00:26:48.100 --> 00:26:51.100
Chinese New

00:26:51.100 --> 00:26:54.700
Year's Frank would cook in here and cook

00:26:54.700 --> 00:26:57.000
his own house and he had big we'd have a

00:26:57.100 --> 00:27:00.200
big banquet in here like, you know, 15 20 people

00:27:00.200 --> 00:27:03.400
and like eight courses. Yeah me

00:27:03.400 --> 00:27:03.800
he was amazing.

00:27:04.500 --> 00:27:07.400
These pictures is it's just a quad

00:27:07.400 --> 00:27:10.700
family. That's my mother. That's my grandmother. That's my

00:27:10.700 --> 00:27:13.400
uncle. That's my aunt. Okay, and

00:27:13.400 --> 00:27:16.500
that's my sister. That's me. This is my cousin Frank

00:27:16.500 --> 00:27:19.800
because he he was

00:27:19.800 --> 00:27:22.500
the shrimper working here. This is

00:27:22.500 --> 00:27:25.600
us. So we used to work here at chimpy and this

00:27:25.600 --> 00:27:28.300
is my aunt. She's Caucasian she married him

00:27:28.300 --> 00:27:31.500
and they couldn't get married here had to go to Reno.

00:27:33.300 --> 00:27:36.800
Getting more depth that was to adjust

00:27:36.800 --> 00:27:39.200
grandmother's store the green one you play and

00:27:39.200 --> 00:27:40.000
they lived in the back, but it's not
grandmother's store the green one you play and

00:27:40.000 --> 00:27:42.100
they lived in the back, but it's not

00:27:42.100 --> 00:27:43.600
here anymore that yeah long.

00:27:43.900 --> 00:27:48.800
ER there's another picture in our

00:27:48.800 --> 00:27:51.500
life was involved in everybody working.

00:27:51.500 --> 00:27:52.500
We're American Born Chinese and
life was involved in everybody working.

00:27:52.500 --> 00:27:54.900
We're American Born Chinese and

00:27:54.900 --> 00:27:57.400
my family all work and

00:27:57.400 --> 00:27:59.400
we as children grow. We're not

00:28:00.100 --> 00:28:03.200
we help with all the work picking shrimp and

00:28:03.200 --> 00:28:06.200
sweep and shrimp and cleaning shrimp. We didn't

00:28:06.200 --> 00:28:08.700
know what was worked but didn't hurt us.

00:28:11.900 --> 00:28:14.800
So in

00:28:14.800 --> 00:28:17.000
1892, they haven't called the Geary Act.

00:28:17.500 --> 00:28:20.600
Chinese people had to have one of these certificate residents.

00:28:20.600 --> 00:28:21.600
There was a good kicked out.

00:28:22.300 --> 00:28:23.200
and the key thing was

00:28:24.300 --> 00:28:26.200
it reads. He's a person other than

00:28:27.100 --> 00:28:30.100
Laborer then we'll be labor because he kick you

00:28:30.100 --> 00:28:32.400
out from getting laborers because you think against the white guys.

00:28:34.700 --> 00:28:37.400
There's no more shrimp. What happened is in

00:28:37.400 --> 00:28:40.400
the late 70s. They used to go out with the power

00:28:40.400 --> 00:28:43.300
boat and catch shrimp things have changed.

00:28:43.300 --> 00:28:47.600
The water is too much salinity in

00:28:47.600 --> 00:28:50.100
it, everything moves, you know to a different

00:28:50.100 --> 00:28:52.800
environment, but like I say everything changes

00:28:54.400 --> 00:28:57.300
Summary, it's been a lot of time. I never talked to Frank and

00:28:57.300 --> 00:28:57.600
see him.

00:28:58.100 --> 00:29:01.500
And they were talked to him because you know, he was busy working and I started

00:29:01.500 --> 00:29:04.400
hanging out here more and more on the weekends

00:29:04.400 --> 00:29:07.200
on Saturdays and then got to know Georgette. Okay, that's

00:29:07.200 --> 00:29:08.200
a little Frank we became real close in
on Saturdays and then got to know Georgette. Okay, that's

00:29:08.200 --> 00:29:10.100
a little Frank we became real close in

00:29:10.100 --> 00:29:11.100
Saving the park. And of course, he was instrumental because it
a little Frank we became real close in

00:29:11.100 --> 00:29:13.400
Saving the park. And of course, he was instrumental because it

00:29:13.400 --> 00:29:16.500
was like wait a minute. You're gonna close the park around this guy

00:29:16.500 --> 00:29:19.800
who's like walking history and he passed away obviously

00:29:19.800 --> 00:29:20.800
to August
who's like walking history and he passed away obviously

00:29:20.800 --> 00:29:22.400
to August

00:29:22.400 --> 00:29:23.100
2016.

00:29:23.800 --> 00:29:26.100
Work the store on Sunday went into his house

00:29:26.100 --> 00:29:29.300
Sunday night died. Sometimes Sunday night Monday morning.

00:29:29.300 --> 00:29:31.500
He was 10 days short of 91.

00:29:33.600 --> 00:29:36.200
The focus of the state park is sort of

00:29:36.200 --> 00:29:39.500
changed now, but when my cousin Frank was alive, they

00:29:39.500 --> 00:29:42.200
focused more on the family and our business

00:29:42.200 --> 00:29:45.300
our shrimping business, but now that

00:29:45.300 --> 00:29:46.100
he's gone.

00:29:46.900 --> 00:29:49.400
The focus is more like on the state part

00:29:49.400 --> 00:29:52.100
about hiking and programs about the

00:29:52.100 --> 00:29:53.100
environment and everything and this
about hiking and programs about the

00:29:53.100 --> 00:29:55.500
environment and everything and this

00:29:55.500 --> 00:29:56.500
to be expected. Our ear
environment and everything and this

00:29:56.500 --> 00:29:58.900
to be expected. Our ear

00:29:58.900 --> 00:30:01.900
is over and oh

00:30:01.900 --> 00:30:04.500
and so the park goes on

00:30:04.500 --> 00:30:07.400
like all the other state parks, but we're part of

00:30:07.400 --> 00:30:10.100
the history and and that's where

00:30:10.100 --> 00:30:11.200
it is. So

00:30:49.400 --> 00:31:03.700
Auntie Minnie.

00:31:03.700 --> 00:31:06.400
She had a singular purpose in life.

00:31:06.400 --> 00:31:09.600
And that was to create our art. Oh,

00:31:09.600 --> 00:31:10.000
Auntie Meena had a very definite focused personality.
And that was to create our art. Oh,

00:31:10.000 --> 00:31:12.900
Auntie Meena had a very definite focused personality.

00:31:12.900 --> 00:31:13.900
Definitely the okubo
Auntie Meena had a very definite focused personality.

00:31:13.900 --> 00:31:15.400
Definitely the okubo

00:31:15.400 --> 00:31:16.000
humor always came through I think probably because
Definitely the okubo

00:31:16.000 --> 00:31:18.900
humor always came through I think probably because

00:31:18.900 --> 00:31:21.300
of so many people and getting having to get along with

00:31:21.300 --> 00:31:24.100
so many brothers and sisters and dealing with

00:31:24.100 --> 00:31:25.600
all of these different events.

00:31:26.200 --> 00:31:29.300
She was funny, but she could be very blunt, too.

00:31:30.400 --> 00:31:33.500
And at first when you meet her I think because

00:31:33.500 --> 00:31:37.300
she's difficult New Yorker kind of

00:31:37.300 --> 00:31:40.500
hesitant about putting herself out

00:31:40.500 --> 00:31:43.600
there, but once she felt comfortable

00:31:43.600 --> 00:31:46.600
with you then she was your your friend

00:31:46.600 --> 00:31:47.100
for life.

00:31:58.100 --> 00:32:01.800
I mean, Meena was born on June 27th, 1912 and

00:32:01.800 --> 00:32:04.800
Riverside California. She was the middle

00:32:04.800 --> 00:32:06.200
child of five children.

00:32:07.400 --> 00:32:10.200
Her mother was a trained calligrapher and had graduated from

00:32:10.200 --> 00:32:13.100
the Tokyo Institute of Art before coming to the US.

00:32:14.300 --> 00:32:16.800
Her older brother Benji was an artist as well. He was a painter.

00:32:17.400 --> 00:32:19.800
So she was surrounded by that since her early childhood.

00:32:22.400 --> 00:32:25.700
Political atmosphere towards the Japanese from Japan

00:32:25.700 --> 00:32:28.700
was not conducive. I think

00:32:28.700 --> 00:32:31.900
they were relegated to living on what

00:32:31.900 --> 00:32:34.400
we would call the wrong side of the tracks and

00:32:34.400 --> 00:32:36.000
Grandma cleaned.

00:32:37.600 --> 00:32:40.700
But I heard stories that people would hire her

00:32:40.700 --> 00:32:43.400
to paint portraits and she did

00:32:43.400 --> 00:32:47.700
that and she was always encouraging the

00:32:47.700 --> 00:32:50.800
children Antie Meena and Uncle

00:32:50.800 --> 00:32:51.800
Benji.
children Antie Meena and Uncle

00:32:51.800 --> 00:32:52.400
Benji.

00:32:53.200 --> 00:32:55.500
And my mother Yoshi to draw.

00:32:57.300 --> 00:33:00.700
So she starts her academic career at Riverside

00:33:00.700 --> 00:33:03.400
City College and then transfers to UC Berkeley

00:33:03.400 --> 00:33:06.500
and graduates with a ba in our in

00:33:06.500 --> 00:33:09.600
1935 and then receives a masters in

00:33:09.600 --> 00:33:10.800
anthropology and an art.

00:33:13.700 --> 00:33:16.400
She wins a prestigious scholarship

00:33:16.400 --> 00:33:19.600
from UC Berkeley in 1938 to travel around

00:33:19.600 --> 00:33:22.200
Europe per year. And so she goes to

00:33:22.200 --> 00:33:26.400
Paris and uses Paris as kind of like her base. She's studying

00:33:26.400 --> 00:33:29.600
in the studio of Ferdinand Legion who will kind of

00:33:29.600 --> 00:33:32.300
factor into her later work. Once she gets back to the Bay

00:33:32.300 --> 00:33:35.100
Area in terms of the figuration that she turns to and then

00:33:35.100 --> 00:33:38.400
also his his kind of commitment to ordinary subject

00:33:38.400 --> 00:33:38.700
matter.

00:33:40.200 --> 00:33:43.700
When the war broke out and she had friends

00:33:43.700 --> 00:33:46.200
there helped her to get the

00:33:46.200 --> 00:33:49.600
last boat out back to United States and at

00:33:49.600 --> 00:33:52.200
that and luckily in time because I think

00:33:52.200 --> 00:33:55.300
she was also asked by the family to come back because

00:33:55.300 --> 00:33:56.800
her mother was very sick, too.

00:34:04.700 --> 00:34:07.800
So when she returns from Europe, she's already fairly established

00:34:07.800 --> 00:34:10.500
in the Bay Area art scene John Haley connects

00:34:10.500 --> 00:34:13.400
her with the federal arts project and she begins to take on a

00:34:13.400 --> 00:34:14.000
couple of commissions.

00:34:15.100 --> 00:34:18.800
And then she also is enlisted to demonstrate certain

00:34:18.800 --> 00:34:21.500
artistic practices. So she's brought

00:34:21.500 --> 00:34:24.400
in to demonstrate fresco painting and then also to

00:34:24.400 --> 00:34:27.500
assist Diego Rivera on his Pan American Unity mural

00:34:27.500 --> 00:34:30.000
that he's creating on Treasure Island as part

00:34:30.100 --> 00:34:32.500
of the Golden Gate exposition of 1939.

00:34:37.400 --> 00:34:40.300
So she's hyper-aware of the aesthetic kind of changes that are happening

00:34:40.300 --> 00:34:43.100
and the early kind of modernists experimentations that are taking

00:34:43.100 --> 00:34:46.300
place, of course, obviously because she's you know in legere studio

00:34:46.300 --> 00:34:49.500
in Paris, but then also in the Bay Area with Diego Rivera

00:34:49.500 --> 00:34:52.000
being there and the influence of the maximumulus at the

00:34:52.400 --> 00:34:55.500
time on American modernism and specifically on the

00:34:55.500 --> 00:34:57.000
WPA period that she's part of

00:34:58.900 --> 00:35:00.100
I turned on the radio.

00:35:01.400 --> 00:35:04.800
And we heard Pearl Harbor Bomb by

00:35:04.800 --> 00:35:07.900
the Japanese. My brother looked at me and

00:35:07.900 --> 00:35:10.600
I live and I think oh our

00:35:10.600 --> 00:35:11.600
in trouble Grandma Kato
I live and I think oh our

00:35:11.600 --> 00:35:13.800
in trouble Grandma Kato

00:35:13.800 --> 00:35:16.900
passed away in 1940 in the

00:35:16.900 --> 00:35:19.600
I think the war broke out in 41. Well, of

00:35:19.600 --> 00:35:19.900
course with the

00:35:21.400 --> 00:35:24.900
December 7th 1941 then that's when the Japanese

00:35:24.900 --> 00:35:27.700
were rounded up and put into various

00:35:27.700 --> 00:35:30.200
concentration camps the head of

00:35:30.200 --> 00:35:34.100
the family and single persons

00:35:34.100 --> 00:35:35.100
were ordered to report.
the family and single persons

00:35:35.100 --> 00:35:36.500
were ordered to report.

00:35:37.500 --> 00:35:39.000
and register

00:35:40.200 --> 00:35:43.900
and we were given our family number and tag.

00:35:44.500 --> 00:35:47.400
We were told what to bring and what not to

00:35:47.400 --> 00:35:50.600
bring and told what

00:35:50.600 --> 00:35:54.400
to wear for Pioneer life in camp.

00:35:54.400 --> 00:35:57.300
younger brother toku. We're living in the Berkeley area before the

00:35:57.300 --> 00:36:00.700
war and they were forced to leave their home and their

00:36:00.700 --> 00:36:03.700
first sent to the tanfran race track in San

00:36:03.700 --> 00:36:06.200
Bruno, which was a temporary detention center and then

00:36:06.200 --> 00:36:09.800
about six months later. They were sent to the topaz

00:36:09.800 --> 00:36:12.800
concentration camp, which is located in Utah. And

00:36:12.800 --> 00:36:15.300
from the very beginning was very

00:36:15.300 --> 00:36:17.200
intent on documenting this experience.

00:36:18.300 --> 00:36:21.200
She documented day-to-day life in San Fran and

00:36:21.200 --> 00:36:24.400
also in topaz and she was sort of remembered as always having a Sketchbook and

00:36:24.400 --> 00:36:25.000
a pencil in hand. They didn't have
also in topaz and she was sort of remembered as always having a Sketchbook and

00:36:25.000 --> 00:36:27.400
a pencil in hand. They didn't have

00:36:27.400 --> 00:36:30.100
any cameras ignore not allowed you see

00:36:30.100 --> 00:36:33.300
and immediately went out to do minute

00:36:33.300 --> 00:36:36.000
sketches and then of everything you can

00:36:36.500 --> 00:36:39.900
Meneo Kubo was incredibly prolific.

00:36:39.900 --> 00:36:42.300
She created several thousand drawings

00:36:42.300 --> 00:36:43.300
and illustrations while she was incarcerated at
She created several thousand drawings

00:36:43.300 --> 00:36:45.900
and illustrations while she was incarcerated at

00:36:45.900 --> 00:36:48.300
Tanforan and topaz, which is really incredible to think.

00:36:49.800 --> 00:36:52.100
Meena was on the staff of the

00:36:52.100 --> 00:36:55.800
topaz times which is the newspaper for topaz camp

00:36:55.800 --> 00:36:58.400
and then several the staff members decided that

00:36:58.400 --> 00:37:01.700
they wanted to start a literary magazine, which they called Trek

00:37:01.700 --> 00:37:02.000
and

00:37:02.200 --> 00:37:04.200
it's minnet was the artistic director.

00:37:05.100 --> 00:37:08.600
Of that literary magazine. She designed the three covers

00:37:08.600 --> 00:37:11.300
for the three volumes that they produced and also

00:37:11.300 --> 00:37:12.000
did artwork for articles that
for the three volumes that they produced and also

00:37:12.000 --> 00:37:14.600
did artwork for articles that

00:37:14.600 --> 00:37:17.100
were included in the magazine and she just didn't want

00:37:17.100 --> 00:37:20.700
to be disturbed so that she could continue her art practice. So she

00:37:20.700 --> 00:37:23.000
put a quarantine sign on her door so that

00:37:23.200 --> 00:37:26.200
they would leave her alone so that she could work on her artwork.

00:37:27.700 --> 00:37:30.500
Finally after relocation. Everybody was

00:37:30.500 --> 00:37:33.900
leaving camp right away with the Northeast test

00:37:33.900 --> 00:37:36.400
was cleared and I decided

00:37:36.400 --> 00:37:39.700
to stay back and finish this set of

00:37:39.700 --> 00:37:42.700
drawings and I was doing for my friends the

00:37:42.700 --> 00:37:43.700
book really which turned into citizen
drawings and I was doing for my friends the

00:37:43.700 --> 00:37:45.700
book really which turned into citizen

00:37:45.700 --> 00:37:46.800
13660.

00:37:49.500 --> 00:37:52.500
She uses humor. But there's

00:37:52.500 --> 00:37:53.500
also she's evoking the
She uses humor. But there's

00:37:53.500 --> 00:37:55.400
also she's evoking the

00:37:55.400 --> 00:37:58.500
bitterness and tragedy and irony of the experience.

00:38:00.500 --> 00:38:03.800
Reviewers in 1946 would say things like this

00:38:03.800 --> 00:38:06.600
work is really important. It talks about and experience that

00:38:06.600 --> 00:38:09.300
a few people know about however, Mr. Kubo is

00:38:09.300 --> 00:38:12.100
very objective. She used humor and there's

00:38:12.100 --> 00:38:16.200
no bitterness and she shows no emotion and I think that's shocking because

00:38:16.200 --> 00:38:19.100
when you look at the drawings you see those things, but maybe that's why

00:38:19.100 --> 00:38:20.100
this is a masterpiece because she
when you look at the drawings you see those things, but maybe that's why

00:38:20.100 --> 00:38:22.200
this is a masterpiece because she

00:38:22.200 --> 00:38:25.200
was able to so skillfully Blair that

00:38:25.200 --> 00:38:25.210
in

00:38:43.800 --> 00:38:43.810
you

00:38:56.600 --> 00:38:59.700
she liked New York because that's where all the activity in

00:38:59.700 --> 00:39:02.900
the world happened. She said she could sit there and the whole

00:39:02.900 --> 00:39:05.800
world would come by and that era

00:39:05.800 --> 00:39:08.000
a Greenwich Village in New York.

00:39:08.300 --> 00:39:11.500
That's where all the Bohemian artists were. That's where all the

00:39:11.500 --> 00:39:14.700
creative people in the world kind of gathered.

00:39:15.200 --> 00:39:18.200
I wish I had an owner when I was growing up. Maybe that's why

00:39:18.200 --> 00:39:21.500
maybe that's why she was on the east coast and we all

00:39:21.500 --> 00:39:24.400
us kids were kept on the west coast because our parents

00:39:24.400 --> 00:39:27.400
didn't want her to influence that Bohemian

00:39:27.400 --> 00:39:28.000
side of us because we're pretty conservative
didn't want her to influence that Bohemian

00:39:28.000 --> 00:39:30.200
side of us because we're pretty conservative

00:39:30.200 --> 00:39:31.000
compared to what she did half of
side of us because we're pretty conservative

00:39:31.000 --> 00:39:34.000
compared to what she did half of

00:39:34.300 --> 00:39:35.500
a family because of my father.

00:39:37.100 --> 00:39:40.300
It's always right to us too, dude and her letters.

00:39:40.300 --> 00:39:41.300
I don't
It's always right to us too, dude and her letters.

00:39:41.300 --> 00:39:43.300
I don't

00:39:43.300 --> 00:39:46.600
know how they ever got to us because you could see in

00:39:46.600 --> 00:39:49.200
her letters, you know, I'm doing this and the colors here.

00:39:49.200 --> 00:39:52.400
She would just tell straight out,

00:39:52.400 --> 00:39:55.300
you know that, you know, this is wrong and that is

00:39:55.300 --> 00:39:58.900
wrong and and then she would run out of space and

00:39:58.900 --> 00:40:01.200
then you would have to turn the paper, you know

00:40:01.200 --> 00:40:04.200
sideways, you know to read it and then she

00:40:04.200 --> 00:40:09.600
run out of the front part. So it be in the back finally or

00:40:09.600 --> 00:40:10.600
salutation could be in the middle
run out of the front part. So it be in the back finally or

00:40:10.600 --> 00:40:12.100
salutation could be in the middle

00:40:12.100 --> 00:40:15.300
of the whole page, but every letter was

00:40:15.300 --> 00:40:15.800
like that.

00:40:17.100 --> 00:40:20.800
I got involved with the basement Workshop, which

00:40:20.800 --> 00:40:23.400
was an Asian American Arts collective in

00:40:23.400 --> 00:40:26.900
the 1970s. And we did various

00:40:26.900 --> 00:40:29.500
retrospectives on artists from

00:40:29.500 --> 00:40:32.200
the local community. And at one point

00:40:32.200 --> 00:40:33.600
we had one on mine.

00:40:34.400 --> 00:40:37.200
She lived in Greenwich Village for many

00:40:37.200 --> 00:40:40.800
years. So when we had this retrospective she

00:40:40.800 --> 00:40:43.300
brought some of that crowd in and she

00:40:43.300 --> 00:40:46.700
also attracted people from within the community. She

00:40:46.700 --> 00:40:49.300
also came out and went to various JSC elements

00:40:49.300 --> 00:40:50.000
and represented topaz represented
also came out and went to various JSC elements

00:40:50.000 --> 00:40:52.800
and represented topaz represented

00:40:52.800 --> 00:40:55.500
the people who had suffered so she

00:40:55.500 --> 00:40:58.200
wasn't just there as an artist. She was a person

00:40:58.200 --> 00:41:00.000
who had been through the camp experience.

00:41:01.300 --> 00:41:04.800
But in the New York art scene specifically she feels very alienated.

00:41:04.800 --> 00:41:07.500
I think part of the reason why she felt so alienated because

00:41:07.500 --> 00:41:10.400
she was working with a type

00:41:10.400 --> 00:41:13.900
of imagery that was very sort of subjective and and

00:41:13.900 --> 00:41:16.600
very detailed and she's working surrounded by

00:41:16.600 --> 00:41:19.800
again. All these abstract expressionist artists, right and the

00:41:19.800 --> 00:41:22.600
hype that's basically taking place at the time and here

00:41:22.600 --> 00:41:25.300
decides and she's gonna quit her commercial practice

00:41:25.300 --> 00:41:26.300
and she's going to devote herself solely to painting
decides and she's gonna quit her commercial practice

00:41:26.300 --> 00:41:28.400
and she's going to devote herself solely to painting

00:41:28.400 --> 00:41:31.400
and drawing which I find to be quite lovely in

00:41:31.400 --> 00:41:34.400
the sense that she was very defiant. Well, she's rejecting sort

00:41:34.400 --> 00:41:37.100
of like these Western aesthetic principles. She's also kind

00:41:37.100 --> 00:41:40.600
of going back to the essentials of the artists that

00:41:40.600 --> 00:41:42.000
really influenced her early on.

00:41:43.200 --> 00:41:46.500
You know that you're going towards the universal and

00:41:46.500 --> 00:41:49.700
truth. And so it takes a long time you're taking

00:41:49.700 --> 00:41:53.200
everything back to zero including yourself. And so

00:41:53.200 --> 00:41:56.400
it's only matter of simplifying. What is true

00:41:56.400 --> 00:41:59.400
Universal having seen a

00:41:59.400 --> 00:42:02.500
lot of her canvases and if you went to her apartment on 9th

00:42:02.500 --> 00:42:05.400
Street, it was full. I mean it was full of

00:42:05.400 --> 00:42:08.700
canvases from many periods of her life and she

00:42:08.700 --> 00:42:11.400
experimented and she tried different colors

00:42:11.400 --> 00:42:12.500
different styles.

00:42:13.700 --> 00:42:16.200
By the time the redress movement emerges in the

00:42:16.200 --> 00:42:19.200
80s. She's quite known to the American public. So she's asked to come

00:42:19.200 --> 00:42:22.200
and speak before Congress and reads from

00:42:22.200 --> 00:42:25.300
Citizen 13660 and offers it as

00:42:25.300 --> 00:42:28.100
evidence to the conditions and to the experiences that

00:42:28.100 --> 00:42:29.600
she and her community endured.

00:42:31.300 --> 00:42:31.900
but I think

00:42:32.700 --> 00:42:34.200
that I think of these days.

00:42:44.300 --> 00:42:46.800
At the tragedies that took place.

00:43:04.800 --> 00:43:05.200
here

00:43:21.100 --> 00:43:24.200
I really Marvel at the audacity of mania

00:43:24.200 --> 00:43:25.200
Kubo to get her Memoir published
I really Marvel at the audacity of mania

00:43:25.200 --> 00:43:27.600
Kubo to get her Memoir published

00:43:27.600 --> 00:43:28.500
in 1946.

00:43:29.300 --> 00:43:32.300
At a time when the incarceration experience was still a

00:43:32.300 --> 00:43:35.300
current event. It wasn't even recent history yet. You know Tooley Lake

00:43:35.300 --> 00:43:38.300
was still open so that that's really tremendous because

00:43:38.300 --> 00:43:41.800
at that time form incarceries were not talking about their

00:43:41.800 --> 00:43:42.200
experience.

00:43:44.100 --> 00:43:47.900
She really wasn't going to be told what she should be doing. She

00:43:47.900 --> 00:43:50.200
was going to create her own path and she

00:43:50.200 --> 00:43:53.500
was going to create her own aesthetic. That kind of defiance is

00:43:53.500 --> 00:43:56.700
very much indicative of like a feminist mindset.

00:43:56.700 --> 00:43:59.500
But also just to survival mechanism

00:43:59.500 --> 00:44:02.300
in terms of having endured what she did and just being

00:44:02.300 --> 00:44:05.500
a person of color in this country. So I I really appreciate

00:44:05.500 --> 00:44:08.900
the type of Frank kind of representation of Citizen

00:44:08.900 --> 00:44:09.000
13660 and then her Defiance and
the type of Frank kind of representation of Citizen

00:44:09.000 --> 00:44:11.400
13660 and then her Defiance and

00:44:11.400 --> 00:44:14.400
and her insistence on creating her own aesthetic and

00:44:14.400 --> 00:44:17.500
even if that meant being completely alienated from the

00:44:17.500 --> 00:44:18.000
artistic developments that were being advocated for
even if that meant being completely alienated from the

00:44:18.000 --> 00:44:20.400
artistic developments that were being advocated for

00:44:20.400 --> 00:44:23.300
and in New York, she did suffer quite a bit in terms

00:44:23.300 --> 00:44:26.300
of her career and not getting the recognition that she

00:44:26.300 --> 00:44:29.100
deserves but I'm happy that she stuck with

00:44:29.100 --> 00:44:32.200
it because I think that she serves as a perfect example of an

00:44:32.200 --> 00:44:33.200
artist of color who's defiant and refuses
it because I think that she serves as a perfect example of an

00:44:33.200 --> 00:44:35.500
artist of color who's defiant and refuses

00:44:35.500 --> 00:44:38.200
to quote unquote assimilate into the white

00:44:38.200 --> 00:44:41.500
male art world and for that I think she's

00:44:41.500 --> 00:44:42.700
she's very inspiring.

00:44:44.300 --> 00:44:47.700
She was a great Observer of

00:44:47.700 --> 00:44:50.400
human nature her art reflected what

00:44:50.400 --> 00:44:51.400
was happening in the world at the
human nature her art reflected what

00:44:51.400 --> 00:44:53.200
was happening in the world at the

00:44:53.200 --> 00:44:56.600
time and I think that so much true of artists as

00:44:56.600 --> 00:44:59.300
they reflect what is happening in society.

00:45:00.400 --> 00:45:03.700
She was someone that was very committed to herself her

00:45:03.700 --> 00:45:05.500
artwork and she believed in.

00:45:06.700 --> 00:45:07.300
What was possible?

00:45:09.100 --> 00:45:09.900
And what she could do.