“The Poet and the Silk Girl” Book Talk with Satsuki Ina

Saturday, November 9, 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm

Presented in partnership with the Buddhist Church of Sacramento and Florin-SV JACL, with refreshments sponsored by Northern California Time of Remembrance and Tsuru for Solidarity-Sacramento

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Uncover the story of Shizuko Ina, the woman at the center of an era-defining portrait by Dorothea Lange, and the unimaginable future that came next for her and her family.

Join author Satsuki Ina at the California Museum for a discussion of her new memoir, The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest, the story of the Ina family, who were among the 125,000 people of Japanese ancestry that the U.S. forcibly displaced and incarcerated after declaring war on Japan in WWII.

In this moving memoir, Satsuki Ina—who was born to Shizuko in the Tule Lake Segregation Center—recovers the story of how her parents survived and resisted their incarceration in U.S. concentration camps. Drawing from diary entries, heart-wrenching haiku, censored letters, government documents, and clandestine messages, Ina shares the eyewitness dispatches of Shizuko and her newlywed husband Itaru. Their words, interwoven with the ravel of war and Ina’s own retrospective reflection, afford an intimate view into the experiences of those whose lives were upended, by reason of race alone, by Executive Order 9066—a presidential edict that dispossessed an entire generation of Japanese people, including U.S. citizens, of their homes and livelihoods.

Event Schedule

• 1:00 – 2:00 pm: Book talk with Satsuki Ina on her new memoir The Poet and the Silk Girl
• 2:00 – 3:00 pm: Book signing, light refreshments, and the opportunity to explore the California Museum’s exhibit about the Japanese American incarceration during WWII, Uprooted: An American Story

Tickets

Museum members: Up to two free tickets per membership, available on a first-come first-served basis. For member booking assistance, please contact membership@californiamuseum.org.
Non-members: $5.00

Shizuko Ina waits in line to register her family for forced removal. Photo by Dorothea Lange, April 1942.

The Poet and the Silk Girl by Satsuki Ina

About the Author

Satsuki Ina is a psychotherapist specializing in community trauma. She helps victims of oppression to claim not only their voice but also their power to transform the systems that have oppressed them. Her activism has included co-founding Tsuru for Solidarity, a nonviolent, direct-action project of Japanese American social justice advocates working to end detention sites. Ina has produced two documentaries about the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans, Children of the Camps and From a Silk Cocoon. She has been featured in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, TIME, Democracy Now! and the documentary And Then They Came for Us. A professor emeritus at California State University, Sacramento, she lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

FAQs

CANCELLATION POLICY:

• Sorry, no refunds. Tickets may be exchanged for a general admission ticket to the Museum on a different day by emailing museuminfo@californiamuseum.org.

EVENT ENTRY:

• Seating opens at 12:45 pm.
• Please bring either a printed copy of your ticket OR digital ticket displayed on a mobile device (cell phone or tablet) to expedite event entry.
• Attendees without printed or digital ticket may experience delay in entry as purchase is verified.

CHILDREN:

• Visitors 6 and older enjoy reduced admission for this special event. Children age 5 and under receive free admission with paid adult admission but do require a ticket.

PARKING & DIRECTIONS:

• Bonderson Garage (Lot 24) is located directly across the street from the Museum on the corner of 10th & O Streets (now accepts credit cards in addition to cash).
• Limited metered street parking is available on streets surrounding the Museum. Please visit City of Sacramento Parking Services for more information.
• Bike parking is limited and available on a first-come, first-served basis.
• More information on directions is available here. .

PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION::

• The Museum is located at the Archives Plaza stop of Regional Transit’s Light Rail and a convenient transportation option for the event. For more information on routes, schedules and fares, visit: www.sacrt.com.

COVID-19 SAFETY:

• All attendees must follow current Museum health and safety policies at the time of the event. Visit https://www.californiamuseum.org/covid-19 for our current policies.
• By registering for tickets for this event, you acknowledge that a risk of exposure to COVID-19 exists in any place where people are present. By attending the event, you and any guests voluntarily assume all risks related to exposure to COVID-19 and agree not to hold the California Museum and its event partners liable for any illness or injury.

ADDITIONAL QUESTIONS & ASSISTANCE:

• For questions or additional help, please email museuminfo@californiamuseum.org.