Native Books ma Nuʻuanu Arts & Letters Building
03:00 PM - 05:00 PM on Sat, 27 Sep 2025
This event is a part of Honouliuli National Historic Site's 10th Anniversary Celebration.
Join three poets at local Oahu bookstore Native Books for an intimate poem reading from "Gate of Memory", an anthology of poems inspired by the Japanese American internment experience written by descendants of internees.
Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson: As the granddaughter of a Japanese American civilian who was incarcerated at Sand Island and Honouliuli, Sharon Fujimoto-Johnson has long sought to better understand her grandfather's story. Although he died long before she was born, Sharon inherited the shells her grandfather had collected during his incarceration. Her newest children's book, SHELL SONG, shares the story his shells carried across generations to her. Sharon will discuss her family story, her grandmother's poems and autobiography, her retellings of her grandfather's experience, and reflections on visiting Honouliuli National Historic Site in person. Sharon will be in Hawai'i for in-person book events in September.
Richard Hamasaki: Poet and independent filmmaker & producer Richard Hamasaki has been active in Hawai‘i’s literary and arts community for over 50 years, collaborating with creatives locally, regionally, and internationally. In 1976, he independently published seven issues of Seaweeds and Constructions, an art and literary magazine ending its run after the tragic death of his friend, mentor, and co-editor Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947-1984). After 40 years of teaching language arts in Hawaiʻi, Richard resumed producing and directing mostly poetry based films. In 2024, Richard gifted Tāmaki Paenga Hira Auckland War Memorial Museum his extensive Hawaiʻi/Pacific library along with his and his brother Mark Hamasaki’s silkscreens, printed matter, selected photographs, and more, from their ʻElepaio Press collective and archive. His poems “This Is Not Our Wasteland” and “Death Poem of the Koʻa” were recently published online in Hoʻolana Journal co-edited by Ryan Oishi, Tiare Picard, Sage Uilani Takehiro and Rain Wright. His poem “Love Song for the Pristine Sea” will be published this year in The Hopkins Review, guest edited by R. Zamora Linmark. Richard’s most recent short film MANIFESTO [for Concrete Poetry] co-directed with Jody Stillwater and Sebastian Galasso features the late Wayne Kaumualii Westlake’s 3-page poem which screened at the Hawaiʻi International Film Festival and the Micheaux Film Festival in L.A. in October 2024 and will screen again with live performances of MANIFESTO by its three co-directors, featuring dancer Pei-Ling Kao and musician Jorge Bachmann in June 2025 at Gray Area in San Francisco and at the Crocker Museum in Sacramento. Richard Hamasaki identifies as Sansei, grandchild of Japanese immigrants to the U.S. continent and the occupied Hawaiian Islands.
Ryan Oishi: Ryan Oishi grew up in Kaimukī. He is a writer, educator, and editor of Hoʻolana Publishing, a literary hui dedicated to uplifting Hawaiʻi’s many talented poets, writers, and artists. His work has appeared in Tinfish, Routes, Bamboo Ridge, The Value of Hawaiʻi 2, and The Statehood Project with Kumu Kahua Theatre.
