After a three year hiatus due to the Covid-19 pandemic, our popular Tucson Japanese Festival is returning on Saturday, March 23 once again at the Tucson Chinese Cultural Center at 1288 W. River Road. Festivities start at 11 am with a Odaiko Sonora Taiko drum roll. Also at this opening we will be giving a tribute to our late SAJCC Director Yuki Ibuki who passed away in Kyoto, Japan on Dec. 3, 2023.
Flyer on the schedule of events and food options for purchase is below. Fee is again only $5 for adults, free for children 5 years and younger. Family fun for all ages, plus mochi pounding, martial arts, traditional dancing, origami, activities & games.
New this year are mochi art making, 50/50 raffle prizes, shogi game playing, butoh workshop.
“Come hear the story of the Buddha, the founder of Buddhism and learn about his early life and how he became a spiritual leader.
The word Buddha means “I am awake” pertaining to the discovery of how he became free from suffering and developed an embodiment of compassion, wisdom, and peace.
A guided mindfulness meditation through the Gardens will follow the lecture. “Mindfulness is the ability to see things clearly, as they are, moment by moment and meditation is the foundation of mindfulness practice, the pillar of support through which our sense of self and world deepens, grows, and is clarified.” – Lhasha Tizer.
Lhasha Tizer, MS. is a certified Community Dharma Leader trained in Insight Meditation through Spirit Rock Meditation Center. She is a long time practitioner and teacher of meditation and mindfulness, studying for 47 years, and has been teaching Buddhist Studies since 2010. Through Desert Insight Meditation, her teaching community, she offers classes, book groups, and retreats at Tucson Community Meditation Center, the Sol Center and beyond. “
Date/Time:
Wednesday, March 13th, 2024
5:30PM-7PM
Advance registration required.
Tickets:
General public: $30
(Gardens admission included)
*There will be an opportunity to sign up for follow up guided instruction in mindfulness meditation the next week on Wednesday, March 20th at Yume from 5:30-7pm.Purchase Tickets
Once again the popular Tucson Festival of Books will be held at University of AZ campus mall on March 9 & 10, 2024. Coming this year are three Japanese American authors:
Artist Yu Yu Shiratori will be exhibiting her art at Snakebite Creation Space, 174 E. Toole Ave. (West of corner of N. 6th Avenue in downtown Tucson) on March 2, from 6 to 9 p.m.
I previously posted about a large mural she did at the MSA Annex, 267 S. Avenida del Convento.
The artist’s statement:
“Slow Bloom is the most personally significant work I’ve created- it shares my narrative of growing up Japanese American in Arizona, and in many ways tells a story that is relatable to any person coming from an immigrant background. I’ll attach a small sneak peak of what will be at the show.”
From the gallery’s website:
“Slow Bloom is the first large scale installation by multi-disciplinary artist, Yu Yu Shiratori. Featuring culturally significant objects, contradictory materials, and larger than life proportions. Shiratori’s work travels through personal narratives set against the backdrop of the Sonoran Desert. Shiratori leverages resilience and fortitude in creating this work, and her instillation utilizes delicate and functional objects as stand-ins for durable objects that resist decay and disappearance, evoking qualities of strength and power. This playful subversion reflects on the parallel ways characteristics are built within individuals through experiences of cultural code switching, and other learned behaviors of navigating space.
Slow Bloom expands the familiar, stretching objects beyond their physical form through light and shadow. This visual metaphor illuminates the unseen forces that shape our lives. Ancestral wisdom, shared identity, and individual insights—all blend together, telling the story of our interconnected communities and the futures we collectively create.”
Show available to view the two following Saturdays from 10-1, or by appointment.
