March 23, 2007 :: No. 150

Artist/Scholar to Address Japanese American Issues in His Art — Roger Shimomura, artist and third-generation Japanese American, will present “An American Diary” at 6 p.m. Tuesday, April 3, at the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum, located in the Fullerton Arboretum at Cal State Fullerton. Shimomura, an emeritus professor from the University of Kansas, will discuss his artwork on Japanese American issues — including his interment camp experiences during World War II — spanning the last 40 years. His paintings, prints and theater pieces address sociopolitical issues of Asian America and often were inspired by 56 years of diaries kept by his immigrant grandmother. Shimomura’s presentation is being sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, the History Student Association and Pacific Islander Student Association.

Author to Talk About Combining Nonfictional and Fictional Sources — Newberry Award-winning author Cynthia Kadohata will discuss her recording of Asian American historical literature for children and young adults through combining nonfictional and fictional source materials at 9:30 a.m. Sunday, April 22, at Cal State Fullerton’s Ruby Gerontology Center. A third-generation Japanese American, Kadohata traces her family’s history to Orange County, where her paternal grandparents and father worked as farmers. Her first novels were the critically successful “The Floating World,” “In the Heart of the Valley” and “The Glass Mountain.” She then penned children’s historical fiction, beginning with “Kira-Kira” — which won the Newberry Medal — and “Weedflower.” Her recent release is “Cracker! The Best Dog in Vietnam,” of which the Los Angeles Times said, “Kadohata once again strikes literary gold with this tale of a boy and his dog.” Sponsored by Phi Alpha Theta, History Student Association and Southwest Oral History Association, the lecture in the Mackey Auditorium will be part of the Southwest Oral History Association’s annual spring conference. Her talk is in conjunction with the inaugural exhibit in the Orange County Agricultural and Nikkei Heritage Museum, “Sowing Dreams, Cultivating Lives: Nikkei Farmers in Pre-World War II Orange County.”

« back to News Front