Advisory Committee:

Dale Minami
Don Tamaki
Lisa Tsuchitani
Takeo Rivera
Michael Omi
Heidi Kim
Andrew Way Leong

Presenting Partners:

For over 30 years the Paul Dresher Ensemble has been a creative force and active member of the San Francisco Bay Area as well as the national arts community.

This innovative program’s vision is to collaborate with other creative organizations, creative artists, performance venues, art patrons, and arts and community organizations to produce world-class vocal performance art for Sonoma County, the San Francisco Bay Area, and other audiences around the world.

The mission of the Presidio Theatre is to ensure that the magic of live performance is accessible to the entire community. By reawakening an architectural jewel in the Presidio and creating a professionally run venue that reflects the rich diversity of the Bay Area, the Presidio Theatre encourages artists to grow and flourish.

Major Funders:

California Humanities is dedicated to connecting Californians to ideas and one another in order to understand our shared heritage and diverse cultures, inspire civic participation, and shape our future.

Congress established the Japanese American Confinement Sites (JACS) grant program in 2006 (Public Law 109-441, 120 Stat. 3288) for the preservation and interpretation of U.S. confinement sites where Japanese Americans were detained during World War II.

Japanese American Community Foundation funds nonprofit organizations in the United States serving the Japanese American and greater Asian American communities.

The Jerome Foundation, founded in 1964 by artist and philanthropist Jerome Hill (1905-1972), honors his legacy through multi-year grants to support the creation, development, and presentation of new works by early career artists.

The New York State Council on the Arts (NYSCA) is dedicated to preserving and expanding the rich and diverse cultural resources that are and will become the heritage of New York’s citizens.

New Music USA supports and amplifies the sounds of tomorrow by nurturing the creation, performance, and appreciation of new music for adventurous listeners in the United States and beyond.

Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium is a national network of organizations working to preserve sites and artifacts related to the Japanese American incarceration experience during World War II and dedicated to interpreting this history for the benefit of public education.

The Center for Japanese Studies at UC Berkeley supports and promotes an encyclopedic array of research and teaching related to Japan; we also support the study of historic and contemporary connections between Japan and Japanese Americans.

Brooklyn Arts Council’s grants strive to support local artists and small arts organizations whose work enhances the cultural climate of our borough, city, and state; their work is proudly local and internationally influential. These awards encourage professional development, community growth, and fellowship among artists.

Established in 2017, the charge of the UC Berkeley Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee (JASAC) is to promote teaching, research, and programming efforts related to the historical and contemporary experiences of Japanese American communities in the US and their relationships to Japan and other Japanese diaspora communities.

Friends & Supporters:

Dr. Lisa Tsuchitani
Dramaturgical Advisor

Dr. Lisa Hirai Tsuchitani is a lecturer in the Asian American & Asian Diaspora Studies Program of the Department of Ethnic Studies at UC Berkeley. Dr. Tsuchitani also serves as Founder and Chair of the Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee (JASAC). More recently, she was appointed co-chair of the Asian American & Pacific Islander Standing Committee (AAPISC), an inaugural advisory body to the Chancellor under the executive sponsorship of the Vice Chancellor of Equity & Inclusion dedicated to increasing awareness about and developing strategies to address campus climate issues for AAPI students, staff, and faculty.

Dr. Michael Omi
Discussion Leader

Michael Omi is the co-author of Racial Formation in the United States, a groundbreaking work that transformed how we understand the social and historical forces that give race its changing meaning over time and place.  The 3rd edition of the book was released in 2015.

Since 1995, he has been the co-editor of the book series on Asian American History and Culture at Temple University Press.  From 1999 to 2008, he served as a member and chair of the Daniel E. Koshland Committee for Civic Unity at the San Francisco Foundation.  Since 2002, he has served on the Project Advisory Board on “Race and Human Variation” for the American Anthropological Association that resulted in the current traveling museum exhibit, Race: Are We So Different?, which has been displayed in over 35 cities throughout the United States.

At Berkeley, he served as the Associate Director of the Haas Institute for a Fair and Inclusive Society (HIFIS), and is an affiliated faculty member of Sociology and Gender & Women’s Studies.  Michael Omi is a recipient of UC Berkeley’s Distinguished Teaching Award — an honor bestowed on only 240 Berkeley faculty members since the award’s inception in 1959.

Ensemble Ipse is a 501(c)(3) contemporary music ensemble dedicated to showcasing the wide variety of practices in the current new music scene. The ensemble presents concerts of recent music that transcends aesthetic categorization and strives to create a forum for composers and sound artists on the edges of the mainstream of contemporary music. With this in mind, Ensemble Ipse is committed to performing and commissioning the music of emerging composers, as well as composers who have been traditionally under-represented in the larger new music community, including women, BIPOC, and LGBTQ+.

Visual alchemy from the creators at the Vizwrap Society.

inkBoat inhabits the interplay of multiple artistic disciplines and viewpoints, drawing primarily from the Japanese performing and martial arts, improvisational arts, and Daoist internal arts. inkBoat stage works border dance, performance art and theater, performing in theaters, museums, streets and abandoned spaces.

Mary Alice Fry is handling media communications and leading the production team on the lobby installation. As head of Hug Media Group, Fry works hand-in-hand with artists to create impactful and engaging press materials to help further their professional careers. Fry is the Artistic Director of Footloose Presents, a California nonprofit for over 30 years. She produces full-length theatrical productions, outdoor site-specific works, performance festivals and AIM: Artists in Motion residency program at Spring Fall Studio in West Berkeley’s Sawtooth Building. huggroupmedia@gmail.com

Richard Aldag has over three decades of arts management and organizational development experience. He has served as Executive Director of organizations including the San Francisco Chamber Orchestra, Napa Valley Symphony, Lincoln Theater, and Los Lupeños de San José.

Traci Shiro “I’ve been around the advertising block (several times). With experience at agencies, in-house, and freelance as art director, designer, or creative director. Whatever the project, I enjoy helping brands tell their story and grow. I also make a mean cupcake.” https://tracishiro.com

The New York City Department of Cultural Affairs (DCLA) is the largest municipal funder of culture in the country and is committed to providing access to art and culture for all New Yorkers.