Karen Ishizuka to Discuss ‘Serve the People’ in Berkeley

BERKELEY — On the last day of the Asian Pacific Islanders Issues Series (APIISERIES) 2016 Conference, author Karen L. Ishizuka will give a keynote presentation on her newly released book, “Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties.”

The presentation will take place Sunday, April 3, from 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at UC Berkeley’s Multicultural Center, 220 Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union. There will also be a panel discussion and a book-signing. This event is free and open to the public.

Until the political ferment of the Long Sixties, there were no Asian Americans. There were only isolated communities of mostly Chinese, Japanese, and Filipinos lumped together as Orientals. “Serve the People” tells the story of the social and cultural movement that knit these disparate communities into a political identity, the history of how and why the double consciousness of Asian America came to be.

Ishizuka’s vivid narrative reveals the personal epiphanies and intimate stories of insurgent movers and shakers and ground-level activists alike.

Ishizuka is the author of the books “Lost and Found: Reclaiming the Japanese American Incarceration” and “Mining the Home Movie.” She has produced numerous award-winning films, including “Something Strong Within” and “Toyo Miyatake: Infinite Shades of Gray,” an official selection of the Sundance Film Festival.

A resident of Los Angeles, she served with the Japanese American National Museum in Los Angeles for its first 15 years as senior curator, senior producer, and director of its Media Arts Center.

For more information, visit http://asiabookcenter.com or email eastwindbooks@gmail.com.

To check out APIISeries, visit https://www.facebook.com/events/1531090397220984/.