Speaker 1: We're always asked to be vigilant against our neighbors right,
Speaker 1: to be vigilant with suspicion. So we said, well, what
Speaker 1: if we talked about being vigilant with our love, that
Speaker 1: we were going to engage through love and with love
Speaker 1: and from a place of love, we're engaging and you know,
Speaker 1: really expanding out the work that we do in solidarity,
Speaker 1: you know, because we really see that all of our
Speaker 1: struggles are are truly connected. That was artist and activist
Speaker 1: Tracy Kato Kidiama, whose projects explore cultures and seek to
Speaker 1: build bridges between people of different backgrounds, work that is
Speaker 1: all the more important at this challenging moment in history.
Speaker 1: I'm Alan Ververe and this is Seneca's One Women to Hear.
Speaker 1: We are bringing you one hundred of the world's most
Speaker 1: inspiring and history making women you need to hear. Based
Speaker 1: in Los Angeles, Tracy Kato Kiama is a writer, theater director, performer,
Speaker 1: and poet. Tracy's groundbreaking work has been showcased in hundreds
Speaker 1: of venues across the United States, and it all shares
Speaker 1: a universal goal to unitas to show how we are
Speaker 1: all connected. Among the most famous of Tracy's projects is
Speaker 1: the Tuesday Night Project, the longest running Asian American Mike
Speaker 1: series in the country, and Vigilant Love, a nonprofit created
Speaker 1: to combat Islamophobia. Listen and learn why Tracy Kato Kiriyama
Speaker 1: is one of Seneca's One D Women to Hear. I'm
Speaker 1: here today with Tracy Kato Kiriyama, artist, writer, thor actor,
Speaker 1: arts educator, and community organizer. Welcome, Tracy. I'm really looking
Speaker 1: forward to this conversation. Thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1: You've performed at prestigious venues all over the country, and
Speaker 1: you're an activist in a community organizer. Is there a
Speaker 1: common thread in all of your endeavors. Yeah, I think
Speaker 1: it's a few things. It's definitely curiosity, you know, curiosity
Speaker 1: about people, um, the desire to connect with people and
Speaker 1: to connect with folks on the various arenas that we
Speaker 1: all navigate, so the political, the personal, the political as
Speaker 1: personal and vice versa. And to be able to connect
Speaker 1: through narrative, in story and memory sharing on I think
Speaker 1: that in sharing art we can within just a few
Speaker 1: minutes of a poem or ninety minutes of a play,
Speaker 1: we can reveal a lot of who we are and
Speaker 1: what we think about and the kinds of conversations that
Speaker 1: we want to have after the sharing. So I think
Speaker 1: that that's something that unites, uh, something that I do,
Speaker 1: whether it's in art or as an educator or an organizer.
Speaker 1: You're so right. Art could cut to the chase in
Speaker 1: so many ways in making a bigger point that somehow
Speaker 1: seems difficult otherwise. One of your best known activities is
Speaker 1: the Tuesday Night Project, which I know you've founded in
Speaker 1: in l A. Why did you create the Tuesday Night
Speaker 1: Project and the Tuesday Night Cafe and tell us all
Speaker 1: about it? Okay? On, Well, we were really inspired by
Speaker 1: multi generational, multi disciplinary spaces throughout Los Angeles, and I
Speaker 1: was also really influenced by my encounters on tour as
Speaker 1: a young theater artist and around the country. I witnessed
Speaker 1: so many communities of color um at at multiple spaces
Speaker 1: really coming together to make things happen on campus or
Speaker 1: in their local community, especially because each of their individual
Speaker 1: groups were often small and really extremely marginalized on their own,
Speaker 1: so there was this, uh a lack of a critical
Speaker 1: mass for one particular group um so they would really
Speaker 1: come together with all kinds of different people to make
Speaker 1: things happen. Um. And then in Los Angeles there's the
Speaker 1: World Stage, there was the People's Resource Center in Highland Park,
Speaker 1: there was self help Graphics and Boil Heights and and
Speaker 1: you know, all of these folks were bringing all kinds
Speaker 1: of art, not one discipline. Um, you know, different kinds
Speaker 1: of generations and people to come together. And at the
Speaker 1: same time, there were multiple friends who were asking, well,
Speaker 1: where's the Asian American scene in Los Angeles? Where's the
Speaker 1: Asian Americans scene? And along with that question in the
Speaker 1: mid nineties, there was another question of, well, what's also
Speaker 1: going to happen to Little Tokyo. So at that time,
Speaker 1: Little Tokyo and downtown Los Angeles we're just not popular
Speaker 1: places to go on a daily or even a weekly
Speaker 1: basis for most people. And um, you know, I don't
Speaker 1: know if you know, before the Second World War there
Speaker 1: were over eighty Japan towns, and by the mid nineties
Speaker 1: there were officially only three j towns left and our
Speaker 1: little four and a half luck space. There was this
Speaker 1: feeling that it was like a ghost town after dark,
Speaker 1: and there was a real sense of the threat of disappearance.
Speaker 1: And and that's just as part of a long time,
Speaker 1: history of removal and displacement and enforced disappearance. So all
Speaker 1: of these things together there was an urging I think
Speaker 1: amongst on Asian American artists and community activists that I was,
Speaker 1: you know, hanging out with a lot of us were
Speaker 1: in a group called Action and we had hosted a
Speaker 1: couple events called Artitech, and those happened on an annual
Speaker 1: basis UM and we would continue to sort of operate
Speaker 1: and interact with our parallel worlds in different communities. And
Speaker 1: I wanted to do something that could maybe be sustained
Speaker 1: on over you know, a longer period of time, and
Speaker 1: also not on just an annual basis, but something that
Speaker 1: you know, we could kind of build and in a
Speaker 1: small section of Little Tokyo maybe build something that could
Speaker 1: be consistent and regular. So I was working with a
Speaker 1: theater company, and we were also working with the band
Speaker 1: UM and you know, different poets and artists and organizers,
Speaker 1: and so we just started to have conversations with people
Speaker 1: in Little Tokyo and I had asked the Little Tokyo
Speaker 1: Service Center about this particular space, the Union Center for
Speaker 1: the Arts, which is UM. If you're familiar with Little Tokyo,
Speaker 1: it's it's this little street called Judged on Iso between
Speaker 1: First and Temple on what's considered our historic block First
Speaker 1: Street North in Little Tokyo. And UM at the time,
Speaker 1: there was really you know, this was a new arts
Speaker 1: center that was opening up in an abandoned church, and
Speaker 1: UM there was a courtyard that was just you know,
Speaker 1: sort of open. All the spaces inside were taken, there
Speaker 1: was nothing left. And so I said, well, what can
Speaker 1: we do out here outside UM, in this courtyard And
Speaker 1: they're like, well, you know, we need young people to
Speaker 1: come into Little Tokyo, So if you want to try
Speaker 1: to make something happen here, go for it. We'll let
Speaker 1: you use the space for free. And so a lot
Speaker 1: of us, you know, just kind of got together to
Speaker 1: make this happen. Residents nearby would come and and and
Speaker 1: be a part of it, and you know, helped set
Speaker 1: up the sound equipment, put in the chairs and tables.
Speaker 1: We had to do this every time. UM set up everything,
Speaker 1: the lights, everything, and UM. You know, we just started
Speaker 1: as sort of like a little engine that could, and
Speaker 1: over time we really developed beyond just an event series
Speaker 1: into a family and the network, a network of folks
Speaker 1: that really spread Now across the world. UM. People try
Speaker 1: to make it a point to come and hang out
Speaker 1: or perform or share work when they are in town.
Speaker 1: And we run April through October UM in our regular season. UM.
Speaker 1: And then along with that, we've you know, expanded to
Speaker 1: really be a support system and a network that our
Speaker 1: community and our artists can can lean on in between
Speaker 1: the events. And we also have other programs that we
Speaker 1: do workshops, UM, we have a t and letter writing
Speaker 1: program that we do online to fill a little bit
Speaker 1: of support for a virtual space. And UM. Yeah, so
Speaker 1: it's it's twenty three years later. It's the longest running
Speaker 1: Asian American public art series in the country. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we're really we're really proud of it. And UM, I
Speaker 1: still feel like we're a little engine that could, But
Speaker 1: we've become i think, a unique entry point into downtown
Speaker 1: l A and into little Tokyo. What a remarkable achievement.
Speaker 1: And I gather it's still an extremely popular place for
Speaker 1: the community to gather. Are you in a different location
Speaker 1: now or are you still in the original space. We
Speaker 1: are in the original space. We started out with maybe
Speaker 1: thirty people that would show up, and half of those
Speaker 1: would be the people performing on stage, that we would
Speaker 1: be sort of rotating from the audience onto the stage. UM.
Speaker 1: And by a few years in, we were you know,
Speaker 1: anywhere from like seventy hundred fifty people that would come out.
Speaker 1: UM and then of course on our our season opening
Speaker 1: and season clothing shows, we'd have a lot more. And
Speaker 1: now typically it's around you know, a hundred fifty two people,
Speaker 1: so everyone is just more packed and we have people
Speaker 1: watching from the sidewalk and you know, just looped around
Speaker 1: the side and it's very cozy now. But we really
Speaker 1: love and value being in this in the same intimate space.
Speaker 1: There's something really great about being in the original space,
Speaker 1: being outside, being in a place where there's no green room,
Speaker 1: there's no backstage, everybody is really accessible to each other,
Speaker 1: and it's become something that we are, you know, we're
Speaker 1: pretty deliberate about and I want to imagine it's very energizing, too,
Speaker 1: very exciting to be there with everybody. It is. There's
Speaker 1: nothing like you know, well, this is also why we
Speaker 1: decided not to try to duplicate it onto an online
Speaker 1: virtual experience, because I think that you know, people right
Speaker 1: away we're jumping into programming online and we knew that,
Speaker 1: We knew that there was going to be a lot
Speaker 1: of that, and I think in particular with the Tuesday
Speaker 1: Night Cafe UM, it's it's about a vibe. It's really
Speaker 1: hard to describe unless you are there and do live stream.
Speaker 1: We've been live streaming for many, many years UM, so
Speaker 1: people have tuned in from different parts of the world
Speaker 1: to watch, but you know, we kind of do that.
Speaker 1: One one reason why we do that is beyond accessibility,
Speaker 1: we also are trying to get people to eventually make
Speaker 1: it out that We had a professor who was watching
Speaker 1: from Maryland UM while he was writing a dissertation and
Speaker 1: including us in that dissertation, and so was studying us
Speaker 1: and uh had only seen us online for like a
Speaker 1: year and a half and then finally made it out
Speaker 1: in person. And there is just something really different once
Speaker 1: you're there. You're really sharing in this experience. You're like
Speaker 1: literally breathing the same air together, and people are sharing
Speaker 1: a lot of stuff that's very sensitive and personal and hard.
Speaker 1: It's become what we realize is a real healing space.
Speaker 1: It's not just a space of expression. It's really about connection.
Speaker 1: It's really about yeah, being there and being open and
Speaker 1: being warm um with each other, and people do need
Speaker 1: to be with each other. It's one of the things
Speaker 1: I think in terms of the eagerness to have that
Speaker 1: again when this pandemic is finally behind us. I note too,
Speaker 1: that you work with aerial artist and actor Kennedy Kupasars,
Speaker 1: and you have an award winning Too Person ensemble, Full
Speaker 1: Project ensemble. You just seems so creative and innovative. Tracy
Speaker 1: tell us a little bit how this came about. Kennedy
Speaker 1: and I had worked together in a spoken words slash
Speaker 1: theater trio called Zero three, and we had also known
Speaker 1: each other from other you know, arts engagements, readings, plays
Speaker 1: and things like that. And Um, while we were still
Speaker 1: in Zero three, UM, my focus was mostly on writing
Speaker 1: and stage performance. UM our partner Edger and his focus
Speaker 1: was really on poetry, spoken word, and UM, Kennedy uh
Speaker 1: decided to start basically joined the circus. And so he
Speaker 1: was like, hey, hey, guys, do you want to you know,
Speaker 1: start taking these circus classes. I'm going to start taking
Speaker 1: stetic trapeze and UH, We're like, now you go do that.
Speaker 1: That sounds awesome. And he went and did that, and uh,
Speaker 1: you know, he was he he really found himself as
Speaker 1: an artist. I think in our group he felt like, yeah, yeah,
Speaker 1: I can write sometimes and I can definitely perform, but
Speaker 1: something about circus That's where I feel like Kennedy found
Speaker 1: himself as an artist. And then eventually we stopped touring
Speaker 1: at zero three, and Kennedy and I just kept saying, gosh,
Speaker 1: we should we should do something, we should work on something.
Speaker 1: So it took it took some years, and then we finally,
Speaker 1: um you know, really just we just had so many
Speaker 1: conversations about, well, why circus in theater, why theater with circus,
Speaker 1: because we we both made this commitment like we're not
Speaker 1: going to do a piece that involves circus for the
Speaker 1: sake of using circus. It has to be where, just
Speaker 1: like any other element that we are putting into the
Speaker 1: performance space, whether that's dance or projection or music or sound,
Speaker 1: right that it has to be purposeful. It has to
Speaker 1: be part of the storytelling um uh arena, the storytelling element,
Speaker 1: the storytelling vessel. And so we we're thinking about a
Speaker 1: show that had been on my mind, really a story
Speaker 1: and an experience that had been on my mind about
Speaker 1: me and my mother um in the years after my
Speaker 1: father had passed and we decided to embark on this
Speaker 1: show called Tales of Obsession and UM we developed that
Speaker 1: and it was a two person show and Kennedy played
Speaker 1: my mom. He stayed on the static tripiz for a
Speaker 1: straight forty five minutes, and uh, you know, we sort
Speaker 1: of kept separation. That was the dynamic between the two characters.
Speaker 1: That was the sort of use of the style traps.
Speaker 1: It was so high up and we always had this
Speaker 1: sort of disconnection and it was really about these two characters,
Speaker 1: like really trying to find a way to come together
Speaker 1: by the end. UM So we we did that and
Speaker 1: we toured that around for a few years, and around
Speaker 1: the time that we were coming to another sort of
Speaker 1: phase in our growth, um I was really wanting to
Speaker 1: I had been for many years wanting to work with
Speaker 1: footage from the um C w R i C hearings
Speaker 1: and what those are. It was the Commission on Wartime
Speaker 1: Relocation and Internment of Civilians. So there was a government
Speaker 1: commission that went out to ten different sites in the
Speaker 1: country where there was a critical mass of Japanese Americans
Speaker 1: who had been incarcerated during World War Two, and Los Angeles,
Speaker 1: out of all the ten sites. Los Angeles was the
Speaker 1: only one. You UM audio record and video record and
Speaker 1: archive all of those UM the twenty six hours of
Speaker 1: of hearings, and so I had been using them a
Speaker 1: little bit, you know, dabbling with them in other storytelling projects,
Speaker 1: but I had wanted to do something larger and theatrical
Speaker 1: with it. So um, you know, I said, hey, Kennedy,
Speaker 1: what do you think about you know, experimenting with this
Speaker 1: material and working with the Gay for Civil Rights and
Speaker 1: Redress and CRR to develop a show, and so uh,
Speaker 1: we eventually came upon this idea of looking at the
Speaker 1: values and the cultural and institutionalized aspects of both noise
Speaker 1: and silence, and the kind of silence that becomes deafening
Speaker 1: noise when it's held in too long, and the kind
Speaker 1: of noise that happens when it happens collectively. UM. So
Speaker 1: we developed a show called Tales of Clamor and that
Speaker 1: had its world premiere in En And right now we
Speaker 1: are in a finalist round for UM a New England
Speaker 1: Foundation for the Arts Creation and Touring grants. So we're
Speaker 1: literally working on that right now to hopefully tour it
Speaker 1: out further. We'd love to get it into the sites
Speaker 1: and the regions that held those hearings back in that
Speaker 1: ultimately lead to redress in reparations for Japanese Americans who
Speaker 1: had been incarcerated. The power of the arts, and you're
Speaker 1: using it obviously, senecas one hundred women to hear will
Speaker 1: be back after the short break. You know. Just listening
Speaker 1: to you, I'm wondering what was your growing up like
Speaker 1: that made you the woman that you are today? Uh,
Speaker 1: you know, I really have to credit my parents. Uh.
Speaker 1: They were both public school teachers. They were both really
Speaker 1: involved in the Japanese American community. They had started the
Speaker 1: Japanese American Historical Society of Southern California. So as a child,
Speaker 1: I was surrounded by education and history and my mom
Speaker 1: was an English teacher, so you know around language and
Speaker 1: story and um. From a young age, they would have
Speaker 1: me go with them on the pilgrimage to manson Are.
Speaker 1: The pilgrimage to Manzanar always happens on the last Saturday
Speaker 1: of April, and Manzanar is one of ten American concentration
Speaker 1: camps um that were put onto oftentimes indigenous land and
Speaker 1: previous reservation land um in different parts of the country
Speaker 1: and Manzanar's in California, and that's where both my parents
Speaker 1: and their families so cut to side kitty on a side.
Speaker 1: They were all in Mansanar and my father's side the
Speaker 1: kitty on a side. Eventually they were also put into
Speaker 1: Tuley Lake up north on the California Oregon border, and um,
Speaker 1: you know, they had me help them organized buses, when
Speaker 1: buses of people to go to the pilgrimage again from
Speaker 1: an early age and through that that kind of lens
Speaker 1: and then also them taking me with them to meetings
Speaker 1: or conferences or to see films in Little Tokyo. You know,
Speaker 1: it eventually led to me meeting people who would become
Speaker 1: my larger village of activists and artists, people who to
Speaker 1: this day are my big siblings. They're my big sisters,
Speaker 1: they're my mentors, they're my teachers, and so I really think,
Speaker 1: you know, it did really start with my parents saying
Speaker 1: to me, like, you know, you have to pay attention
Speaker 1: when we take you to these things. You are going
Speaker 1: to learn more about yourself and about this country for
Speaker 1: that matter, outside of your textbooks. And that was really
Speaker 1: huge for me to hear from two parents who were
Speaker 1: both teachers. You know, and so a part of me
Speaker 1: was like, well, do I have to go to school?
Speaker 1: Let's just hang out and do all these fun things.
Speaker 1: And they're like, no, you have to go to school,
Speaker 1: and you're going to go to college. But just know
Speaker 1: that the learning is not only inside the classroom, and
Speaker 1: you have to talk to people. You have to talk
Speaker 1: to people who are a different age than you, who
Speaker 1: are older than you, who have come before you, and um,
Speaker 1: I think that really shaped me a lot. Well, they
Speaker 1: are obviously incredible teachers to have had that kind of
Speaker 1: impact on you as well, that is a great, great
Speaker 1: less and to impart, you mentioned the bigger village that
Speaker 1: you're now a part of, and I know that solidarity
Speaker 1: is a very big part of your life. Tell me
Speaker 1: about Vigilant Love, a Muslim and East Asian coalition that
Speaker 1: you formed after nine eleven. What does it do. Yeah, Well,
Speaker 1: Vigilant Love actually it was it was started in but
Speaker 1: it was definitely on the shoulders of the work that
Speaker 1: was already happening between the two communities here in southern California,
Speaker 1: the Muslim and Japanese American community right after nine eleven.
Speaker 1: So right after nine eleven, the Japanese American community. Many
Speaker 1: people organized and not organized would make calls to the
Speaker 1: local chapters of UM Care and Impact and UM just
Speaker 1: sort of like lend sort of just a voice of support.
Speaker 1: And U n c r R that who I mentioned
Speaker 1: earlier NI for Civil Rights and Redress. They continue to
Speaker 1: be an activist group. They maintained their their solidarity work,
Speaker 1: uh well beyond the redress, UM and Reparations movement and
Speaker 1: and ncr ARE got together UM and organized with other
Speaker 1: people in the community to have a vigil in front
Speaker 1: of the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo and
Speaker 1: there were a few hundred people that showed up. Two
Speaker 1: more of the losses UM on US soil, but make
Speaker 1: a bigger point that we were going to stand in
Speaker 1: solidarity with our Muslim folks UM and and that made
Speaker 1: the news because it was really unusual at the time.
Speaker 1: We learned later from our Muslim families that they were
Speaker 1: not getting any calls of support outside of the ones
Speaker 1: coming from our community. So I think that that was
Speaker 1: a that was a big deal, you know. And so
Speaker 1: they said, you know, but we don't we don't know you,
Speaker 1: we don't know each other. We need to get to
Speaker 1: know each other. We need to break bread, We need
Speaker 1: to learn about each other's histories and and spiritual paths
Speaker 1: and and and differences and connections. And so after nine eleven,
Speaker 1: that that started a period um of you know, just
Speaker 1: a relationship building um. That that a period that never
Speaker 1: ended and so coming you know, many years later, you know,
Speaker 1: this year will mark twenty years of that work. And
Speaker 1: at the end of there were the attacks in Paris
Speaker 1: that led to a call for a ban on Syrian refugees,
Speaker 1: and so we knew that we could not stand for that,
Speaker 1: and we were organizing a vigil here in Los Angeles too,
Speaker 1: you know, bring together folks to hear from Syrian refugees
Speaker 1: and organizers, um and to address this this impending ban.
Speaker 1: And while we were organizing for that, the attacks on
Speaker 1: the San Bernardino Community Center, which is a Muslim community center.
Speaker 1: UM that that, uh, the attacks on the San Bernardino
Speaker 1: Community Center happened, and so UM, we we kept doing
Speaker 1: this work to to build out the vigil into a
Speaker 1: larger event, and we said, you know, this is really
Speaker 1: a strong coalition of people. We should maybe think about
Speaker 1: turning this into an organization. We should keep doing this
Speaker 1: work and then we decided upon the name vigilant Love.
Speaker 1: And the thinking behind that was, you know, we're always
Speaker 1: asked to be vigilant against our neighbors right, to be
Speaker 1: vigilant with suspicion. So we said, well, what if we
Speaker 1: talked about being vis went with our love, that we
Speaker 1: were going to engage through love and with love and
Speaker 1: from a place of love in the work that we do. So. Um,
Speaker 1: So that's how that that name is stuck. And yeah,
Speaker 1: we've been going ever since and we've expanded, Um, you know,
Speaker 1: we're we're engaging and I think the third round of
Speaker 1: a series called Unpacking Anti Blackness, and you know, really
Speaker 1: expanding out the work that we do in solidarity, you know,
Speaker 1: because we really see that all of our struggles are
Speaker 1: are truly connected, and we also have a legacy of
Speaker 1: this work. We have a legacy of solidarity work. Um. Yeah,
Speaker 1: the example I mentioned is just one of many. So
Speaker 1: that's what keeps us going. Well, I think you're working
Speaker 1: building solidarity, building community, crossing lines of division. I wonder
Speaker 1: in light of all of that, how you've reacted to
Speaker 1: the recent horrible attacks on Asian Americans. Yeah, I mean
Speaker 1: it's been um a really impacted time amidst a very
Speaker 1: impacted reality. And what I mean by that is my
Speaker 1: usual first reactions or too uh check in with folks,
Speaker 1: see how they're doing. Um. That the particular incident in
Speaker 1: Atlanta and the massacre there, um, you know, there were
Speaker 1: so many folks really just rising up to come together
Speaker 1: to speak out, and so I wanted to figure out
Speaker 1: how I could show up. So, you know, a lot
Speaker 1: of it was just about showing up, showing up to
Speaker 1: these meetings that we were being invited to, showing up
Speaker 1: to calls of support, UM, amplification of the organizations who
Speaker 1: are who have been already doing this work, to you know,
Speaker 1: center the community these that were hit, as well as
Speaker 1: to focus on hate crimes UM and reactions to hate crimes.
Speaker 1: And it was complicated, and and you know, I think, ultimately, then, UM,
Speaker 1: I go to writing, and I go to writing because
Speaker 1: I know it's gonna most likely lead to more conversation
Speaker 1: or at least be a way for me to express well,
Speaker 1: here's where I'm at within this conversation. Here's how I
Speaker 1: will be able to show up. And UM, I wrote
Speaker 1: a little postum for Instagram, and it was basically around
Speaker 1: this idea of me just expressing to folks like you
Speaker 1: are not disposable, We are not disposable, that we really
Speaker 1: belong to each other and we are ultimately beholden to
Speaker 1: one another. I was leaning into that notion, and that's
Speaker 1: so profound, you know. I wonder listening to you, what
Speaker 1: makes you optimistic? What keeps you going? You know? I
Speaker 1: consider myself and I don't know I can say the
Speaker 1: word piste on your podcast, um, but I consider myself
Speaker 1: a super piste optimist. And um, what I mean by
Speaker 1: that is that I am. I have I have, I carry,
Speaker 1: I carry heartbreak, I carry anger, I carry bitterness. You know,
Speaker 1: I do carry that because but you channel it, but
Speaker 1: I channel it. Yeah, and also it becomes um it
Speaker 1: just I think that the reason for some of that
Speaker 1: anger and bitterness, right is the knowledge, the understanding of
Speaker 1: what's going on and why, or even trying to understand
Speaker 1: what's going on and why, and and and realizing every day,
Speaker 1: how how much I have, how much more I have
Speaker 1: to learn, right, how much more I have to grow?
Speaker 1: How much more information has been hidden from us that
Speaker 1: we need to find, that we need to excavate. And
Speaker 1: so that drives me to keep going to find out
Speaker 1: more and to keep reaching out and to keep bringing
Speaker 1: more in and um and and then in that act,
Speaker 1: in that process of learning, I'm learning with people because
Speaker 1: I don't think we can learn on our own, right.
Speaker 1: You You can read a book, fine, but it's when
Speaker 1: you start having the discussions about that thing you watched,
Speaker 1: that thing you read that I think we really ultimately
Speaker 1: have the fruits of collective engagement and um and and
Speaker 1: in that process, then in the organizing work with Vigilant
Speaker 1: Love or Tuesday Night Project or keep Progressives, you know,
Speaker 1: like I get to be with all of these amazing
Speaker 1: people who teach me so much, right, and we contribute
Speaker 1: to each other's process, and these are amazing folks just
Speaker 1: despite all the damage, despite the pain past and present,
Speaker 1: which are the same, you know, people are like still
Speaker 1: finding ways to to engage, and then we find in
Speaker 1: each other joy and that keeps me so positive because
Speaker 1: we laugh and we have a good time, and we
Speaker 1: feed each other and we partake and we give. You know,
Speaker 1: so how can I not be positive? You know, how
Speaker 1: can I not be like, Yeah, I'm excited to wake up,
Speaker 1: you know, Um, I'm so grateful. I'm just always so grateful. Well,
Speaker 1: we're grateful to you for spending this time with us,
Speaker 1: Alas it's gone so quickly. I wish we could continue.
Speaker 1: But I know that you're going to be speaking at
Speaker 1: the blog Her conference this month with singer songwriter Milk,
Speaker 1: and that she has a new song, I Belong, And
Speaker 1: somehow I feel that this has been a conversation about
Speaker 1: belonging despite all of the difficulties that exist in our society.
Speaker 1: The sense of what you're doing and others like you
Speaker 1: to bring people together to cross those dividing lines to
Speaker 1: chat outrage in very positive ways. Thank you so much, Tracy,
Speaker 1: thank you for this conversation, and thank you for your
Speaker 1: important work. Tracy Kato Kama, thank you, Thank you so much.
Speaker 1: What a hopeful way of looking at the world. Here
Speaker 1: are three things I took from my conversation. First, Tracy
Speaker 1: Katama reminds us how valuable it is to know your
Speaker 1: community stories, and you can't do that only through textbooks.
Speaker 1: Tracy's parents told her, you have to talk to all
Speaker 1: the people who came before you, who are older and
Speaker 1: can share their hard one wisdom. Second, Tracy shows that
Speaker 1: when injustice happens, we can all take action using whatever
Speaker 1: tools we have, even if it's just our Instagram account.
Speaker 1: What's importance is Tracy is to mind others. You are
Speaker 1: not disposable. Finally, we heard once again the importance of
Speaker 1: women connecting with other women. At Seneca. We were introduced
Speaker 1: to Tracy by Milk, the singer, songwriter, and activist. In
Speaker 1: late May, Milk released I Belong, a powerful plea for
Speaker 1: solidarity that was spurred by recent hate crimes against Asian Americans.
Speaker 1: Milk's nonprofit that Somebody's Beloved Fund partners with numerous organizations,
Speaker 1: including Kato Kiriyama's Tuesday Night Project. To hear Milk's new
Speaker 1: song I Belong, visit Somebody's Beloved dot com and tune
Speaker 1: in next Tuesday to hear about our next featured woman
Speaker 1: and discover why she's one of Seneca's Women. To hear
Speaker 1: Seneca's One Dred Women Here is a collaboration between the
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio, with support
Speaker 1: from founding partner p And Have a great day,