April 5, 2017 International Examiner

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

Seattle’s Asian Pacific Islander newspaper for over 44 years

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 1

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FREE EST. 1974—SEATTLE VOLUME 44, NUMBER 7 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 THE NEWSPAPER OF THE NORTHWEST ASIAN PACIFIC AMERICAN COMMUNITIES. FIND YOUR INSPIRASIAN.

CID business leader Tomio Moriguchi reflects on retirement, community service

By Ron Chew IE Contributor

interests along with late iconic leaders like Bob Santos, Ruth Woo, and Shigeko Uno. He helped establish the Keiro Nursing Home, International District Improvement Association (Inter-Im), Seattle Chinatown-International District Preservation and Development Authority (SCIDpda) and International District Economic Association (IDEA), which has been supplanted by the ChinatownInternational District Improvement Area.

Tomio Moriguchi, longtime chairman of the Uwajimaya grocery chain and International District business leader, stepped to the podium at the Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center last Friday with his sister Tomoko Matsuno and daughter Denise to accept an award from the Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Washington (JCCCW).

The award, acknowledging the contributions of the Moriguchi family in strengthening Japanese culture and heritage, provided a fitting capstone to the career of the Tomio Moriguchi, the family member most closely identified with the store during its remarkable growth from a small business that sold fishcakes to Japanese laborers from the back of a truck in 1928 into a booming regional business with stores in the International District, Bellevue, Renton, and Beaverton. The company is planning to open a new store in South Lake Union this year.

Longtime chairman of the Uwajimaya grocery chain and International District business leader Tomio Moriguchi.

• Photo by Christine Loredo

He counts his involvement in formation of the nursing home, which opened in 1976, and the ID agencies that continue to thrive today among his proudest accomplishments. “I was always disappointed that we couldn’t get more business people involved in the ID groups,” he said. “The problem is that they don’t sustain their interest for very long.”

He pointed to Barry Mar and Ray Chinn as two property owners who successfully took advantage of city programs to redevelop their historic hotels.

Moriguchi recalled that the Model Cities Program, a source of federal dollars to address urban problems in Seattle in the early 1970s, helped support development of Inter-Im. But he added most of the dollars that were allocated through City program director Walt Hundley were invested outside of the ID. “I tried to attend to go to these meetings, but what they were doing had little to do with what we were doing in the ID,” he said. “They sent us $19,000 when they had millions.”

Tomio retired last year following five decades at the helm of the company, both as CEO and chairman of the board. Tomio and Tomoko Matsuno, who had been serving as CEO since 2007, are now both retired, making way for Tomio’s daughter Denise to take over as CEO.

also about strengthening the local Asian commercial structure. “We’re at least two community through civic engagement,” or three years away from breaking ground she said. on this,” he said.

Phyllis Campbell, a senior executive at JP Morgan Chase and a longtime admirer of Tomio, said: “He has always had a generosity of spirit towards people first and community a close second. He has quietly mentored and championed so many individuals, especially those in the Asian American community. He is also a quiet philanthropist, giving back to causes and worthwhile endeavors to benefit the greater good.”

Most recently, Tomio helped spearhead the remodel of the historic Publix Hotel in the International District, which closed in 2003 and reopened in 2016 as a new Moriguchi pointed out that SCIDpda, six-story mixed use building, yielding a community development corporation Moriguchi, born in April, 1936 in 125 apartments and 12,000 square feet of chartered by the City in 1975, was an Tacoma, celebrated his 80th birthday last commercial space. outgrowth of the advocacy efforts of Interyear. “Last year, we concluded our CEO “This development work takes a lot Im. Tomio served on the original board of search,” Tomio said. “So I thought that longer than what I used to do,” Moriguchi SCIDpda, which restored the Bush Hotel it was a good time for me to retire and said. “I suppose the only thing that I’ve and built International District Village for the third generation to take over. On retired is my paycheck. But seriously, I Square among its many neighborhood December 31, 2016, I stepped down as don’t want it any other way. I’m not the projects. “It was fashionable back then to chairman of the board.” kind of person who ever enjoyed just create public organizations like this,” he Although Tomio is now retired from going to Hawai‘i and kicking back on the said. “It’s nice to see that our PDA has survived.” management of the company, he noted that beach.” he will continue to work on developing As a businessman, Moriguchi said, his Beyond his role as head of the family’s his personal real estate holdings. The business ventures over the years, Tomio priority was helping sustain and promote properties includes a half-block parcel on has been a strong community advocate small businesses in the neighborhood. He South Jackson Street, which could emerge for nearly half a century, working on the was involved in establishing IDEA in the as a 400,000 square foot housing and front lines of fighting for Asian American mid-1970s and served as its president.

Karen Yoshitomi, JCCCW executive director, noted that Tomio helped organize “leadership breakfasts” for young professionals in the late 1980s and early 1990s under the auspices of the Japanese American Citizens League.” These breakfasts weren’t just an opportunity for networking and self-improvement for personal advancement, they were

Jeffrey Hattori, CEO of Keiro Northwest, called Moriguchi “a profound role model and mentor” since he first met him in the late 1970s: “The following comes to mind when I think of Tomio: community and business visionary, servant leader, devoted to family, supports the broader good—all while being extremely humble and smart!”

Moriguchi noted that he and his partners sold another quarter-block parcel next to Hirabayashi Place to a Taiwan development group.

TOMIO: Continued on page 5 . . .

2 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

To fight climate change, Seattle must invest in micro-housing

By Nicholas Nolin IE Contributor Coffee and gray skies are often the first images that come to people’s minds when they think of Seattle. The fact that we are home to many globally-recognized companies such as Microsoft, Starbucks and Amazon also brings our city some attention and prestige. However, Seattle is quickly attracting attention for another reason; our exorbitantly high rents.

While there are a number of factors that contribute to Seattle’s housing crisis, an often-overlooked contributor to our raising rents could be the weather itself.

As the effects of climate change become more pronounced in the coming years and decades it will likely play a greater role in shaping the development of the Seattle housing market.

A recent report issued by Zillow (another one of those notable Seattlebased companies) attempts to gauge the effects that climate change will have on the American housing market in the years to come. The results are rather alarming.

It projects that if sea level rise matches the predictions of climate scientists, “almost 300 U.S. cities would lose at least half their homes” and “36 U.S. cities would be completely lost.”

The same study notes that if sea levels were to increase by six feet, Seattle itself could see over two billion dollars worth of damage to homes by the end of the century.

Lara Whitely Binder, an outreach specialist for the University of Washington’s Climate Impacts Group, notes that many of the concerns already facing the Seattle area— such as storm surge damage, erosion, salt water corrosion and problems with drainage infrastructure—will continue to plague Seattle. And, she added, “climate change [only] increases the frequency, severity and/or intensity of these types of issues.”

With such potentially catastrophic developments looming over the horizon, it should come as no surprise that the City of Seattle is already making adjustments, including a series of measures to reduce the emission of harmful greenhouse gases.

According to the City’s 2014 Greenhouse Gas Inventory, between 2008 and 2014

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Established in 1974, the International Examiner is the only non-profit pan-Asian and Pacific Islander American media organization in the country. Named after the International District in Seattle, the “IE” strives to create awareness within and for our APA communities. 409 Maynard Ave. S. #203, Seattle, WA 98104. (206) 624-3925. iexaminer@iexaminer.org.

Small efficiency dwelling units (SEDUs) could help to alleviate the effects of displacement and climate change. • Photo by Nicholas Nolin

“total emissions are down 6% and per capita emissions are down 17%,” while “total emissions from the buildings sector are down 13%.” The City has also made effective use of programs such as the Community Power Works plan that has helped “upgrade over 3,000 homes since 2011” by “helping homeowners convert from oil to cleaner, more efficient heating fuels,” according to Sara Wysocki of the Seattle Office of Sustainability & Environment.

Although retrofitting and upgrading currently-existing structures will help to reduce our ecological footprint, if Seattle is to reach its goal of being a carbon-neutral city by the year 2050 we must also be cautious about how we go about building new housing units. While there are many innovative solutions when it comes to building greener and more sustainable homes, the concept of micro-apartments or small efficiency dwelling units (SEDUs) has garnered nation-wide attention.

For a time it was also a prominent feature of Seattle’s housing strategy. A string of legislative acts beginning in 2013 curtailed the production of these apartments in part by placing restrictions on how tiny the units can actually be. A recent housing rule places the range of SEDU sizes between 220 and 320 square feet, with some exceptions. While proponents of even smaller housing units may be dismayed at these developments, the current structure still allows Seattle to provide housing units that are not only affordable, but also more

EDITOR IN CHIEF Travis Quezon

IE BOARD OF DIRECTORS Ron Chew, President Heidi Park, Vice President Gary Iwamoto, Secretary Arlene Oki, At-Large Jordan Wong, At-Large Edgar Batayola, At-Large Lexie Rodriguez, At-Large Peggy Lynch, At-Large Nam Le, At-Large

editor@iexaminer.org

ASSISTANT EDITOR Chetanya Robinson news@iexaminer.org

ARTS EDITOR Alan Chong Lau arts@iexaminer.org

COMMUNITY RELATIONS MANAGER

Lexi Potter

lexi@iexaminer.org

BUSINESS MANAGER Ellen Suzuki finance@iexaminer.org

DIGITAL MEDIA INTERN Kai Eng

sustainable and environmentally friendly.

Jason Kelly, Director of Communications for the City of Seattle’s Office of Planning and Community Development says it’s the City’s plan to focus SEDU development “in the heart of Seattle’s densest Urban Villages,” where its residents can take advantage of existing public transportation hubs and other nearby commodities.

By creating additional units that are more affordable in Urban Villages and other communities around Seattle, SEDUs could also help to alleviate the effects of displacement. Pursuing a housing strategy that encourages the development of SEDUs should be welcome news for lowincome communities, as they are the ones most adversely affected by both climate change and displacement. Targeting areas like the Rainier Valley would be crucial for the long-term success of the City’s goals. A recent report by Got Green notes that cities get “the best transit ridership from ensuring low-earning workers can stay in transit rich neighborhoods.” The same report found that when it comes to displacement, “the areas with the highest risk are in Rainier Valley, and displacement risk is particularly high along the light rail corridors.” If a solution to lower the rents in Rainier Valley is not found, the rate of displacement will increase and the members of this low-income community will not only need to leave their community but will be placed at an even greater disadvantage as they will likely have to move even farther South and away from their place of employment. The result of this would be a greater dependency on personal vehicles, increasing the financial strain on Seattle’s less affluent as well as their ecological footprint.

One Seattle area resident who has embraced the micro-lifestyle of SEDUs is David Sekiguchi, a young professional who makes his living in our city’s thriving tech industry. David admits that there are a few pitfalls that accompany living in a SEDU such as having to live in sometimes uncomfortably close proximity to your neighbors or needing to judiciously allocate the scarce amount of living space that is available to you. However, the lifestyle does come with some considerable benefits. David says that in addition to

COPY EDITOR Anna Carriveau

DIGITAL MEDIA EDITOR Anakin Fung STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER Isaac Liu

CONTRIBUTORS Nick Nolin Nalini Iyer Pinky Gupta Roxanne Ray Yayoi Winfrey DISTRIBUTORS Joshua Kelso Makayla Dorn Maryross Olanday Rachtha Danh Antonia Dorn

paying a lower rent, he also saved on other expenses like his water and electric bills and was able to walk or ride a bike instead of driving a car due to his apartment’s convenient location. David’s experience serves as a confirmation of Wysocki’s statement that when it comes to housing, “if we are more spread out then there is a much greater potential to damage more habitat and create more climate pollution from driving.”

Utilizing smaller housing units may help young professionals like David to live closer to their work or desirable parts of town but it also has the potential to help a very different demographic group: suburban senior citizens. This group also stands to benefit from micro-housing. Bruce Parker, the owner of the Seattle-based company Microhouse said the backyard cottages his company builds—although not technically considered SEDUs—are popular choices for adults looking to provide housing for their aging parents. These units “create an opportunity for construction in close residential neighborhoods where vacant lots do not otherwise exist.” Not only do units like these condense our city, but they make use of a host of architectural designs and techniques that limit the amount of energy needed for amenities like lighting, ventilation and air conditioning.

When it comes to climate change, it’s clear that we must adapt to some degree. Because our current way of life is unsustainable, we need to reexamine our habits and look for new ways to live in a more environmentally-sound manner.

While no one solution can entirely remedy the effects we expect to see in the coming decades, by making adjustments to the way we build our homes, we can begin to make a noticeable impact. By allowing cities to maximize coveted real-estate, condense our urban areas and limit the amount of energy needed for basic utilities, SEDUs warrant considerable attention and deserve to be prioritized as a means of reducing the effects of climate change in Seattle and also across the nation.

This story was written with support from the New America Media Climate Change in Communities of Color Fellowship Program.

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COMMUNITY VOICES

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 3

Pathways To Health presented by ICHS Get Walking for Health Equity The following is a message from International Community Health Services.

The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services Office of Minority Health (HHS-OMH) chooses a theme each year, and partners around the United States join to raise awareness about the health disparities that minorities face while at the same time addressing the need for accelerating health equity and eliminating these disparities. ICHS joins HHS in recognizing the disparities that exist within the communities we serve.

True or false: Identical twins, separated at birth to grow up in two different neighborhoods, will still have about the same chance of suffering a heart attack, or developing diabetes or certain kinds of cancer?

The answer is: Not necessarily— because health is not completely up to the individual. Research clearly shows what marginalized communities have long known to be true. There are many barriers to achieving full wellbeing that are beyond one single person’s power, and social and environmental factors have a large influence on health and health behaviors.

This is especially true for minority communities. In public health we use the term social determinants of health to encompass a wide range of systems and environmental influences that impact health. These social determinants include where and how we work, play, and live. They include sectors as wideranging as employment, transportation, education, housing, and justice sectors.

Often it seems that large governmental agencies have even larger goals that may not translate well into action on a personal level. “What can I do about the social determinants of health,” we may ask. “How can I help bridge these gaps across sectors?” It is possible to break down large issues of health equity into more concrete goals that all of us can work towards.

Why not start with a walk around your neighborhood?

April also brings National Walking Day, a recognized health day that hopefully evokes more action-oriented thoughts than National Minority Health Month. When we walk we make a deeper connection to our community. We walk by individuals doing errands, elders shopping for groceries, children going to school, and employees taking a smoke break.

International Community Health Services (ICHS) is a nonprofit community health center that offers affordable health care services to Seattle and King County’s Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities, and the broader community. ICHS provides primary medical and dental care, health support services, and health education in seven locations. • Courtesy Photo

We may find there are a few broken bottles on the ground next to where the children are playing, shuttered storefronts covered with graffiti, or people throwing their takeout lunch into an overflowed garbage bin. We will ask, why is this that way, and what can I do about it?

We will start to link how our health and the health of others is influenced by all parts of our community, how our churches, schools, health centers, parks, and transportation systems all contribute, negatively or positively, to our communities health. Our walks may spark conversations and ideas about how we could make walking more accessible and safe, or how our communities could be better designed to encourage movement and active living.

Walking is a low-cost and easily accessible exercise. In the rainy weather or when the streets are dark, it may be more difficult to head outside for a walk, but even getting up and walking around your workplace or house, or taking the bus to the nearest mall are low-cost options.

Regular walking lowers cholesterol levels and blood pressure, increases energy and stamina, boosts bone strength, and prevents weight gain.

Walking reduces risk of developing heart disease and diabetes, both of which disproportionately affect minority communities.

Start with a ten-minute walk during your lunch break, and build up to longer sessions throughout the week.

Anything is good, but more is better.

See if you can motivate any nearby colleagues into walking with you.

Set up a steps challenge between departments at work and provide pedometers for all staff, because walking is a good HR strategy as well. It is proven to give employees an energy level boost, enhance their problem solving skills, and reduce the negative effects of excessive sitting.

Instead of reaching for caffeine or sugar, get up and walk for ten minutes.

Rarely do we have access to the ideal walking route, but some practical tips can make your walk safer. In all situations it is best to wear comfortable, supportive footwear.

If you are walking at night, wear reflective or light-colored clothing.

When taking the sidewalk or road, walk against the direction of traffic so that you can see cars coming towards you. If you’re going on a longer walk, or want to pick up the pace, do a bit of stretching beforehand to warm-up your muscles, and a cool-down at the end.

Though it may not seem like you are working to advance health equity by simply putting on comfortable shoes and heading outside, you are taking a concrete step to understand the complex systems that shape our lives, and if you walk weekly, you will see how these systems change over time. When we walk for health equity we are contributing to better health for ourselves and all by being active citizens and active bodies.

Want to take your walk up an analytical level? Assess your community’s

walkability by filling out this online checklist and learn more about what you can do right now to address issues around walkability and safety, and what you and your community can advocate for in the future: www.pedbikeinfo.org/ cms/downloads/walkability_checklist. pdf Please tune back in for our next Pathways to Health column. Here we will explore health issues in our community in the context of greater nationally recognized months or days, highlighting ways our community members can take action in their lives today.

About ICHS Founded in 1973, ICHS is a nonprofit community health center offering affordable primary medical and dental care, acupuncture, laboratory, pharmacy, behavioral health WIC, and health education services. ICHS’ four full-service medical and dental clinics—located in Seattle’s International District and Holly Park neighborhoods; and in the cities of Bellevue and Shoreline—serve nearly 29,000 patients each year. As the only community health center in Washington primarily serving Asians and Pacific Islanders, ICHS provides care in over 50 languages and dialects annually.

ICHS is committed to improving the health of medically-underserved communities by providing affordable and in-language health care. For more information, please visit: www.ichs. com.

4 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE OPINION

156 civil and human rights groups call for stronger response to hate incidents The following is a statement signed • The February shooting in Olathe, While we welcome President Trump’s by 156 civil and human rights groups. Kansas, where two Indian Hindu remarks to the joint session of Congress, To view the list of all the signers, visit Americans were attacked, killing Srinivas where he noted ‘we are a country that iexaminer.org.

Kuchibhotla; stands united in condemning hate and evil The Leadership Conference on Civil • Four mosques burned in the past in all of its very ugly forms,’ it was the first and Human Rights and 155 civil and two months, in Texas, Washington, and public acknowledgement he had made on human rights groups today called upon Florida, and more defaced by acts of specific recent events. It is clear that the President has been slow to respond to hate the Executive Branch to respond more vandalism; incidents, when he has responded at all. quickly and forcefully to hate-based • Numerous bomb threats against We strongly believe the President has a incidents, which have been occurring at Jewish Community Centers, synagogues, moral obligation to use his bully pulpit to an alarming rate in recent months. The and ADL offices around the country; speak out against acts of hatred when they statement follows: • The recent shooting in Washington state occur.

“Our diversity is part of what makes of a Sikh American outside of his home; Moreover, the President and his America great, and incidents motivated surrogates have too frequently used • Racist graffiti targeting African by hate are an affront to the values we rhetoric and proposed and enacted Americans in Stamford, Connecticut and share. No one should face acts of violence policies that have fostered a hostile at a high school in Lake Oswego, Oregon; or intimidation because of their race, environment toward many, including ethnicity, religion, sexual orientation, • An attack on a Latino man in Daly City, gender, gender identity, disability, or California, and an attack on a Hispanic African Americans, Muslims and those perceived to be Muslim, and immigrant national origin. woman in Queens, New York, with both and refugee communities. The President Just this year, we have seen an alarming targeted because of their ethnicity; cannot condemn hate in one sentence increase in accounts and reports of hate• The murders of seven transgender and then in the same speech, promote based acts of violence and intimidation. women of color, including six African falsehoods that can lead to bias and hate violence.

Americans and one Native American.

Some recent examples include:

We as a nation are stronger when we are inclusive. We encourage the President, his staff and members of his Cabinet to condemn hate incidents when they happen. We appreciate Secretary of Homeland Security Kelly’s recent condemnation of these acts and his pledge for support and outreach by the Department’s Office for Civil Rights and Civil Liberties. Especially given the unique obligations and responsibilities of the Department of Justice, we strongly urge Attorney General Sessions to take similar actions.

We also urge the President to continue the tradition of a White House interagency task force on hate violence, and make available the full resources of the federal government to track and report hate crimes, to investigate and prosecute the perpetrators, and to aid affected communities. Our inclusive democracy demands no less.”

Letters to the Editor ACRS joins call to address hate speech, hate crimes Asian Counseling and Referral Service (ACRS) joins the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights and 156 civil and human rights groups in calling on the Executive Branch to respond strongly and quickly to incidents of hate speech and violence. We are deeply troubled by the recent, dramatic rise in hate speech and hate crimes, across the country and here in Washington state.

Our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have faced hate speech and crimes, both on an individual level and on a policy level through exclusionary immigration and a host of anti-immigrant and racist policies, exemplified by the 1942 Executive Order sending innocent immigrants and citizens of Japanese ancestry to American concentration camps, and which continue through discriminatory detentions for other Asian groups to this day.

We have seen that divisive rhetoric and policies can fan the flames of hate speech and violence. We call upon the Administration to stop dangerous rhetoric and policy initiatives which endanger immigrant and refugee communities rather than increase our national security.

We ask the Administration to promote unity rather than division; to use the full resources of the federal government to prevent, track, and record hate crimes, and to prosecute perpetrators while supporting affected communities.

Diane Narasaki ACRS Executive Director

Congress help those living with Alzheimer’s and other dementias now

At a cost of $236 billion a year, Alzheimer’s is the most expensive disease in the nation. Nearly one in every five Medicare dollars is spent on people with Alzheimer’s or another dementia. And, total costs will only continue to increase as South Asians have been rounded up baby boomers age, soaring to more than $1 in one of our state’s cities in the past and trillion in 2050. forced out; they have been religiously and Alzheimer’s disease is the only cause racially profiled since 9/11 and beaten and of death among the top 10 in the United shot since then in our state.

States that cannot be prevented, cured, or A member of the Sikh community in even slowed. Today more than 5.4 million South King County was shot outside his Americans are living with Alzheimer’s. By home and injured very recently by a man 2050, the number of people age 65 and older who said he should go back to his own with Alzheimer’s disease may reach as high country. We know where hate speech and as 16 million. violence can lead. They are deadly, and can When my mother was diagnosed with lead not only to violence against religious, Early Onset Alzheimer’s at the age of 57 racial, ethnic, and gender minorities in nearly six years ago, research funding for our country, but also to violence against Alzheimer’s disease was disproportionately our constitutional principles and our low compared to the other top causes of democracy. death. In the past few years, we have made

tremendous strides, inching closer to the the banishment of an entire group of people funding level that scientists say they need to based solely on fear, racial prejudice, find a breakthrough. Why turn back now? hysteria and a lack of political leadership.

Families and caregivers are counting on it.

As Presidential Executive Orders are Concerned readers should contact our currently being issued targeting innocent new Congresswoman, Pramila Jayapal, people based on their religion, our island’s today at (202) 225-3106. Ask her to vote for story of our newspaper and ordinary an additional $400 million in NIH research people courageously standing up to both funding to continue the fight against the national tide and for their Japanese Alzheimer’s disease. Action is needed as American friends and neighbors is both temporary funding runs out on April 28. timeless and timely. It is a legacy of which Jayapal needs to see constituent alarm we should be proud. that Alzheimer’s disease is a growing crisis Our deepest thanks to the hundreds of for our families and the economy. She people who stood for hours and braved should help lead the federal government in chilly weather to witness a remarkable addressing the challenges the disease poses ceremony and who attended the afternoon of and take bold action to confront this crisis BIJAC films and presentations, and for all of now. those whose support made the day possible, Congress must not wait to help those living including our partners the Bainbridge Island Japanese American Exclusion with Alzheimer’s and other dementias.

Memorial Association, the Bainbridge Mikaela Louie Island Museum of Art, the Bainbridge Board Member, Alzheimer’s Association— Island Historical Museum, the Bainbridge Washington State Chapter Island Metropolitan Parks and Recreation UW Law Student Department, the City of Bainbridge Island, Master Gardeners, Bainbridge Island Barks the scores of people who donated time, Bainbridge Island Japanese American and equipment and labor to make the day as Community offers its thanks perfect as it was.

On behalf of the Bainbridge Island Most of all, we honor and thank the Japanese American Community (BIJAC), dozens of survivors and their families we are humbled and grateful for the who attended the ceremony and events, overwhelming, heartfelt support and and we honor all of the 120,000 Japanese participation on March 30 honoring the 75th Americans who lived this story, one that Anniversary Commemoration of the first we should never forget and to be inspired to Japanese Americans to be forcibly removed have the patriotic courage to never repeat. and exiled during World War II. “Nidoto Nai Yoni—Let It Not Happen This chapter in American history Again” began here on Bainbridge Island, Clarence Moriwaki from a Presidential Executive Order’s Bainbridge Island Japanese American unconstitutional action that set in motion Community President

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 5

IE NEWS

Announcements Navigation Center meeting postponed The second Public Meeting for the Seattle Navigation Center has been postponed to Monday, April 24. The meeting has been pushed back because of another meeting happening that day, and organizers didn’t want to create any competing interest with other priorities in the neighborhood.

The new meeting will be held on Monday, April 24 from 5:00 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the International District Community Center (719 8th Ave S).

CID Public Safety Steering Committee hires Sonny Nguyen as Public Safety Coordinator The Chinatown/International District Public Safety Steering Committee has hired Sonny Nguyen as the Public Safety Coordinator (PSC). The Steering Committee, tasked with implementing recommendations from Mayor Murray’s Chinatown-International District Public Safety Task Force and Action Plan, is a partnership between the City and neighborhood to improve public safety and vitality.

Sonny was also a member of the Mayor’s special task force and previously, worked as the Engagement Coordinator for The

Washington Bus, organizing young people in voter registration and electoral campaigns. Sonny currently serves as the Organizing Director for API Food Fight Club, which coordinates the annual Donnie Chin Memorial BBQ.“We are eager to have Sonny on-board this coming April and to finally, be able to increase the capacity of the neighborhood in addressing public safety issues” said Sokha Danh, Co-Chair of the C/ID Steering Committee.

The Public Safety Coordinator will report to the Public Safety Steering Committee. Funds for this position are provided by the City of Seattle’s General Budget with primary sponsorship by Councilmember Lorena González based from recommendations of the Public Safety Task Force. The PSC position is one of three that will foster better communication and collaboration between the City of Seattle, Seattle Police Department and Chinatown/ International District neighborhood. The other two positions are a Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist with Seattle Police Department (Vicky Li, vicky. li@seattle.gov) and a Community Projects Manager with City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods (Ben Han,ben.han@ seattle.gov).The C/ID Steering Committee is planning to host a welcome reception for the community to learn more about these positions and the committee. Date and time to be announced shortly.

. . . TOMIO: Continued from page 1

you go and your quality of life. At the end of the day, you realize that money isn’t IDEA launched the annual summer everything.” festival, which continues to this day as Four years ago, Moriguchi moved one of the biggest draws in the ID. It to the Fujisada Condominiums in the has been rebranded as “Dragon Fest” International District, where he lives and takes place this year on July 15 with his wife Jenny. How does he feel and 16. IDEA also sponsored an annual about living in the ID? “It’s okay,” he Christmas party, which provided an said, “except I wish we had double-paned opportunity for business owners and windows to keep out the noise. There’s a community leaders to get to know one late crowd at the Oasis Tea Zone across another and for candidates for Mayor the street. They can get pretty noisy when and the City Council to learn about they leave.” neighborhood issues.

Does Tomio provide regular business Moriguchi said he still serves on advice to his daughter Denise? “We talk,” several non-profit boards, including he said. “We’ve been very close for a long a Japanese overseas newspaper time. After my first wife Lovett passed association. This dovetails nicely with away, she and I were the only ones in the his continuing role as president of house. She knows I’m there if she has to the North American Post, founded in call me. But she’s very intelligent. That’s 1902 as the oldest Japanese language all the more reason that you don’t want to newspaper in the Pacific Northwest. say anything unless she brings it up.”

Moriguchi continues to travel Denise Moriguchi said she has fond overseas for business and to meet old memories of accompanying her father friends. He said a friend in Cebu used to the office when she was little, “sitting to be a frequent travel companion. “But among his piles of paper” and watching he’s in a wheelchair now,” Tomio said. him work.

“He and my other friend in Manila, we “He has always been my biggest used to go and have a glass of beer. We role model—both personally and used to ask, ‘What bar should we go?’ professionally so I am not surprised that Now it’s, ‘What Starbucks should we go to?’ You realize you’re lucky to have I am following in his footsteps,” Denise said. “He has taught me to be patient, your health. listen to what others have to say, think of “Some of the kids I went to Garfield the big picture, and put employees and the with—five of them are now on dialysis, community before the bottom line.” including my brother. It restricts where

6 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

COMMUNITY VOICES

IE NEWS

Mayor Murray discusses homelessness, Seattle as a ‘constitutional’ city at ethnic media roundtable

By Chetanya Robinson IE Assistant Editor Starting March 31, Mayor Ed Murray wants Seattle to be known as a “constitutional,” rather than a sanctuary city. Seattle’s policy of helping undocumented immigrants resist deportation means it’s simply following the 10th Amendment to the Constitution, which specifies that the federal government can’t tell local jurisdictions how to enforce federal law—such as how to use their police departments—and can’t punish a local jurisdiction by withholding federal funds.

Murray explained this at a roundtable discussion for ethnic media at City Hall, two days after he announced that Seattle is suing the federal government for its threats to cut funding to such cities. The roundtable included journalists from media outlets representing Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, general Asian American, Latino and Somali communities. The half-hour Q&A focused mostly on Seattle’s status as a “constitutional” city and the growing homelessness problem, but also touched on how homelessness is affecting the Chinatown International District.

Seattle’s lawsuit last week against the Trump administration argues that it’s illegal for the federal government to withhold federal funds over immigration, and tell local police to assist in deportation. In addition, Seattle wouldn’t be able to help the federal government even if it wanted so, as City agencies such as the police department, public schools and city services don’t ask for immigration information.

Murray explained that there’s a moral component to the lawsuit. “The reason we need to do it is not simply because it’s illegal, but because we have families that are living in this city, people who work in this city, children who have mostly spent their

entire lives in this city, can’t remember any other country—who are at risk of being torn apart,” he said.

And despite the Trump administration’s claims that mass deportations will make the country safer, Murray said it will do the opposite. South Seattle, which has the highest population of immigrants in the city, has seen a drop in crime.

“The thing we are concerned about is, by basically scaring people away from the police department, that crime will go up. In some cities we’re already seeing immigrant communities are stopping their reporting of domestic violence or of rape. That makes a city very dangerous.”

In response to the federal government’s increase in deportations, the City has launched programs to educate immigrants on their rights, on how to organize their paperwork, and how to keep their families together.

And though Murray said he believes Seattle will win the lawsuit, he stressed that this is Seattle’s only way of challenging the federal government on immigration.

“The last time someone used local forces against a national government was during the civil war,” he said. “Should they choose to come in here and remove people all we can do is resort to the courts.”

It’s not just the threat of federal funding cuts connected to immigration that worries Murray. Apart from the debate over sanctuary or constitutional cities, the federal government’s budget cuts will result in less funding for affordable housing, healthcare and the environment in Seattle. This would disproportionately affect people of color, immigrants and women, Murray said, and “would translate into fewer services and quite honestly, fewer jobs.” When these cuts come, the City is looking at how to cut its

Mayor Ed Murray met with Seattle ethnic media on March 31. • Photo by Chetanya Robinson

own budget and which funds to prioritize, according to the mayor.

Murray is also concerned about impacts on trade; Seattle is one of the most tradedepended cities in the nation because it’s in one of the most trade-dependent states.

Nevertheless, Murray said Seattle can serve as a model for the nation. “We have a long haul ahead of us, but I actually think as dark as it seems, cities like Seattle are actually showing the way forward,” he said, pointing to issues like raising the minimum wage and funding pre-K and affordable housing. “I think we are modelling for the nation how we can actually function when Washington D.C. can’t function.”

Homelessness is growing exponentially across not just Seattle but King County, the state and the nation, Murray said. While the City continues to try and connect people with addiction and mental health services and create more affordable housing, the problem is inseparable from issues of income inequality and affordability.

A major challenge, he said, is the lack of an income tax in the state that could help pay for more solutions to homelessness.

“Jeff Bezos is very rich—there’s a lot of

rich people here, but we the City don’t have any way to tax them unless the state decides we’re going to go to a more progressive tax system.”

And on the national level, the federal government continues to cut funding that would help alleviate homelessness. “Even under the Obama administration we lost about 12 percent of our affordable housing and homeless money,” Murray said. “That money isn’t going to come from any place else—the federal government is not going to step up. So the cities are going to have to decide if we want to limit this problem or not.”

The City will also have to step up when it comes to funding light rail, Murray said.

The only way to pay for construction of 28 more light rail stations, “and be a city that truly has transit,” will be sales taxes. “Some people are complaining it’s taking too long to build. Well the only way we can build it faster is to raise more taxes and I don’t think people want us to do that.”

Assunta Ng, publisher of Northwest Asian Weekly, asked how the City could better clean up South Dearborn Street in the CID, an area which has experienced a growing homeless population. Murray said the City is clearing homeless encampments one at a time. The Field, an encampment under I-5, was recently cleared, and The Jungle encampment is also empty. The City will clean the CID as well, and the City is also increasing garbage pick-up city-wide.

“We’re working our way there—we’re systematically going through, we’re offering people services, when they don’t take them we move them, and then we go and we clean it up,” he said.

However, some of the property in the CID is controlled by the state, which needs to continue doing its part, Murray said.

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen: “I never want to be an insider completely”

By Pinky Gupta IE Contributor

a refugee. “The reality is that they were just live with two gay men in San Francisco.

In another story, a woman’s husband has lucky to get in,” he said.

Nguyen was born in Ban Me Thuot, dementia, and he starts to confuse her with Vietnam in 1975. He came to the United a former lover. In another, a girl who lives States as a refugee in 1975 with his family in Ho Chi Minh City has an older half-sister and initially settled in Fort Indiantown Gap, who comes back from America having Pennsylvania, one of four such camps for accomplished everything she never will.

On February 24, Pulitzer Prize-winning author Viet Thanh Nguyen spoke at the Seattle Central Public Library to promote his new book, The Refugees, a collection of stories that explores immigration, identity, Vietnamese refugees. From there, he moved love and family. to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, where he lived In light of Donald Trump’s attempt to until 1978. put a ban on entering of the refugees in the Nguyen agrees that he has made a United States, Nguyen said that he never successful transition from refugee to wants to be a “complete insider” in the American citizen. “I’m a successful avatar United States. of the American dream and possibilities,” “I never want to be an insider completely,” he says. But he wants to keep alive “the Nguyen said while answering the question memory of what that felt like to be a at the Central Library. “Once you are an refugee.” While addressing questions from insider you become like the American the audience, Nguyen emphasized that it is Vietnamese who are no longer refugees and important for the people to stay connected look at Syrian and Muslims refugees and with their roots. say keep them out. We are good refugees, The stories in The Refugees are a and they are bad refugees.” testament to the dreams and hardships of Nguyen expressed his concern that immigration. Nguyen tells the story of a Vietnamese in the United States are young Vietnamese refugee who suffers forgetting what is to be like to an outsider or profound culture shock when he comes to

It took Nguyen 17 years to write The Refugees, and compile all his experience, pain and struggle as a refugee in a book.

It was difficult, he said, to gather the necessary historical information. Nguyen said that The Refugees is not very political book, but the stories touch on charged and personal topics.

Nguyen talks about the political situations, domestic situations and Vietnamese emotions in the book with the minute details. The interwoven stories of the particular sorrow of displacement and exile are examples of universal suffering.

Through short stories, he focuses on the politics of the Vietnamese war. Nguyen uses words to paint the picture of the suffering and pain of refugee of war.

An audience member asked Nguyen to compare the writing styles he chose for his two books. He said that his debut novel worked better for him, as it was more natural and allowed for much more freedom.

During his talk, an audience member asked how American people have reacted to his writing. Nguyen replied that people reach out to him through emails, postcards and letters and most of them appreciate his work and are positive. But a section of people say, “you are an anti-American, ungrateful and we sacrifice for you.” Nguyen said that he received a letter from an educated man saying telling him to go back to Vietnam, and that he shouldn’t be raising his son here.

There is still speculation about his books being adapted into movies, but Nguyen said he would rather The Sympathizer to be turned into a television series than a film.

Nguyen said he always wanted to live in Seattle, and his dream job was to be a professor at University of Washington—but his application was rejected. This didn’t stop him from getting a job teaching English at the University of Southern California.

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 7

IE NEWS

Public safety survey a community-wide effort to keep the city accountable

By Lyra Fontaine IE Contributor Every year, community-based organizations in the Chinatown-International District dedicate time and effort to conduct a neighborhood public safety survey, analyze the results and publish a report on the survey’s findings.

After analyzing the results that recently came in, the report will be created in the next months.

The survey is conducted both online and in paper form by the Seattle Chinatown International District Preservation (SCIDpda) and InterIm Community Development Association.

The survey helps to guide the CID community’s conversations and strategies in addressing the neighborhood’s crime and safety.

“The survey is a community-led effort that is time and labor-intensive, but is a straightforward way to measure whether what we are doing around public safety is actually effective,” said Jamie Lee, SCIDpda IDEA Space Program Manager.

Lee and Valerie Tran, InterIm CDA Healthy Communities Program Manager, are in charge of administering the survey. “[The survey] reinforces the importance of community-based data and how that can be a powerful thing to bring to decision-makers,” said Tran, adding that city leaders may not understand the nuances of the neighborhood.

The City and Seattle Police Department measure their performance based on 911 data. However, this data doesn’t take into account the reasons why people might not call 911. People in the CID may not call 911 for a variety of reasons, such as response time, the belief that police might not be able to do anything, past experiences with police not responding to calls, fear of authority or negative experiences with police in their country of origin, according to Lee. The PDA has conducted public safety surveys for years, but recently the surveys have become more intentional. The surveys are translated into Chinese and Vietnamese, and starting last year, the data is now analyzed by Seattle University students.

Lee and Tran said their eventual goal is for the City to conduct some community-based surveys on its own, instead of relying on non-

The CID community has been calling on the City for more resources to address public safety for decades.

• Photo by Anakin Fung

profits. They hope that the city can take their survey questions into consideration when examining policing practices.

Lee said it was important for the community to gather its own data independent from SPD, which has a citywide survey, while the CID’s public safety survey is catered to the neighborhood. SCIDpda and InterIm CDA conducted extra outreach to make the surveys accessible, Lee said.

Similar to last year, this year’s survey garnered about 330 responses. The survey administrators would like to see more respondents.

Survey results informed Mayor’s action plan The 2016 survey results have helped inform the city’s task force and plan, leading to city funding to create positions that address public safety gaps. In late March, the CID Public Safety Steering Committee hired a neighborhood-based public safety coordinator, Sonny Nguyen, who was a member of Murray’s task force and is involved in CID community organizing. The position was funded by the city based on recommendations from the public safety task force to improve communication and collaboration between the city, SPD, and the CID neighborhood. The coordinator will be on the ground representing the community and will help move the Mayor’s plan forward, Tran said.

The other two positions created are Community Engagement and Outreach Specialist with SPD Vicky Li and a Community Projects Manager with the city’s Department of

Neighborhoods, Ben Han. Last year, SCIDpda and InterIm CDA presented the 2016 survey results and their recommendations to Murray’s ChinatownInternational District Public Safety Task Force, comprised of 19 CID business owners and community leaders. The task force then presented its recommendations to Murray in June.

In July, Mayor Ed Murray released his action plan for the Chinatown-International District.

The plan included four elements identified for early action: a neighborhood-based public safety coordinator position, a community engagement and outreach specialist in the SPD, a public safety steering committee and improved police communication and responsiveness.

“It is important to keep the city accountable,” Tran said, adding that with the Mayor’s plan in place, officials are more invested in the CID’s public safety.

Murray’s task force was formed after CID community members released a public safety packet in September 2015 that included their concerns and offered suggestions to improve public safety.

Donnie Chin, the founder and leader of the International District Emergency Center (IDEC), was murdered in the CID in July 2015. Chin dedicated his life to protecting the community, providing emergency response to the neighborhood for decades.

The 2016 survey highlighted public safety gaps Last year, survey results demonstrated that public safety issues are a top concern in the community and confirmed that the Seattle Police Department’s data—which showed the biggest rise in crime in the CID as car prowls—was flawed. Crimes such as drug dealing, guns being fired in the neighborhood, and violent crimes often go unreported because most CID residents don’t call 911.

Out of about 334 responses, more than a quarter said their primary language was Chinese, 64 percent primarily spoke English, and 5 percent spoke primarily Vietnamese. Most respondents were residents or employees in the neighborhood. Trespassing, public intoxication and graffiti were the types of behav-

iors that respondents most-often identified as “always” seeing. About 50 percent of respondents said they had witnessed criminal acts such as gun violence, vehicle theft or robbery.

Of those who stated they had witnessed a non-violent crime, less than 30% reported it.

The most common reason for non-reporting was that they did not expect any police follow-through. The next most common reason was thinking that police couldn’t do anything.

Out of the 13.5 percent of respondents who reported witnessing a violent crime, about 60% did not report it. No expected follow through by police and the belief that the police couldn’t do anything were among the top reasons for not calling 911.

The top reasons for not reporting violent crimes were that someone else called or because they did not expect any police followthrough. The survey also pointed to a high proportion of Chinese and English speakers who do not call 911 when they witnessed nonviolent or violent crimes.

Last year, most respondents indicated that they rarely see police engage with the public, with 52 respondents selecting “never.” When they did witness police-community relations, most rated the relations as “fair.” According to survey results, respondents feel less safe when within the I-5 underpass, Danny Woo Community Garden and Kobe Terrace Park, while feeling safer in Chinatown and Japantown.

Respondents indicated that they believe a lack of sanitation services in the neighborhood, combined with an increasing homeless population, decrease the perception of safety in the community and thus leads to less people coming to the CID to conduct “legitimate business.”

The impact of safety to CID residents, employees and visitors’ stress and anxiety level was a new consideration in last year’s survey.

Out of 320 people who responded to the statement that their stress and anxiety were due to the neighborhood being unsafe, only 30% said they completely disagree.

SCIDpda and InterIm CDA recommended educating community members about reporting crime, developing a culturally responsive protocol for SPD to serve the neighborhood, and seeking long-term engagement and financial support for other CID programs and public spaces.

Hari Kunzru’s White Tears asks hard questions about capitalism and racial suffering

By Nalini Iyer IE Contributor White Tears, the fifth novel by Hari Kunzru, joins many recent books, novels, and films that dig deep into the racial history of the United States. In this novel, Kunzru explores the history of blues, the roots of American music, and the way America (and the world) consumes music while unwilling to confront questions of race. By telling a compelling story that is part crime novel, part quest narrative, with touches of the supernatural, Kunzru mesmerizes the reader while making them grapple with America’s brutal racial history.

The novel focuses on two young men, Seth and Carter, who meet in college. Both are social misfits but their shared obsession with music brings them together. Carter, whose family is very wealthy, bankrolls their passion by setting up a music studio where

they create music by delving into the past.

Carter becomes an obsessive collector of old records (anything non digital) and amasses a vast collection of the blues. Carter is the creative genius who wanders around the city capturing sounds that he then refines and transforms into music tracks. On one such meandering walk, he picks up a blues number hummed by a chess player in the park who may or may not have been real. His friend Carter, fascinated by the tune, puts together a song that he attributes to an imaginary bluesman, Charlie Shaw, and puts it out on the internet. The fake old recording draws the attention of another obsessive collector, JumpJim, who insists that Charlie Shaw is real. Carter and Seth decide to meet with the man and the story takes a bizarre turn from there. Carter is attacked on the streets and ends up in a coma in an ICU and the grieving Seth, along with Carter’s sister Leonie, decide to follow up on the odd story told by

JumpJim. Their shared journey takes them to Mississippi on the trail of Charlie Shaw and of the song that may or may not be real.

As Seth makes this journey, he has to confront his unrequited crush on Leonie and his friendship and love for Carter. As Seth travels in the South, the past and the present blur. Seth’s journey harks back to JumpJim’s identical one through the South in the 1960s with his friend Chester, another obsessive collector of records. JumpJim learned from his trip how exploitative record collecting is, and Seth discovers how predatory the Wallace family is when it comes to intellectual property. Seth’s trip into the South and into the past has a hallucinatory quality and an element of the supernatural. Did Charlie Shaw exist? Does he still exist? How does this song take hold of people never to let go? As we travel with Seth and Leonie, JumpJim and Chester, on two simultaneous trips happening

some fifty years apart, we have to confront our love of blues music and its roots in the racial violence and misery of the people who made it. We see the roots of the Wallace family’s wealth in the prison industrial complex and the relationship between the carceral state and African American music in our times. Is our desire to consume this music predicated on the ongoing misery of black people? Do we willfully turn away from the nexus of capitalism and racism when we celebrate black culture? What is the line between appreciating a culture and appropriating it?

Can we unlink cultural productions from their socio-historical legacy? The power of this novel is that we cannot put it down even as we confront these questions. The challenge of this novel is that we are occasionally lost in its hallucinatory meanderings.

Hari Kunzru reads from ‘White Tears’ on April 13 at 7:00 p.m. at Elliott Bay Books.

8 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

IE COMMUNITY

Announcements Alan Lau presents ‘Farmer’s Market/ Harvesting Peaches From The Other Planet’ at Artxchange Gallery Artist Alan Lau is presenting a small show at the North Gallery of Artxchange Gallery at 512 First Ave. S. in Pioneer Square from April 6 to May 27, 2017.

The show will explore how the elements can “work on the subconscious—nudging out words and feelings one can’t always articulate any other way. In this seasonal incubator of images I attempt not only to portray nature’s bounty, but the layers of feeling changing weather can evoke in that blind spot we call our subconscious,” Lau writes.

Lau, the artist, will be present on both First Thursdays on April 6 and May 4 from 5:00 p.m. to 8:00 p.m. In addition, he will do a casual gallery talk about the show on Friday, April 14 at 6:30 p.m. On Friday, May 5 at 6:30 p.m., esteemed local

composer/musician Stuart Dempster will improvise with his favorite paintings in the show and collaborate with Alan, who will read a poem. All events are free and open to the public. For more information, call 206839-0377 or email info@artxchange.org.

Mariners Japanese Baseball Night The Seattle Mariners are holding a Salute to Japanese Baseball Night at Safeco Field, a night of Japanese culture. For every ticket sold, $5 will benefit Japanese nonprofit organizations in Seattle. Redeem your giveaway (while supplies last) by bringing your ticket to Section 103 before the end of the 4th inning. Main level tickets cost $35, and the deadline to purchase is Monday, April 17, 5:00 p.m.

For tickets or for more information, visit Mariners.com/Japan and enter the promo code: JAPAN.

the primary funding vehicle for moving the neighborhood’s vision of a vibrant district into a reality.

The funds will be used for a several areas of improvement: Public safety services; City collaboration on safety services; crime reporting and tracking; training and outreach; business retention and recruitment; retail recruitment and retention; business technical assistance; economic and demographic data; sanitation and public spaces; enhance street cleaning seven days per week; daily litter pickup and graffiti removal; weekly pressurewashing; daily alleyway maintenance; marketing, communication and events; enhanced, informative communication to stakeholders; effective marketing materials; community festivals and events.

For more information, visit www.cidbia. org.

CIDBIA proposes expanded business area to raise funds for more services

KOBO at Higo to host a reading on CID history

The Chinatown International District Business Improvement Area (CIDBIA) is proposing to establish a renewed and expanded Business Improvement Area as

KOBO at Higo on South Jackson St. will host a reading on May 6 from 3:15 p.m. to 5:15 p.m. as part of Atlas Obscura’s Ghosts of Seattle Past walking tour of Seattle history.

The lineup of authors includes: • Dean Wong reading a piece about grief, Donnie Chin, and Canton Alley • Shelly Leavens reading from an interview with Roger Shimomura about the Wah Mee and Bush Garden, and some surrounding art spaces in the ID • Dave Holden (son of Jazz Patriarch of Seattle, Oscar Holden) in conversation with Jaimee Garbacik about the Palomar Theatre and old jazz scene • Noel Franklin reading her comic about the OK Hotel • Judy T. Oldfield reading from an essay about the Merchant’s Café and the dangers (and possible redemption) of tech culture • Tamiko Nimura reading about the inspiration she found in David Ishii bookstore Walking tour starts at in front of the Langston Hughes Performing Arts Institute at 104 17th Ave. S (along Yesler Way).

INTERNATIONAL EXAMINER

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 9

IE ARTS

Seattle Butoh Festival is bringing the art of Japanese dance to Seattle

By Roxanne Ray IE Contributor Dipan Butoh Collective is a cooperative group of dancers and choreographers who specialize in the Japanese dance form of butoh. This year’s 8th Seattle Butoh Festival will present the work of many local butoh artists, as well as bring international artists to Seattle’s audiences.

One of these international butoh practitioners is Ken Mai, who spent his first forty years in Japan, but has since lived all over Europe, including the past eleven years in Finland.

Mai’s performance touring requires him to travel constantly. “I feel like I’m not Japanese sometimes,” he said. “It is important to expand the consciousness to other cultures, people, and nature.”

At the Seattle Butoh Festival, Mai will perform a debut piece entitled “Requiem of Flower,” about the life and death of a flower.

“The lifetime of a flower is short lived.

However, in a short period of several days, it is as eternal as the universe, expressing beauty in the moment,” he said.

Mai is interested in each minute stage of the flower’s development. “At the moment the flower blooms, it is the most beautiful and erotic time,” Mai said, “and then the pollen is diffused and dedicated to the whole universe, and again conceived for future descendants.”

Like all butoh practitioners, Mai seeks out the beauty in death. “After that the flower

has dedicated its beauty, it starts to die,” he said. “There is no regret at this moment.”

With this new work, Mai hopes to provide inspiration. “The theme of this piece is the law of universe, creation and destruction,” he said. “The concept of this work takes a form of poetic and dramatic expression, and conveys it from heart to heart while providing it to the audience as a means to cultivate image and creativity.”

This year, the Seattle Butoh Festival hopes to extend this outreach to a broader audience, through several new initiatives.

According to Joan Laage, performer and DAIPAN Production Manager and Marketing Coordinator, these initiatives include a gallery show at Shoreline Community College, workshops at the UW and the Taoist Studies Institute, and a special discount to encourage participation from the deaf community.

Presenting a festival this extensive can be challenging, but Laage reports that

collaboration is key. “Every year we of DAIPAN get better at dividing up tasks so we’re more effective and efficient,” she said.

“We used to try to meet more than once a month, but since we started Skype meetings a year or so ago, we now can easily meet every week.”

DAIPAN’s members have also reached out to the wider Seattle community. “We are still short several thousand dollars needed to fully fund the artist fees and lodging and per diem fees,” said Sheri Brown, who serves as DAIPAN’s Programs and Artistic Director, “but we are confident and hopeful that our Indigogo campaign will be supported by our wonderful butohsupporting community who will also fill our workshop slots and theater seats so that our festival will not only be rich artistically but also financially and energetically sustainable.”

This collaboration ensures wide variety artistically within the festival. “Daipan’s individual styles and to some extent personal philosophy varies quite a bit, but we’re all rooted in Butoh,” Laage said. “I’d say expect the unexpected. The audience will sense commonalities among the pieces, but also be aware of differences due to backgrounds, nationalities, influences.”

Brown agrees. “Despite the veracity of the saying, ‘If you have 12 butoh dancers in a room, you’ll have 13 definitions of butoh,’ there is an innate, interconnected personaluniversal truth to this miraculously simple and complex art form,” Brown said.

Laage therefore has her own focus in her work onstage, including in her new work “Stone Silence,” to be presented in the festival. “For me, the most important thing is vulnerability. The more empty and vulnerable I feel, the more impact I can have on the audience,” she said. “For me, it’s about questions and not answers, and offering performances which encourage (wordlessly) the audience to experience their own stories and feelings.”

Brown too has her own specific focus in her festival piece, entitled “Desideratum Transcendformeta.” “It is a new solo work utilizing my body’s voice in not only movement but also songs inspired by my upbringing as a Christian Scientist, informed by my recent study of the Kabbalah, and the last 17 years I have dedicated to the study of butoh dance,” she said.

Likewise, Mai believes that “Requiem of Flower” encapsulates the practice of butoh, as well as the truth of life. “I wish that the important things that cannot be expressed by words or story alone can be conveyed to the audience through body expression and expression of heart and feeling,” he said. “If you replace the life of immeasurable flowers with human life, you will be impressed by the existence of an important life’s essence.”

Seattle Butoh Festival runs from March 31 to April 9, at Shoreline Community College, 16101 Greenwood Avenue North, Seattle. For more information, visit www. daipanbutoh.com/seattle-butoh-festival.

Films: Sex and violence in The Prison and Cardinal X

By Yayoi L. Winfrey IE Contributor A prevalent theme in mainstream South Korean movies these days seems to be unbridled violence. It’s almost as if plot has become secondary to blood spattering.

In fact, amping up, the violence meter in the film The Prison proves that despite the movie’s high production value and stellar acting, it’s all about sawed off hands, plucked out eyeballs, and endless fisticuffs resulting in badly-bruised bodies.

Song Yu-gon (Kim Rae-won) is a cop gone wrong who is sentenced to the notorious Sung-An Prison where he’s sent plenty of criminals to in the past.

Now that the tables are turned, Yu-gon is unsure on which side of the metal bars he belongs. That is, until he meets Jung Ik-ho (Han Suk-Kyu), head honcho of a gang that seems to have unfathomably switched roles with the prison’s guards.

So, instead of being confined inmates, they are large and in charge; holding guards, and even the warden, hostage as they run the penitentiary however they please. Released under the dark of night, they even pursue criminal activities and return with wads of cash to pay off the officials; thus, keeping them psychologically captive through bribes.

Further, the prisoners have an iron-clad alibi; after all, they are jailed inmates so how could they have possibly be guilty of committing crimes?

Even though the slightly built Ik-ho outwardly possesses a calm demeanor, once he’s crossed he is unmatched in brutality. Just the opposite of Ik-ho, the more muscular Yu-gon flies off the handle at the drop of a hat. On his first day behind bars, he’s already spitting in fellow inmates’ faces, insulting them with curses, then savagely fighting until he’s tossed into solitary confinement.

But soon, Yu-gon ingratiates himself to Ik-ho by saving his life. Whether that was his intention all along is unclear.

What is clear is that Yu-gon’s life changes dramatically once he’s offered admittance into Ik-ho’s inner circle where a syndicate of hardened criminals live in luxury, gorging on gourmet meals by day while carrying out crimes by night.

Adding to his complicated relationship with Ik-ho, Yu-gon discovers that his journalist brother was murdered just as he was investigating the prison’s corruption.

Before long, Yu-gon is doing some dangerous investigating of his own.

Crammed with macho posturing and barbarous weapons, The Prison is not for the faint-hearted. But if bullying, bullets, broken bones and blood are your thing, you’re in for a treat.

However, if your preference is for sex over violence, then Cardinal X may be more to your liking. Based on her own true story, director Angie Wang brings to the screen a film that portrays an Asian

American woman who is clearly no one’s idea of a “model minority.”

Raised by a single father, Angie (Annie Q) has her college hopes dashed when she loses her scholarship due to financial issues. Stumped as to how a full-time student like her can raise money while in school, Angie hits the campus chemistry lab where she whips up a batch of Ecstasy, the preferred party drug of the 1980s. At first, Angie sells it to her classmates at boisterous bars and orgiastic gatherings, but soon her product is in high demand all over town. That’s when she starts spending more time in the lab than with her books.

Tossing back endless cocktails, snorting lines of coke, or jumping in and out of bed indiscriminately with men and women, bad girl Angie is strangely clear-headed about her life’s direction. When a “nice Chinese boy” in her class (Scott Keiji Takeda) brings her home to meet his family, she knows she’s not good enough for him and gently attempts to steer away his sincere affection.

Her white roommate, Jeanine (Francesca Eastwood), also yearns for a closer relationship with Angie. Taking her to her family’s suburban home during a holiday break, the blonde “all-American” Jeanine inadvertently reveals an eating disorder brought on by her harping mom. Much to her dismay, Angie learns that even middleclass, two-parent homes have their issues.

On the other hand, Angie’s own

motherless, urban background makes her a good candidate for mentoring a young black girl with a crackhead mother. While her charge, Bree (Aalyrah Caldwell), looks up to Angie, paradoxically, Angie doesn’t seem to connect the dots between her drug dealing hustle and Bree’s strung-out mother.

As the biggest supplier of Ecstasy on the West Coast, Angie soon encounters giant-sized obstacles when she bumps up against other dealers and intermediaries who want a cut of her burgeoning profits. As her business grows, so do her problems and, no matter how tough she talks, Angie is still just a college student.

Honest, raw, and at times overly sexualized, Cardinal X shatters stereotypes by bringing to the forefront the idea that Asian Americans who aren’t academic achievers actually exist. Still, it’s interesting to note that while an Asian-made film, The Prison, won’t likely create any controversy with its focus on violence-slinging Asian bad guys, a made-in-the-U.S. film like Cardinal X , will be perceived as shocking because its lead character is a sexually active Asian American female drug dealer.

‘The Prison,’ Korean with English subtitles, opened March 31 at AMC Loews Alderwood Mall 16, Century Federal Way and XD. Catch ‘Cardinal X’ at various film festivals with pending Northwest release.

10 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

Arts & Culture Asia Pacific Cultural Center 4851 So. Tacoma Way Tacoma, WA 98409 Ph: 253-383-3900 Fx: 253-292-1551 faalua@comcast.net www.asiapacificculturalcenter.org Bridging communities and generations through arts, culture, education and business.

Friends of Asian Art Association (FA3) P.O. Box 15404 Seattle, WA 98115 206-522-5438 friendsofasianart2@gmail.com www.friendsofasianart.org To advance understanding, appreciation and support for Asian arts and cultures, the Friends of Asian Art Association provides and supports programs, activities and materials that reflect the arts and cultures of countries that make up the broad and diverse spectrum of Asia.

Civil Rights & Advocacy Organization of Chinese Americans Asian Pacific American Advocates Greater Seattle Chapter P.O. Box 14141 Seattle, WA 98114

COMMUNITY RESOURCE DIRECTORY

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Homeownership Services

Professional & Leadership Development

HomeSight 5117 Rainier Ave S Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-723-4355 fx: 206-760-4210 www.homesightwa.org NMLS#49289 HomeSight creates homeownership opportunities through first mortgage lending, down payment assistance, real estate development, homebuyer education, and counseling.

Housing Services

Executive Development Institute 310 – 120th Ave NE. Suite A102 Bellevue, WA Ph: 425-467-9365 edi@ediorg.org • www.ediorg.org EDI offers culturally relevant leadership development programs.

WE MAKE LEADERS InterIm Community Development Association 310 Maynard Ave S, Seattle, WA 98104 Ph: 206-624-1802 Services: 601 S King St, Ph: 206-623-5132 Interimicda.org Multilingual community building: housing & parking, housing/asset counseling, projects, teen leadership and gardening programs.

Kawabe Memorial House 221 18th Ave S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-322-4550 connie.devaney@gmail.com We provide affordable, safe, culturally sensitive housing and support services to people aged 62 and older.

Fostering future leaders through education, networking and community NAAAP Seattle services for Asian American Queen Anne Station professionals and entreP.O. Box 19888 preneurs.

Seattle, WA 98109 Facebook: NAAAP-Seattle info@naaapseattle.org Twitter: twitter.com/naaapwww.naaapseattle.org seattle

Senior Services

www.ocaseattle.org

OCA—Greater Seattle Chapter was formed in 1995 and since that time it has been serving the Greater Seattle Chinese and Asian Pacific American community as well as other communities in the Pacific Northwest.

It is recognized in the local community for its advocacy of civil and voting rights as well as its sponsorship of community activities and events.

Education

Seattle Chinatown/International District Preservation and Development Authority ph: 206-624-8929 fx: 206-467-6376 info@scidpda.org Housing, property management and community development.

The Kin On Team is ready to serve YOU! www.kinon.org

Immigration Services

Senior Services Southeast Seattle Senior Center 4655 S. Holly St., Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-722-0317 fax: 206-722-2768 kateh@seniorservices.org www.sessc.org Daytime activities center providing activities social services, trips, and community for seniors and South Seattle neighbors. We have weaving, Tai Chi, indoor beach-ball, yoga, dance, senior-oriented computer classes, trips to the casino, and serve scratch cooked lunch. Open Monday through Friday, 8:30-4. Our thrift store next door is open Mon-Fri 10-2, Sat 10-4. This sweet center has services and fun for the health and well-being of boomers and beyond. Check us out on Facebook or our website.

Social & Health Services Asian Counseling & Referral Service 3639 Martin Luther King Jr. Way S Seattle, WA 98144 ph: 206-695-7600 fx: 206-695-7606 events@acrs.org www.acrs.org ACRS offers multilingual, behavioral health and social services to Asian Pacific Americans and other low-income people in King County.

APICAT 601 S King St. Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-682-1668 www.apicat.org Addressing tobacco, marijuana prevention and control and other health disparities in a culturally and linguistically appropriate manner.

Commission on Asian Pacific American Affairs GA Bldg., 210 11th Ave SW, Suite 301A Olympia, WA 98504 ph: (360) 725-5667 www.facebook.com/wacapaa capaa@capaa.wa.gov www.capaa.wa.gov Statewide liaison between government and APA communities. Monitors and informs the public about legislative issues.

Denise Louie Education Center 206-767-8223 info@deniselouie.org www.deniselouie.org

Offering home visiting services for children birth to 3 and full & part-day multicultural preschool education for ages 3 to 5 in the International District, Beacon Hill and Rainier Beach.

Grammar Captive 409B Maynard Ave. South Seattle, WA 98104 206-291-8468 tutor@grammarcaptive.com www.grammarcaptive.com Speak better. Write better. Live better. Improve your English language skills with a professional language consultant at a price you can afford. Learn to write effective business and government correspondence.

Improve your reading, conversation, academic writing, and IT skills.

Washington New Americans Program OneAmerica 1225 S. Weller St., Suite 430 Seattle, WA 98144 Are you a lawful permanent resident? The Washington New Americans program can help you complete your application for U.S. citizenship. Low-cost and free services available – please call our hotline or visit www.wanewamericans.org.

Phone: 1-877-926-3924 Email: wna@weareoneamerica.org Website: www.wanewamericans.org Keiro Northwest 1601 E Yesler Way, Seattle, WA 98122 ph: 206-323-7100 www.keironorthwest.org rehabilitation care | skilled nursing | assisted living | home care | senior day care | meal delivery | transportation | continuing education | catering services

Homelessness Services YouthCare 2500 NE 54th Street Seattle, WA 98105 206-694-4500 info@youthcare.org www.youthcare.org

Working to prevent and end youth homelessness with services including meals, shelter, housing, job training, education, and more.

Cathay Post #186 of The American Legion Supporting veterans for over 70 years Accepting new members—contact us today to learn more! (206) 355-4422 P.O. Box 3281 Seattle, WA 98144-3281 cathaypost@hotmail.com

Visit iexaminer.org for daily updates, exclusive online content!

Legacy House

803 South Lane Street Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-292-5184 fx: 206-838-3057 info@legacyhouse.org www.scidpda.org/programs/legacyhouse. aspx Services offered: Assisted Living, Adult Day Services, meal programs for low-income seniors.

Chinese Information & Service Center 611 S Lane St, Seattle, WA 98104 ph: 206-624-5633 fax: 206-624-5634 info@cisc-seattle.org www.cisc-seattle.org Creating opportunities for Asian immigrants and their families to succeed by helping them make the transition to a new life while keeping later generations in touch with their rich heritage.

Want to join the Community Resource Directory?

Contact lexi@iexaminer.org

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Social & Health Services

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Since 1935

Tai Tung Restaurant International District Medical & Dental Clinic 720 8th Avenue S, Seattle, WA 98114 ph: 206-788-3700 email: info@ichs.com website: www.ichs.com

Banquet Facilities - Catering - Delivery

Bellevue Medical & Dental Clinic 1050 140th Avenue NE, Bellevue, WA 98005 ph: 425-373-3000 Shoreline Medical & Dental Clinic 16549 Aurora Avenue N, Shoreline, WA 98133 ph: 206-533-2600 Holly Park Medical & Dental Clinic 3815 S Othello St, Seattle, WA 98118 ph: 206-788-3500 ICHS is a non-profit medical and dental center that provides health care to low income Asian, Pacific Islanders, immigrants and refugees in Washington State.

7301 Beacon Ave S Seattle, WA 98108 ph: 206-587-3735 fax: 206-748-0282 www.idicseniorcenter.org info@idicseniorcenter.org IDIC is a nonprofit human services organization that offers wellness and social service programs to Filipinos and API communities.

Parking & Transportation Services 206-624-3426 transia@aol.com Merchants Parking provides convenient and affordable community parking. Transia provides community transportation: para-transportation services, shuttle services, and field trips in and out of Chinatown/International District, and King County.

Come Enjoy the Oldest Chinese Restaurant in Town!

655 S King St, Seattle, WA 98104 (206) 622-7372 Mon-Thurs 11am-10:30pm Fri-Sat 11am-12am Sun 11am-10pm

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Answers to this puzzle are on Wednesday, April 5.

April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017 — 11

12 — April 5, 2017 – April 18, 2017

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IE ARTS

Blood Song: Michael Schmeltzer Celebrating Poetry, reveals lovely, disturbing truths Celebrating Yourself

By Betsy Aoki IE Contributor Blood Song by West Seattle poet Michael Schmeltzer is a compelling debut book of poetry that explores grief, memory, and sound. The kind of language and technique readers find delicious in their favorite novels of suspense is continually at work here in Schmeltzer’s poems–lovely and disturbing truths under the surface detail, the mysteries in the body of a dying parent, echoes inside a landscape’s secrets and a girl separated from her tongue. From the poem “Elegy/ Elk River” the 38-year-old Schmeltzer writes: “It’s a kindness, sure, but beware of the kind/ of violence only found in lures.”

I caught up with the poet in a West Seattle coffee shop, taking a break from watching his two young daughters, and got him to answer some questions about his daily life and his work.

Betsy Aoki: What was going on in your life at the time of writing Blood Song?

Michael Schmeltzer: The book was written over a decade and several poems date back even further than that so I suppose what wasn’t happening may be easier to answer!

Michael Schmeltzer 9/11 happened during the time a few of the poems were written (which is also my birthday), I married, we welcomed two daughters, some horrible personal choices were made, some better ones were also made. The sacred ordinary of everyday happened and some of it made it into the book.

BA: Did having kids change your writing?

MS: Having children changed me profoundly. It has given me anxieties and levels of joy I thought unimaginable. I am wildly, foolishly in love with them. And I think all the fears and hopes I have for them creates a lens in which I write through now.

My notion of time is different. My ideas on loss are different. In turn, how much happiness I manifest is different, too. It isn’t that the things I write about changed drastically per se, but I feel as though I’ve been given access to them in a way I hadn’t known before. Not everyone needs children, of course, but the arc of my life dramatically changed with their arrival, and nothing else feels quite as holy as they do to me.

BA: Is there a story behind the title “Blood Song”?

MS: Blood, of course, is family. Being biracial, blood and half-blood, these things swirled in me all the time. As for the song part, my father was in the Navy, my mother was a stay-at-home parent. My brother has his PhD in chemistry. And then there’s me, the lone creative. But music—that was one thing we all had. My dad use to play a variety of music in the house: Dylan, The Doors, The Beatles, Air Supply, Meatloaf.

My brother introduced me to Public Enemy, Boogie Down Productions, the Beastie

Boys. My mother would listen to enka.

I grew up listening to all this (and started listening to the Cure, Depeche Mode, Tori Amos, Sarah McLachlan.) Besides some classic books, music was the creative thing we had most in common. There was always song.

BA: Do you write to music? What kind?

MS: I write to music with lyrics and edit to music without. Composers like Dustin O’Halloran and Dario Marianelli evoke such emotion but rhythmically offer little interference when I’m tinkering closely with a piece so it’s perfect for revision. Otherwise I’m listening to anything that puts me in a mood, in a mind of musicality. Whether that comes from pop music or acoustic folk, it just depends on where I’m at mentally and emotionally at the time of the writing.

BA: Favorite writers? Anyone you are reading now?

MS: Chen Chen. I am telling everyone about this book, When I Grow Up I Want to Be a List of Further Possibilities. Other favorite poets include Li-Young Lee and Louise Gluck.

BA: Favorite comfort food (or beverage) while writing?

MS: I seriously cherish my Maxwell House International Café Vienna beverage mix. It’s borderline laughable but I honestly cannot get enough of that stuff while I write.

BA: How does your ethnicity inform (or not) the things that you write?

MS: My poetry has remained fairly neutral in the ways I express my ethnicity or experiences. My nonfiction tends to approach it more directly. (Schmeltzer has co-authored a nonfiction book called A Single Throat Opens which will be published this summer by Black Lawrence Press.). Being biracial, being born in Japan yet on a Navy Base, being a father and a son, I often feel of two worlds but fully immersed in neither one. This gives way to various tensions I try to reconcile. However, as I grow older I think maybe I’m not about reconciling the two sides so much as laying roots in the between, sustaining myself with either side as needed.

BA: What advice do you have for people who want to start writing poetry?

MS: First and foremost: read. Read widely and diversely. The world of poetry is so much more cosmic and epic than most people probably imagine. If you feel isolated (because of any part of your identity or experience). I can guarantee you there is someone out there who is writing words just for you. You have a community just waiting to embrace you. Be part of it. Next: reach out to those you admire. Listen to their words.

Read their words. Get involved in whatever way you feel comfortable. Then write your own poems however way you want.

As part of National Poetry Month, Schmeltzer will be reading April 20, 7 p.m. with other Two Sylvias Press poets at SoulFood Coffee House, 15748 Redmond Way, Redmond, Washington.

April is National Poetry Month and we’re celebrating with reviews of recent poetry books and above all, a focus on local poets—our own truth tellers of the word in the next two issues.

When I think of what poetry means and what poetry can do in our day to day ordinary lives, I think of what one of greatest American writers, James Baldwin, had to say about one of America’s greatest poets, Emily Dickinson, in an interview in the Paris Review and why he liked her work. “Her use of language. Her solitude, as well, and the style of that solitude. There is something very moving and in the best sense funny.”

And here’s what local Seattle poet and law student Troy Osaki had to say about poetry in a recent profile in The Stranger. “I focus on race and social justice in Troy Osaki my writing because I believe poetry has the ability to shift dominant culture and to change people’s hearts and minds. I think this is important because I believe legal solutions (laws and policies) are limited and can’t transform our brutal system alone. However, poetry can help build community power—and I believe community power is what it will take to achieve social change.”

I’m sure we all have our own reasons for embracing poetry in our lives. Find your own and celebrate.

“I celebrate myself, and sing myself, And what I assume you shall assume, For every atom belonging to me as good belongs to you” (From Walt Whitman’s ‘I Celebrate Myself’) —Alan Chong Lau, IE Arts Editor