fails to mention the “Internment” of Japanese Canadians, we are heartened that younger sansei and yonsei like Matt Miwa, Julie Tamiko Manning and Michael Prior embrace this history and direct their remarkable creative energies to resist its erasure. The depth of their work with its layering of time resonates with issues of identity and the beauty of things keenly felt and observed in moments of deep listening and reflection.
We are grateful for their contributions to our community story as we confront selective amnesia as one tool of systemic racism.
The fires of racism still burn in British Columbia and around the world, but we are hopeful the voices of the young will fan the flames of a burning passion for change.