to peer through veils: Panel Discussion

A live panel discussion on to peer through veils (2021) with director/choreographer Marissa Osato and composer Sara Sithi-Amnuai. Moderated by Scott Oshima.

to peer through veils
Screening: June 1–30

So, how could I see clearly now, I who must use thick spectacles for near-sightedness, who am trying to peer through three veils, white, yellow, and black?
—Hisaye Yamamoto, “Small Talk.” Los Angeles Tribune, Dec. 28, 1946.

This new site-specific dance film is an internal awakening to the shadows of history on the JACCC Plaza—specifically, the history of WWII-era Bronzeville.

In 1942, Executive Order 9066 forced over 120,000 Japanese Americans into incarceration camps. Nearly 80,000 Black migrants transformed the vacated Little Tokyo into a center for Black business, culture, and jazz. As WWII ended, the hopes for a Black and Japanese American “Little Bronze Tokyo” were never realized. Bronzeville presents a shared experience of structural racism and the potential power of solidarity between Black and Japanese American communities in Los Angeles.

to peer through veils investigates experiences of isolation and invisibility, shedding and assimilation, displacement and reclamation. Reckoning with the echoes of ancestral and societal history, how do we individually and collectively move forward?