Tamiko Nimura

As a reader and a parent, I’m especially happy to see so many Asian and Asian American illustrators for kids’ books. It’s refreshing to see more nuanced and realistic ways of visually representing kids...

Even for people steeped in camp history, even for a region as rich in Japanese American history as the Pacific Northwest, the Washington State History Museum exhibit of Issei artist Takuichi Fujii’s work “Witness to Wartime” is a treasure. The exhibit provides a variety of new and moving vistas on both Japanese American art and history in Seattle and Minidoka. Curated by Seattle art historian Barbara Johns and designed by History Museum Director of Audience Engagement MaryMikel Stump, “Witness to Wartime: Witness to Wartime: Rare Issei Portraits of Seattle, Puyallup, Minidoka is a beautiful example of art treated as history, and history treated as art. Many of the works are on view to the public for the first time, and this is the exhibit’s first stop on a nationwide tour—it is not to be missed

The Hope of Another Spring is the story of a collection of artworks and artifacts, rarely seen outside the artist’s family—until now. It includes many annotated and translated selections from “MINIDOKA XX,” Fujita’s diary. (According to an end note, publication of the complete diary is also in the works with a different press.) It’s a carefully pieced-together biography of this artist by art historian Barbara Johns, as well as an artist statement. A highly readable series of studies, also by Johns, placing the artist’s career in context with his wartime incarceration and his place in American modernist art history of the Pacific Northwest. And it’s an offering of full color reproductions of Fujii’s watercolor paintings, demonstrating Fujii’s views of Seattle as well as of camp

After the editing rooms, outside the theaters—even off-screen—what does a filmmaker’s work look like? Masahiro Sugano’s show, 'Perpetual Irrelevance,' is a vivid attempt to answer that question. It’s on display now at Feast Arts Center in Tacoma. Curated by Sugano’s artistic collaborator and partner Anida Yoeu Ali, the show highlights the immense tactile labor behind Sugano’s filmmaking endeavors—without using a single electronic screen.

In our time of artistic and political resistance, Fred Korematsu Speaks Up by Laura Atkins and Stan Yogi, with illustrations by Yutaka Houlette, is a rare gift for young readers and parents of young...

At the Washington State History Museum in Tacoma, Filled With Grace: Japanese Americans in the South Sound opened on February 4 with a vibrant symposium open to the public. There were Japanese cultural celebrations...

Seven months after retiring from the Seattle Public Library, Chris Higashi is still getting mail there. “Two cards just came in,” she says over coffee at Amandine in Capitol Hill. People are still sending her...

If your young reader wants to experience the wonder of a first snow, explore lands beyond oceans, meet other avid readers, see “The Little Mermaid” anew, or simply tuck their favorite animals into bed,...

On November 17, over 100 people were milling through the recently opened Spaceworks Gallery in downtown Tacoma. Considering Tacoma’s vibrant arts scene, this might not be an especially surprising sight. But this event felt...

With a great deal of laughter and a few tears, more than 200 people gathered at Seattle’s Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church on August 27. They came to help the Nikkei community celebrate three...