Carolyn Classen Happy New Year of the Rooster. Three events upcoming for Chinese New Year (which is on Jan. 28, 2017) but these events are on Feb. 4 and 11. See flyers below.
Please note new location for the New Year’s family-oriented event on Feb. 11 — now at the Tucson Mall.
Every imagine yourself as a 3 inch army man figurine? Most of us played with them as children, which I did with my two brothers. Well, now you too can be one, a custom made 3D scan in green plastic by the Army Man Project creators/artists Rudy Flores and Teresa Estrella. But before you commit, check out the last weekend of the Series One of their 3D Printed Cultural Army (229 figures) at Wee Gallery, 439 N. 6th Avenue (SW corner of E. 6th St.) inside OZMA Atelier vintage clothing shop. They’re open 11 to 6 pm. Friday & Saturday, 11 to 5 p.m Sunday. This show ends on Jan. 29.
We by chance dropped in on the opening reception on January 6, 2017 which was well attended, standing room only, with many people laughing & recognizing themselves along the walls of the display. Tucsonans are depicted doing many different activities, such as playing musical instruments, singing, jumping, riding a motorcycle, dancing, etc. Here are some photos below of the show (courtesy of yours truly) of some of the people I know in Tucson.
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The estimate of the huge Women’s March in Tucson crowd that gathered this morning at Armory Park on S. 6th Avenue and marched to Jacome Plaza (in front of the Joel D. Valdez library) was about 15,000. Lots of very creative signs went by, carried by people of all ages, children, elderly, even people with crutches and walkers…gay, straight, multi-racial, many with dogs, wagons, etc. Every few blocks people were chanting “This is what Democracy looks like”. Here’s some photos of today’s crowd.
Although it was almost 75 years ago when on Feb. 19, 1942 President Franklin Roosevelt signed E.O. 9066, which was neutral on its face, but applied only to rounding up & interning nearly 120,000 Japanese American civilians (2/3 were U.S. Citizens) into relocation camps across America — there is still interest today in the injustice done by these camps and relocation of innocent people. My father Francis Sueo Sugiyama was one of those who fled Los Angeles for Chicago in 1942, before the camp round up. (He had just been expelled from USC’s Dental School due to his race).
Event coming up Friday at the Tucson Jewish History Museum (564 S. Stone Ave.), see flyer below: Gallery Chat with poet Brandon Shimoda. “A researcher on this subject and a direct descendant of this history’s victims, Brandon will facilitate a discussion on the wartime incarceration of Japanese Americans in Arizona.”
Coming up Sunday Jan. 22 at the Tucson Desert Art Museum (7000 E. Tanque Verde Rd.) is a talk entitled “Baseball Behind Barbed Wire”.
January 22, 2017 1:30 pm
Baseball was immensely important to the Japanese Americans in concentration camps. Bill Staples, author of “Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer”, will share how baseball helped raise the spirits of those in the camps and also helped with outside prejudice as the camps invited outside teams to play in matches. This event is free in the auditorium. Museum admission rates apply for entrance to the exhibit.”
Speakers:
Bill Staples – author of “Kenichi Zenimura: Japanese American Baseball Pioneer”
Kerry Yo Nakagawa – author and baseball historian, expert in Japanese American baseball
Tets Furukawa – former player/pitcher with the 1945 Gila River Eagles
Kenso Zenimura – followed in his father’s footsteps as a talented player, coach, and mentor, as well as an ambassador for international baseball