Confronting Intergenerational Trauma through Film and Poetry
Traces of America’s dark history still haunt us today. Join us as we confront this haunting through art and conversation. The program will feature a screening of Daryn Wakasa’s short horror film, SEPPUKU (2017), which treats the lingering effects of the World War II incarceration of Japanese Americans as a form of intergenerational haunting. Poet Melissa Bennett will share writing that explores the painful resonances of the boarding school and mental health systems that separate Native people from their culture, home land, language, faith, family, and community. Wakasa and Bennett will then discuss their work in conversation, exploring overlaps in Japanese American and Indigenous history, and creative possibilities for healing in community. The coming together of these two communities is an important alliance for the historical moment we find ourselves in now. The event will be followed by a short convivial gathering in order to create additional space for conversation and connection.
