Stan Shikuma
A call to respect the humanity of those detained at the Northwest Detention Center
On February 1, 85 people detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at the Northwest Detention Center (NWDC) in Tacoma, WA, launched a Hunger Strike to protest unbearable living conditions. Almost immediately, guards from...
Kaoru Watanabe’s taiko composition in “Isle of Dogs” movie takes center stage
Kaoru Watanabe is a Brooklyn-based composer and musician, specializing in the Japanese taiko drum and shinobue flutes. He has spent decades artfully blending the sounds of Japanese instruments with those from around the world,...
On Ensemble: Taiko and Beyond
On Ensemble (OE) is not your typical taiko group. And the music they create is not your typical taiko repertoire. In fact, what they play and how they perform transforms the venerable Japanese drum...
Taiko Boom: Japanese Drumming in Place and Motion
Anyone who has seen, heard or felt the boom of the taiko — the large festival drums of Japan — knows the power, beauty and visceral vibrations they produce. Those who have seen a...
‘The cry of sugar workers’
Negros Island, the Philippines, a land of stark contrasts. Many of the wealthiest of that country’s land-owning elite live next to the poorest of the million of working poor. Starvation haunts the homes of...
‘I feel today that justice has been served’
On February 10, U.S. District Judge Donald Voorhees ruled that Gordon Hirabayashi’s World War II conviction for defying a military exclusion order must be reversed due to governmental misconduct and suppression of evidence in hearings before the Supreme Court. In reaching his decision, Judge Voorhees rejected the government’s argument of “military necessity” in the case.