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Kwaidan Book Club: Speak, Okinawa

  • Sun, November 14, 2021
  • 16:00 - 18:00
  • Online (Zoom)

JSNO Kwaidan Book Club is back now that Hurricane Ida is somewhat behind us. September's meeting is now in November! We will continue reading and plan on discussing Speak, Okinawa by Elizabeth Miki Brina.

This event will be online via Zoom as we welcome to the meeting a special guest appearance by Elizabeth herself! 

(Full meeting details below. Click meeting link below on event date, at the event time.)

*Please help support Tubby & Coo's Mid-City Book Shop (local New Orleans bookstore) by ordering your copy from their affiliate Bookshop site: https://bookshop.org/a/55/9780525657347 

ABOUT THE BOOK:

A searing, deeply candid memoir about a young woman’s journey to understanding her complicated parents—her mother an Okinawan war bride, her father a Vietnam veteran—and her own, fraught cultural heritage.

Elizabeth's mother was working as a nightclub hostess on U.S.-occupied Okinawa when she met the American soldier who would become her husband. The language barrier and power imbalance that defined their early relationship followed them to the predominantly white, upstate New York suburb where they moved to raise their only daughter. There, Elizabeth grew up with the trappings of a typical American childhood and adolescence. Yet even though she felt almost no connection to her mother's distant home, she also felt out of place among her peers.

Decades later, Elizabeth comes to recognize the shame and self-loathing that haunt both her and her mother, and attempts a form of reconciliation, not only to come to terms with the embattled dynamics of her family but also to reckon with the injustices that reverberate throughout the history of Okinawa and its people. Clear-eyed and profoundly humane, Speak, Okinawa is a startling accomplishment--a heartfelt exploration of identity, inheritance, forgiveness, and what it means to be an American.

You can listen to a book sample here: https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/611688/speak-okinawa-by-elizabeth-miki-brina/

ABOUT THE AUTHOR:

ELIZABETH MIKI BRINA is the recipient of a Rona Jaffe Bread Loaf Scholarship and a New York State Summer Writers Institute Scholarship. She currently lives and teaches in New Orleans.

*Book and Author information found on Bookshop.

You are invited to a scheduled Zoom meeting.

Topic: Kwaidan Book Club: Speak, Okinawa

Time: Nov 14, 2021 04:00 PM Central Time (US and Canada)

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Meeting ID: 834 8913 0908

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Meeting ID: 834 8913 0908

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CONTACT US

Telephone: (504) 408-0963
E-mail: japansocietynola@gmail.com

PO Box 56785
New Orleans, LA 70156-6785

"Japan Society of New Orleans" is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization 

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