ASIAN GIRLS IGNITE MIDDLE SCHOOL SUMMER PROGRAM

PHOTO ALBUM STORYTELLING

My involvement in the day began with a co-storystelling session with Joie Ha, Executive Director of Colorado Asian Pacific United. We exchanged family photos and led groups of students in discussions. We encouraged students to reflect on the images, notate questions that arose from the discussion and think about the context in which the 

the photos may have been taken. After the photo exchange, we reconvened and discussed in a larger group the stories behind our respective images while snacking on treats Joie and I had brought to share (shrimp chip and my grandmother’s rum cake).  The photos I chose to share highlighted the women in my family as trailblazers - inspiring personalities, small business owners, single parents and survivors of hardship.

Top photo

1970, my mother and maternal grandmother shortly after moving to Denver.  Photo was taken in the Winnebago trailer they lived in.

1955, My paternal grandmother and her two sons (the oldest is my father). The photo was behind her in-law’s hotel, The Henry Hotel, in Denver’s historic Japantown.  

Middle photo

Bottom photo

1949, my paternal great-grandmother’s restaurant, Sarashina in Denver’s historic Japantown. The other people in the photo are my grandmother, my step-great-grandfather and a restaurant patron.

SHOTOKAN KARATE

The discussions of trailblazers continued in the karate portion of the day, acknowledging my father’s role in sport karate and female kata athletes.  Fortunate to train under my father for the majority of my athletic life, I understand well what it meant for him to be the first non-native Japanese and first American to be awarded a medal in kata at the WKF World Championships (then called WUKO, 1977 bronze medal).  For a female-bodied individual myself, it was special for me to share a bit of karate with the AGI students, mentioning that women were originally not allowed to compete in karate until 1980, though the competition was limited to kata.

Students learned basic Shotokan techniques (chudan-zuki, jodan-zuki, age-uke, gedan-barai, mae-geri, zenkutsu-dachi), engaged in simple partner drills and experienced an overview of the kata Taikyoku Shodan.

2015, Saifa seminar with Suzuko Okamura-Hamasaki, the first female WKF World Champion.