Classroom Restoration Hands-on Workshop

Barbara Darden

 

Participants in our hands-on workshop will return to the Elementary School site and help with ongoing restoration projects. Specific projects may include:

1. Painting columns and decorative capitals

2. Installation of restored decorative capitals on the columns

3. Adobe reconstruction

This workshop will only be offered once and will take place for the duration of both workshop sessions.

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Camp Keepsakes and other "Left-overs” - What Issei and Nisei Survivors Passed Down to Me

Janice Munemitsu

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Janice will share “amateur" artistic keepsakes and other “leftovers” that shaped her family's lifestyle, habits, emotions, and underlying trauma as a result of the incarceration and re-settlement years. A sansei, all ten of her Issei and Nisei family were incarcerated at Poston. She will reflect on the generational inheritance and incarceration history of her family and share some of the family’s camp artifacts saved.  

 

Janice is the author of The Kindness of Color, the history of her Issei and Nisei family’s incarceration and their farm’s connection with the landmark federal court case, Mendez, et al v. Westminster, which led to the desegregation of California’s public schools in 1947, seven years before Brown v. Board 1954 nationally.  

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Designing & Constructing the Poston Memorial Monument

Reid Nishikawa

 

A short video documenting the design construction of the Poston Memorial Monument and conversation with one of the members of the Poston Memorial Monument Committee.

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Working with Family Archives

Katie Nuss Louis

 

When sorting through a loved one’s home, we often encounter more than belongings––we discover photographs, letters, diaries, recipes, documents, and other materials that hold pieces of family and community history. This workshop offers practical and thoughtful approaches to working with these family archives, from identifying and organizing meaningful materials to recording stories, preserving photographs and papers, and deciding what to keep, share, donate, or let go. Together, we’ll consider both the historical value of these collections and the emotional experience of encountering them, with an emphasis on caring for family stories and memories for generations to come. 

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The Go For Broke Spirit

Shane Sato

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Over 20 years in the making, Shane Sato has been photographing Nisei veterans from all across the country. In this workshop he will be sharing stories of the veterans, why they volunteered out of the camps such as Poston, how the project turned into a two-volume book.

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Painted Bird Pins: Creativity and Memory

Michelle Shinto

 

Explore the history and creativity that came out of the incarceration through a hands-on arts and crafts workshop. Participants will learn about the painted bird pins that were created throughout the Japanese American incarceration camps, then paint their own reproduction inspired by these historical objects. Bird carving became especially well known at Poston, where incarcerated artists transformed scrap wood into detailed miniature birds, often using photographs and books as references. As we paint, we’ll consider the stories these small handmade objects can tell about creativity, community, and resilience in the face of confinement.