On June 14, 2025, contributors to The Gate of Memory, Katherine Terumi Laubscher and Erica H. Isomura, and Chicago-based Nikkei artists Conal Abatangelo, Mari Yamagiwa, Cori Nakamura Lin, Jami Nakamura Lin, and JJ Ueunten gathered at Haymarket House for readings, discussion circles and a mini poetry/art making session.

Together, we reflectedd on the past, create visions of Nikkei futures, and explored how to tell and re-tell these histories in resistance to state violence, imperialism, and racial violence. The program hosted by Anne Watanabe and Brynn Saito, and co-sponsored by Nikkei Uprising, a collective of Nikkei and Japanese folks in Chicago organizing against all forms of incarceration, imperialism and state violence with an abolitionist lens.

Photos and video to come…