Episodes Summary:

A beautiful and powerful art exhibition is touring the country right now, called Pictures of Belonging, which explores three artists of Japanese descent - Miki Hayakawa, Hisako Hibi and Miné Okubo.  The exhibition puts these artists and their work in their rightful place in the history of American art.  

For this bonus episode, producer and lead writer David Taylor visits the exhibition at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and shares his insights about Miné Okubo, who was featured in Episode 9: Is This Land Your Land?  She was a painter who was working with Diego Rivera on murals for the WPA when she was detained and sent to an incarceration camp during World War 2.  She used her artwork to bear witness to the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during the war.  

Links and Resources:

Pictures of Belonging: Japanese American National Museum

Pictures of Belonging: Smithsonian American Art Museum

Citizen 13660 - a short film from the National Park Service

Sincerely, Miné Okubo - a short biography from the Japanese American National Museum

Further Reading:

Citizen 13360 by Miné Okubo

Miné Okubo: Following Her Own Road by Greg Robinson

Peaceful Painter: Memoirs of an Issei Woman Artist by Hisako Hibi

The Other American Moderns: Matsura, Ishigaki, Nora, Hayakawa by ShiPu Wang

Credits:

Director: Andrea Kalin

Producers: Andrea Kalin, David A. Taylor, James Mirabello

Editor: Amy Young

Featuring music from Pond5

Produced with support from the National Endowment for the Humanities, Florida Humanities, Virginia Humanities, Wisconsin Humanities, California Humanities and Humanities Nebraska. 

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Episode ID: 1000703576301

GUID: 67f98aafd5ed0d5b9de32de9

Release Date: 15/04/2025, 15:00:00