On Saturday, November 15, 2003, Japanese Americans, Mexican Americans and American Muslims from throughout Los Angeles gathered at Senshin Buddhist Temple to mark the 3rd annual “Breaking the Fast” and celebrate the Islamic tradition of Ramadan. Organized by Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress (NCRR) and Muslim Public Affairs Council (MPAC), in collaboration with Great Leap.
Beginning in September 2003, Founder/Artistic Director Nobuko Miyamoto poet/musician Ruben Funkhuatl Guevara, led weekly writing and performance workshops at the Temple. The workshops were free and open to the public, and were part of Great Leap’s year-long community residency project, “To All Relations: Sacred Moon Songs.” Each week, Nobuko and Ruben, respectively, led the group through movement exercises designed to awaken the creative spirit and writing exercises that focused on the project’s central theme of relocation, deportation and expatriation. They were assisted by Najeeba Syeed-Miller and Jo Anna Mixpe Ley, who had also served on the project’s planning committee.
The workshops were part art-making, part teach-ins, as participants learned about the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII, the deportation of one million Mexican Americans during the Great Depression and the detainment of hundreds of American Muslims in the aftermath of 9/11. Community participants Victoria Bernal, Nona Chiang, Nader Elmakawi, Mari Hashimoto, Tomomi Kanemaru, Vincent Kobelt, Hiroshi Murakawa, Joseph Pimentel and Ariel Robello each created several pieces of inspiring prose and poetry. Emulating the phases of the moon, performers rotated one by one to the front to share their experiences with relocation, deportation and expatriation.
In addition to the work-in-progress showing of “To All Relations: Sacred Moon Songs,” the November 15th program at Senshin included speakers Reverend Masao Kodani of Senshin and Salam Al-Marayati and Sireen Sawaf of MPAC. During a delicious potluck dinner, Kevin Higa and friends performed a 9/11 Bell Piece while Najeeba read a powerful poem urging us all to “Choose Life.” Afterwards, in the Courtyard, people had the opportunity to light candles of remembrance and join together in a big circle for the Native American Friendship Dance, with lyrics by Nobuko, who was accompanied by six singers who chanted messages of love and peace in English, Japanese and Arabic.
What an amazing sight to witness 250 Asian American, African American, Latino, White and Native American people, many of whom are practicing Muslims, standing in one large circle at a Buddhist Temple. As musicians Kevin Higa, Derek Nakamoto and Danny Yamamoto playing softly in the background, the crowd slowly moved together in unison. As the program drew to a close and many Muslims headed off to their mosques for evening prayer, a light rain began to fall… an enchanting end to an enchanting evening.
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Updated: 4/22/04
