traci kato-kiriyama
traci kato-kiriyama (tkk; she+they) is an award-winning artist, community organizer and cultural producer. tkk’s artistic forms include theatre, literary arts, devised ensemble creation and facilitation, multi- and interdisciplinary performance-installation, acting, movement, and voice narration - all anchored in the guiding force & foundation of storytelling. traci’s work is multi-platform and extensive, and thus so are their presenters, publishers, professional & organizational partners, communities, and networks. For well over the last two decades, traci has been presented in hundreds of venues across North America - [incl. The Getty Foundation (L.A.), Skirball Cultural Center (L.A.), The Smithsonian (D.C.), The Ford Amphitheater Inside The Ford (L.A.), LaMaMa Cabaret (NYC), Zero Gravity (Toronto), Yerba Buena Center for the Arts (San Francisco), Asian Arts Initiative (Philadelphia), EnWave Theatre (Toronto)].
Her writing, commentary, and work have been featured by numerous online and print publications including NPR; PBS; C-SPAN; Elle.com; The Hollywood Reporter; Los Angeles Magazine; Entropy; Regent Press; Heyday Books; Tia Chucha Press; Chapparal Canyon Press; Bamboo Ridge Press.
The throughline and inspiration of much of tkk’s work are tied to themes of survival, interconnectedness, death, loss, illness and regeneration, remembrance, legacies of silence and noise, trauma and intergenerational reclamation, and (re)imagining dreams of our past/futures - much of which will be explored through poetics and notes-to-self in their next book project, being published by Writ Large Press/The Accomplices.
traci is the principal writer and performer of PULLproject Ensemble (PPE) alongside aerial artist Kennedy Kabasares. Through a heavily collaborative devised process over several years, they created TALES OF CLAMOR (TOC) - a hybrid theatre, aerial arts, movement and media performance project that bends time through past and present, exploring cultural and institutionalized silence on the path to collective clamor, justice & healing (World Premiere in Feb-Mar 2019 at the Aratani Black Box Theatre). Recognition includes Center for Cultural Innovation and Network of Ensemble Theaters, and PPE/TOC are Finalists for the New England Foundation for the Arts (NEFA) Creation & Touring Grant award, with plans to further develop the piece and begin touring in 2022.
Collaboration is at the heart of tkk’s work, she has embarked on a myriad of projects, productions and performance-installations with colleagues, mentors and community members to dive into issues of parallel or connected oppressions, xenophobia, Islamophobia, family separation, violence and war, and multigenerational trauma & resistance. tkk’s current projects include Tea & Letter Writing with tea enthusiast & creative partners Linda Wei, Mya Worrell, Lauren Moon and JANM (with hundreds of letters sent to detainees and incarcerated queer folks and seniors in isolation during Covid); and an ongoing collaboration with Devon Tsuno that began with #InPlainSight (Cassils; Rafa Esparza) - 80 messages were sky-typed above detention centers and sites of incarceration over the July 4th weekend. Devon and tkk’s message was a phone number (956-701-0149) sky-typed above U.S. CBP in Laredo, TX - people can still call to hear translated letters from inside detention centers and messages of solidarity from the outside.
As an educator, traci has served as Guest Lecturer for the Claremont Colleges through the Intercollegiate Department of Asian American Studies, focusing principally on creative writing and storytelling in various mediums through the study and lens of creative process, counseling/therapy, community-self care and community engagement as a means for survival and evolved, intersectional mental health & wellness.
tkk has also led creative processes in higher education with those who identify as queer, Asian American, students with Disabilties, womxn, STEM, and/or International grad students - to develop and present narratives for staff and administration that have led to policy change on access to mental health & wellness services on campus (Scripps College, 2009; Cornell University, 2019).
tkk engages as an Artist-In-Residence and consultant in arts activism & community development, relationship-building and collective creative practice. traci’s hosts include Grand Park LA, NeighborWorks America, the AARC at Pomona College, the Japanese American National Museum & Little Tokyo Service Center’s +LAB AIR initiative in Little Tokyo, and Asian Arts Freedom School in Canada.
Their creative practice is grounded in community. tkk sees themselves as part of a continuum and is deeply invested in their work as an artist organizer and cultural producer that stands on the shoulders of generations before us who planted the seeds, laid the foundations and built the houses for this work. They are the Director/Co-Founder of Tuesday Night Project (presenter of TNCafe, the longest-running, Asian American-produced public arts series in the country); Co-Chair of the steering committee for Vigilant Love (organization fighting Islamophobia and violence that creates space for solidarity, safety, spirituality and justice); and active member of Nikkei Progressives (grassroots, intergenerational Nikkei social justice group based in LA).
Other awards and recognitions include: the UCLA Nishida Distinguished Lectureship in Asian American Studies; “Woman Breaking Silence Award” from the CA State Senate and Korean American Forum; “Hear Me Roar” for APAHM, from the City of Los Angeles and Pacific Bridge Arts; “Community Spirit Award” from the Japanese American Cultural & Community Center (JACCC); the National JACL Community Impact Award; OCA-GLA Community Impact, Nisei Week Community Service, and Asian Pacific Community Fund Community Excellence awards and LA Weekly “top Downtown performance space” and USA Today “national top ten open mic” nods for Tuesday Night Project.
Other associations include Okaeri - a Nikkei LGBTQ+ network, Visual Communications, FandangObon/Great Leap, and Discover Nikkei, which presents Nikkei Uncovered: a poetry column that traci curates once a month and has featured over 100 poets from around the world.
tkk and her partner, Raquel Joyce, are a professional writer-attorney pair committed to REDEEMED, founded by Natashia Deon, which works to expunge records for formerly incarcerated community members. In her nearly non-existent free time, tkk is grateful to obey their cats, to paint & read voraciously, dance, sing, craft essential oil serums, and grow her cooking repertoire and hopes to make more space for puppetry, Shin Kendo, and piloting small airplanes.