Join us for an exploration of the Japanese-American experience, with particular emphasis on the story and struggle caused by the Internment Camps and the racial politics that allowed them to become a forgotten landmark of American history. Reflecting on the suffering of mass incarceration provides a deeper insight on the adversity experienced in Asian America, and the challenges overcome post-war. The event will feature Sharon H. Chang* and John Streamas. John Streamas is an Associate Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies and American Studies at Washington State University who specializes in the narrative and racial politics of time and space, and the Japanese American experience during World War II. He has been published in Time’s News, The Comparatist, and the Journal of Academic Freedom, among others. Joining him is Sharon H. Chang, an award-winning author, photographer, and activist with a lens on racism, social justice, and the Asian American diaspora. She is the author of Raising Mixed Race: Multiracial Asian Children In a Post-Racial World and Hapa Tales and Other Lies: A Mixed Race Memoir About the Hawai’i I Never Knew. Sharon recently won the 2019 inaugural Northwest Journalists of Color Visual Storytelling Grant and is currently working on her third book and photography for her new visual project Womxn and Nonbinary Farmers of Color.
*Immediately following the event, the JACL will be hosting a reception and a gallery showing of Sharon Chang’s photography.
