2019 Day of Remembrance 2019: Memory, Faith, and Music (Film Screening, Composer Kishi Bashi, Scholar Duncan Ryuken Williams)NEW

In observance of the Day of Remembrance, which marks President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s 1942 signing of Executive Order 9066 and subsequent incarceration of nearly 120,000 Japanese Americans, the museum will host a free film screening and live performance by the award-winning composer Kishi Bashi, and a guest lecture by renowned scholar Duncan Ryuken Williams.

In Omoiyari: a Songfilm by Kishi Bashi, composer Kaoru Ishibashi (professionally known as "Kishi Bashi") embarks on a personal quest by creating music in locations relevant to the Japanese American Incarceration. Omoiyari is a genre-breaking cinematic exploration that fuses history and art to examine the complexities of the human condition. NPR’s All Songs Considered listed Kishi Bashi as a favorite new artist, praising his work as “a radiant, uplifting soundscape.”

USC professor Duncan Ryuken Williams is the author of the new book American Sutra: A Story of Faith and Freedom in the Second World War, which for the first time explores the role of religion - particularly Buddhism in the Japanese American incarceration. George Takei has called American Sutra “a must-read for anyone interested in the implacable quest for civil liberties, social and racial justice, religious freedom, and American belonging.”

Following the screening and lecture, Kishi Bashi and Duncan Ryuken Williams will join NMAH curators Noriko Sanefuji and Peter Manseau on stage for discussion and audience Q&A.

Date
February 19, 2019

Time
6:30 pm - 8:00 pm

Location
Warner Brothers Theater, National Museum of American History, 1300 Constitution Ave NW, Washington, DC 20560