Poet Sharon Hashimoto will read from More American, winner of the Washington Book Award and will be joined by Bainbridge Island’s own Lily Kodama and Clarence Moriwaki to examine the complexities of what it means to be American for Japanese Americans given the legacy of community trauma after the Second World War with poetry, stories, and images.

2022 Washington State Book Award winner in poetry, Sharon Hashimoto is joined by Bainbridge Islanders Lily Kodama and Clarence Moriwaki to examine ideas of citizenship, civic engagement, and the legacy of community trauma. Incorporating stories, images, and observations from the Japanese American experience on Bainbridge Island, as well as excerpts from Hashimoto’s 2021 Off the Grid Poetry Prize-wining collection, More American, this presentation explores the importance of allyship in a world that is still too often unjust.

BIMA presents this event in recognition of February's Japanese American Day of Remembrance.

Arts & Humanities Bainbridge, co-sponsor of the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate program
The City of Bainbridge Island, funding supporter of the Bainbridge Island Poet Laureate program
The Bainbridge Creative District (in the sense that the Poet Laureate program is part of that).
The Bainbridge Community Foundation – funding support of the initial Poet Laureate program year.
Humanities Washington – funding support for “Internment, Assimilation, and Service: A Poet’s
Reckoning.”