We opened our second day of the 8th Cascadia Poetry Festival on Saturday, November 2, 2024 with a panel entitled “Issei Zen & Other Migrations.” The panel explores the work of writers that experienced the Japanese internment camps in America and the impact of interment on Japanese American culture and literature, along with the experiences of immigrants in America as a whole. The featured speakers included art historian Barbara Johns, author and editor Frank Abe, author Sharon Hashimoto, poet and educator Claudia Castro Luna, and poet/educator/editor Gabriella Gutiérrez y Muhs.

You can now watch the full video below! Thank you to Greg Bem, Savannah Bulloch and Angel Cruz for capturing and editing the video, and to Zach Charles for capturing the audio.