Passing it On: Celebrating the Life of Yuri Kochiyama (A Commemoration)

PASSING IT ON: A CELEBRATION OF THE LIFE OF YURI KOCHIYAMA

When:
Saturday, August 2nd, 2014 @ 4:30-9:00 pm

Where:
San Jose, St. Paul's Methodist
405 S. 10th, San Jose, CA 95112

***This program will be taking donations and charging admission at the door to cover the costs***
(No One Turned Away for Lack of Funds)


A legend among us has passed on to the ancestors, it is now time that we celebrate the time we had with her.

Dinner, Vendors, Film, Entertainment, Commemoration

Short Film Honoring - "Yuri Kochiyama: In Her Own Words"
Performance of "Yuri Kochiyama" by MC Geologic of the Blue Scholars

EMCEE: Carlos Padilla of the SEIU Hosting...

Hear from those who knew and loved her, speakers include:

Ilyasah Shabazz - Daughter of Malcolm X

Dhoruba al-Mujahid bin Wahad - Former BPP/BLA Political Prisoner

Gloria La Riva - Director of the National Committee to Free the Cuban Five

Abdel Malik Ali - Muslim Activist, and Muslim Youth Imam

Gerald Smith - Former BPP, Labor Action to Committee to Free Mumia Abu Jamal

Raul "Curly" Estremera - Former Political Prisoner and Prisoner of War, Young Lords Organization, and the Black Liberation Army

Sharat Lin - Former President of the San Jose Peace & Justice Center

Pastor Goti of St. Paul's Methodist Church

Open Mic & More...


With Statements and Messages from*:

Akemi Kochiyama-Sardinha - Granddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama

Attallah Shabazz - The Daughter of Malcolm X

Herman Ferguson & The Malcolm X Commemoration Committee - Co-founder of the Malcolm X Commemoration Committee with Yuri Kochiyama

Russell "Maroon" Shoatz - BPP/BLA Political Prisoner

Jalil Muntaqim - BPP/BLA Political Prisoner

And also a Special Message from behind the walls by Mumia Abu-Jamal...

* Asterisk above indicates these will likely be recorded messages, readings or call ins.


For interest in Participation, Donation, Contribution or Vending/Tabling Contact:

E-mail - sjyurikochiyamalifecelebration[at]gmail.com
Phone - 408-830-4186


DATE: Saturday, 8/2/2014
TIME: Doors - 4:30 pm Program till 9:00 pm
COST: Donations - $10 (door), $5 (dinner), $25 (Special Rate for Multiple "Passing It On Events")
LOCATION: St. Paul's Methodist Church
405 S. 10th, San Jose, CA 95112

For More Info:
Phone - 408-791-7471 or 408-830-4186
Email - sjyurikochiyamalifecelebration [at] gmail.com


RELATED PROGRAMMING:

In Commemoration of Black August & In Honor of Yuri Kochiyama a Three City Mini Tour of Speakers..

COMMUNITY PANELS & DISCUSSIONS ON
Black August, The Legacy of Malcolm X
Organizing, Resistance and COINTELPRO

JOIN PANEL & COMMUNITY DISCUSSION WITH

Ilyasah Shabazz
The Daughter of Malcolm X, she is a Trustee of the Malcolm X & Dr. Betty Shabazz Memorial, Educational, and Cultural Center in NYC, and the author of “Growing Up X” (2002) and “Malcolm Little: The Boy Who Grew Up to be Malcolm X” (2014)

Dhoruba bin Wahad
Former Field Secretary of the NY Black Panther Party, Co-Founder Black Liberation Army, Former Political Prisoner and Prisoner of War, author of "Still Black, Still Strong" (1993), subject of the documentary film "Passin' It On" (2001) and the book "The Savage City: Race, Murder, and a Generation on the Edge" (2011) by T.J. English

Ernesto Vigil
Former Vice Chairman of the Crusade for Justice under Rodolfo "Corky" Gonzales, author of "The Crusade For Justice: Chicano Militancy and the Government's War on Dissent" (1999), featured in the documentaries: "Chicano! The History of the Mexican American Civil Rights Movement" (1996), "Ruben Salazar: Man in the Middle" (2014)

LOCATION & TIMES:

Passing it On (Part One): Generation to Generation - Oakland (Friday, 8-1-2014)
Os Qilombo
2313 San Pablo Ave., Oakland - 6-9 pm (Food, Discussion, Hip Hop/Spoken Word)
Info: 510-338-7933 or info[at]qilombo.org


Passing it On (Part Two): Justice For All - San Jose (Saturday, 8-2-2014)
African American Community Service Agency
304 N. 6th Street, San Jose - Noon to 4pm (Lunch and Discussion, doors @ 11)
Info; 925-699-7636 or sjblackaugust[at]gmail.com

Passing it On (Part Three): Community in Resistance - San Francisco (Sunday, 8-3-2014)
2969 Mission Ave & 26th, San Francisco - 4-7 pm (Food & Discussion)
Info: 415-821-6545


Mumia on Yuri:
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Who Was Yuri Nakahara Kochiyama?

"Her name was Yuri, a Japanese woman born in the United States. I hesitate to call her a Japanese-American, for to do so suggests she was a citizen. In light of how she, her family and her community were treated during World War II, especially after the bombing of Pearl Harbor in 1941, to call any of them citizens would be an exaggeration.

Yuri was barely 20 when she, her parents, her brothers and the Japanese living on the West Coast — some 110,000 children, women and men — were forced to leave their homes, their schools, their jobs and businesses, and were transported to concentration camps in the nation’s interior. Two-thirds of these people (like Yuri) were born in the U.S., and thus American citizens according to the Constitution.

This meant nothing. They were Japanese — that was enough.

She remembered her experiences in those camps as a naïve “banana” (yellow on the outside, white on the inside). She recounted to oral historians: “I was red, white and blue when I was growing up. I taught Sunday school, and was very, very American. But I was also provincial. We were just kids rooting for our high school. Everything changed for me on the day Pearl Harbor was bombed. On that very day, December 7th, the FBI came and took my father. He had just come home from the hospital the day before. For several days we didn’t know where they had taken him. Then we found out that he was taken to the federal prison at Terminal Island. Overnight, things changed for us.”

In December, 1944, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that “military necessity” was the basis of the mass evacuation and detention of tens of thousands in the Korematsu case.

Yuri would later become a strong supporter of Malcolm X and the Black Freedom Movement. She joined and worked in various liberation organizations and grew to become an icon of the Black freedom and Asian-American rights movements.

Born Yuri Nakahara on May 19, 1921 (4 years to the date before Malcolm was born), she married Bill Kochiyama. The Kochiyama's moved to Harlem in 1960, where they worked for the Civil Rights movement, in education and fair housing practices.

Yuri Kochiyama, freedom fighter, after 93 summers, has become an ancestor."

- Mumia Abu-Jamal