Imperialism ED

Hi TADAImites,

TADAIMA wants to invite all of YOU and our Sahngnoksoo allies to join us for an

Educational Discussion on Japanese Imperialism.

WHEN? Tuesday, June 24th @ 6:30pm

WHERE? The Station@Othello

What is the legacy of colonialism that Japanese and Japanese Americans carry with them today? Identifying with 2 colonial nations (Japan and the US), how does this effect our work? our allyship? What is our responsibility and where do we want to put our energy as a part of addressing these important points?

Hope to see you there!

Film chat and discussion

This Sunday- November 3rd from 1-3:30pm at SYPP (http://sypp.org/).

We are going to host our bud and talk about our visit to the village of Takae, Okinawa. Come and snack, chat, and create some community art with us as we show the Takae protesters that we have love and support for their struggle here in Seattle.

Space is limited so RSVP via email, tweet or facebooks

R.O.F.L. (Reclaiming Our F@#$%@g Language) is back!!

Hey Rad Nikkei,

Your favvy folx are getting back together for our bi-weekly ROFL conversations. Bring yourself, your dictionaries, and share your best stories in Nihongo with us.

ROFL starts the first Monday in October and will continue as long as we have capacity. Questions? Email or tweet at us.

❤

Tadaima Seattle

Tadaima Report Back from our OKAERI trip to Japan! Friday July 12 @ 6:30pm

We’d like to invite you to the one-year anniversary party of Tadaima’s OKAERI trip to our rootlands. We’ll be releasing our zine and doing a report back from our trip to connect with social justice movements in Japan and Okinawa. We’re excited to share with you about our trip, the work being done in Okinawa and Japan and our personal reflections on the impact of this journey.

Please join us on Friday July 12th at 6:30pm at the Jackson Place Cohousing Common House (820 Hiawatha Place South, off of Dearborn between Hiawatha and 17th). There will be snacks provided.

More information about our trip is here: https://tadaimaseattle.wordpress.com/okaeri/

ACCESSIBILITY INFORMATION:
Jackson Place Cohousing is located at 820 Hiawatha Place South, near Dearborn and Rainier in Seattle’s International District. Metro’s #7 (closest, 1 short block and a half) and #60 bus drops a long block (with a hill) and a half away, #14 six blocks away. There’s a small, accessible parking/drop-off area off of Dearborn on between Hiawatha that’s on level ground. From the drop-off area there are no stairs to enter the space.

Coming from the street, the Common House is accessible without stairs by elevator (look for signs, its a purple door about 15 feet up dearborn from the corner of dearborn and hiawatha. Unfortunately, its behind a locked door, and we’ll have someone waiting there from about 10 minutes before the event until 10 minutes after its scheduled to start. If you need to use the elevator afterwards, please call the number on the elevator signs). Its also accessible without stairs by ascending (or descending depending which way you’re coming from) a short, but very steep, half block sidewalk on Dearborn and entering through the parking lot on the north-east side of the community.

We request that participants refrain from wearing perfumes or other scented products to reduce exposure to our valued community members with environmental and chemical illnesses. Please feel free to get in touch with questions about accessibility or to let us know how we can help make this day of workshops welcoming for you by emailing seattletadaima@gmail.com.

If you have any questions or concerns, please email us at seattletadaima@gmail.com

In Solidarity,
Tadaima Seattle

FEB 24th ED on the role of Asian Americans in the Racial Justice Movement

Just what IS the role of Asian Americans in the Racial Justice Movement? This question is posed by Changelab in their publication, “Left or Right of the Color Line: Asian Americans in the Racial Justice Movement” and will be the topic of our next Educational Discussion.

What role do we as Japanese Americans play currently (both in “Asian America” as well as in the racial justice movent) and how does this play out in our organizing? Knowing that the JA community is typically economically privileged in the US, what does being Japanese American or being Asian American, or even being a person of color mean for our communities and where can we strategize in making the biggest impact? Let’s talk about it!!

Here’s the powerpoint: LorRofcolorlineTADAIMAed

TADAIMA invites friends and members (past and present) to attend our February 24th Education Discussion on this topic 5:30pm- at SJF offices

Social Justice Fund NW
1904 Third Ave., Suite 806
Seattle, WA 98101

Wheelchair accessible. Contact us for more details.

Entry after 5:30pm:
1913 Fourth Ave
Dial #0806 on the call box

Questions? Email seattle.tadaima@gmail.com <3<3

OKAERI update (Okinawa has been good to the Tadaima crew)

We are departing Okinawa tomorrow as we finish the first leg of our OKAERI project. And none of us want to go.

It’s been amazing to watch Okinawa citizens and allies from all over the islands sit in protests for any number of YEARS- yes, YEARS! The folx who oppose the Helipads and the base expansion at Henoko have been working to protect their seas for over 15 years. Similarly, the folks in Takae (which is a town comprised of 150 people) takes turns guarding base blockades in 24 hour shifts everyDAY for 5 years… And just like we saw at the Genpatsu Hantai rallies- the Japanese govt and Power Companies (obviously in conjunction with U.S. interests) are bullying the people of the provinces to support big business and cities…

Despite dire circumstances, we have been met with only kindness and love from organizers and activists. We are forever grateful for the connections we have made.

Expect some history, inspiration, beautiful views and pictures of our sunburns.

love from the rooftops of Okinawa,

OKAERI peeps

Japannewbie post!

Japannewbie post!

Hello Tadaima fam- sorry to have kept you waiting for a new post- we are excitedly getting ready for our OKAERI trip (a few of us have already made us to the Rootland)! Still would love to meet with any and all of our nihonjin organizer buddies particular in our 4 key interest areas: Equity, Allyship, Transformative Justice, and International Solidarity. If you have contacts please forward to seattle.tadaima@gmail.com

In the mean time, check out this post from a blogger in the JPN. He gives a short translation to a Japanese animated short regarding the Fukushima disaster. Explaining the Nuclear disaster in poop and farts- which really, is a language we all understand, ne?

 Check this link from the NYTimes regarding some of the activism regarding Genpatsu Hantai (opposition) in Japan http://www.nytimes.com/2012/06/30/world/asia/thousands-in-tokyo-protest-the-restarting-of-a-nuclear-plant.html

One month and counting!

Hey folx!

Here we are, one month away from our OKAERI pilot project trip. We have finalized our schedule and are making contact with various individual activists and orgs. Our official itinerary includes Naha, Takae, and Ginowan (Okinawa); Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Hiroshima. We raised a huge amount of money for this trip via friends, family, and community and cannot thank you enough. (However) If you still want to make a donation, please check out our OKAERI page for info on our chipin!

 

If you all know of amazing activist people, places or orgs we should see while we are there then let us know!

Love and healing

Tadaima

 

Movie magic

We have been diligently working on filming our Tadaima/OKAERI outreach video for all our activist friends in Japan (and you too if you want to catch us). Be ready for some talk-story, some activism, and, of course, karaoke.

This month’s amazing ED will be on our personal narratives and identity development as Nikkei folks.

Also: make sure that ya’ll are gittin ready and saving some money because we still have one fabulous Tadaima fundraiser before we leave for the Rootlands!

xo ~Tadaima

People love their curry

I think Domo-kun (below) captures the faces of Tadaima members when we saw how successful the cafe was… thank you so much, community. From the bottom of our hearts, we are humbled and amazed by your generosity and presence. Much to our surprise and delight, both reservation blocks were completely full — with folks having to wait for a seat at times. We served traditional Japanese golden curry, a yellow thai curry, lentil and kale winter soup (brought by our amazing SNS ally, Seayoung), and a tsuyu soup with gyoza — all available with kuma (bear)-shaped rice! Not to mention chambucha, fresh-made mochi and sorbet/ice cream.

Our Secret Curry Cafe raised close to $1300, which made up almost HALF of our fundraising goal. We are so truly thankful.

We appreciate your support in ways that cannot be said on a mere blog. A special shout out to our fantastic and well-loved allies, Mijo (from Sahngnoksoo) and Cabug (Arts Kultura) for helping us with fundraising. Also thanks to YJV, Stacy, Dan, Jen, Ammara, Brian, Lolo, Leo, Caylo, and the mountain of others who volunteered to host/serve/and support. We tip our hats to you.

For March, Tadaima is going to focus on OKAERI planning and expanding our membership base. So, basically,  it’s a good time to tell everyone you know to join.

In solidarity and humility, your loving fans,

the Tadaima fam

P.S.  Another BIG thanks to the Nikkei far and wide who friend, like, or follow us — welcome to the Tadaima community!