Ink to Paper: A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt will feature original poetry by six poets, plus art slides. Top row, left to right: Annette Makino, Mark Shikuma, Shizue Harada (her poems will be read by her granddaughter Amy Uyeki). Bottom row, left to right: Daryl Ngee Chinn, Libby Yee, Tony Wallin-Sato.
TIMES-STANDARD, EUREKA, CA, APRIL 25, 2025 — In the first event of its kind for Humboldt, poets from the local Asian American community will gather for a joint reading of their work at the Morris Graves Museum of Art in Eureka on Sunday, May 4 at 2 p.m.
Ink to Paper: A Reading by Asian American Poets of Humboldt will feature poetry drawn from very different backgrounds, from the Zen-infused poems of incarceration and healing by Tony Wallin-Sato, to the tales of complex family and heritage dynamics by Mark Shikuma, to the verses from a long and eclectic life by Daryl Ngee Chinn.
Art slides will accompany three of the presentations: Annette Makino will show Asian-inspired collages that include her haiku; Libby Yee will share Chinese brush paintings along with her poems; and Amy Uyeki will screen artwork she created to accompany poems by her late grandmother, Shizue Harada, who came to the US from Japan in an arranged marriage in the 1920s. Ali Lee will serve as emcee and Kumi Watanabe will read Shizue Harada’s short poems in the original Japanese.
Ink to Paper is one of several events celebrating the local Asian and Pacific Islander community in May in conjunction with Asian and Pacific American month. On Saturday, May 3 from 6 to 9 p.m., there will be an opening of Ten Thousand Gates: A Celebration of Humboldt Asian Artists, a show by a dozen Humboldt County artists of Asian descent hosted by the Humboldt Arts Council at the Morris Graves Museum. Silk Road Junction 101 and Noah Rahman will perform. Participating artists include Karla Kaizoji Austin, Cate Be, Jeremy Hara, Ted Hsu, Suk Choo Kim, Ali Ong Lee, Thao Le Khac, Amy Leon, Annette Makino, Yoshiko Skelton, Amy Uyeki and Libby Yee. The show runs through May.
Also, the Eureka Chinatown Project is hosting the 4th Annual Eureka Chinatown Street Festival on Saturday, May 3 from 4 to 9 p.m. The Lion Dancers will perform a dance blessing businesses in Old Town from 4 to 6 p.m. The Street Festival will run from 6 to 9 p.m. in Old Town Eureka on E Street between 1st and 3rd Streets. The Lion Dancers, Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir, Taiko Drummers, Lao Dancers and White Lotus Dancers will perform.
On Sunday, May 4, at 1 p.m., composer Eric Tuan will lead some forty youth from the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir in a seven-movement short choral opera about the Eureka Chinatown expulsion. Called “Echoes of Eureka,” the opera will take place in the rotunda of the Morris Graves Museum of Art.