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 poetry/art making session.

Together, we reflected on the past, created visions of Nikkei futures, and explored how to tell and re-tell our histories in resistance to state violence, imperialism, and racial violence. The program was 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.

Video by Tomo Estavillo Shibata and photography by Aiko Hamamoto

Poets and artists present at Haymarket House in Chicago. Video by Tomo Estavillo Shibata.