Feb 29 event: Voices from the Heart: Okinawa - People's resistance for life & 3 Exhibitions of March
Sally Jones
Light is coming in little by little during the difficult days, and Spring is coming soon.
On January 29, I was listening to People's voices who had worked for decades to eliminate nuclear weapons at the City Hall in New York. Through their voices, I was feeling voices from many people's hearts who were not here, including those who died. On that day, New York City moved one step towards to divesting from nuclear weapons.
The Manhattan Project, the development of the atomic bomb, began in New York city. There are sites related to nuclear history near my residence area. Last year, I worked on a project using the history of Manhattan Project to raise awareness of our current environmental issues, with teens at the Manhattanville community center.
2020 is the 75th year Anniversary of the atomic bomb’s first use in the United States and Japan. I was looking for places to hold related its events and met Father Frank Morales from my neighborhood church last year. In collaboration with Father Frank and friends, it will hold a series of events titled"Voices from the Heart."to connect individuals and communities to learn from the past and present, and to explore the next step for actions to achieve a sustainable world while listening to the voices from the hearts gathered there.
The first event is Okinawa, where one-quarter of the islanders' lives were lost in World War II and 74 percent of U.S. military bases in Japan are concentrated.
Soul-searching session with music, art, food, chat and fun.
The session focuses on the legacy of non-violent farmers’ resistance in Iejima, Okinawa. After the bloody battle of Okinawa, while residents were isolated in concentration camps, the U. S. military seized their land to construct a series of bases in Okinawa, but that was just the beginning. In the 1950s, in the midst of the Cold War, more bases were constructed in the “Bayonets and Bulldozers” campaign, in which dispatched U.S. soldiers destroyed houses and flattened fields to forcibly remove farmers. In Iejima, Shoko Ahagon with his fellow farmers organized a nonviolent and soulful resistance movement against U.S. authorities, who kept training to drop mock nuclear bombs at the Iejima Airfield. “Nuchi du Takara (Life is a treasure),” the spirit of Ahagon, is still vividly alive in the people’s current struggle in Okinawa against the construction of a new U.S. base at Henoko/Oura Bay. With music, art, food and fun, we would like to think together about how we could find resilient ways to fight against global militarism and injustice locally and globally.
Series 2: March 28, Saturday 4-6pm
Peace Tour: the Manhattan Project historical sites
Series 3: April 23, Thursday TBD
Peace Walk Report: The US Nuclear Contamination Sites
Series 4: April 24, Friday TBD
Nuclear Colonialism: Indigenous people speak up for earth
I am also participate 3 group exhibitions this March. I has been feeling that art, education, and activism are integrated into as one expression in my heart. It’s like a promise I made with myself in the past. I will be at artist talk of 3 exhibitions and talk about voice from my heart. Hope to see you some of these events or near future.
Yasuyo
“10th Anti-Nuke Power Art”
March 2 - 28
West Orange Public Library
46 Mount Pleasant Avenue, West Orange NJ 07052
Reception /Artist Talk Saturday, March 21, 3-4:30pm
“Pressed Narrative Printmaking”
March 5 - 30
Studio13 Gallery at BxArts Factory
240 153rd st. Bronx NY 10451
Opening: Thursday March 5, 6-8:pm
Panel/Art Talk: Thursday, March 19, 6-8 pm
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1E3R4J9Pb0yHmKpZvBSTX6RSfIJXP-iQd/view?usp=drive_web