Description
Book SynopsisA mold-breaking memoir of Asian American identity, political activism, community, and purpose. Not Yo' Butterfly is the intimate and unflinching life story of Nobuko Miyamotoartist, activist, and mother. Beginning with the harrowing early years of her life as a Japanese American child navigating a fearful west coast during World War II, Miyamotoleads readers into the landscapes that defined the experiences of twentieth-century America and alsoforegrounds the struggles of people of color who reclaimed their histories, identities, and power through activism and art. Miyamoto vividly describes her early life in the racialized atmosphere of Hollywood musicals and then her turn toward activism as an Asian American troubadour with the release of A Grain of Sandconsidered to be the first Asian American folk album. Her narrative intersects with the stories of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs, influential in both Asian and Black liberation movements. She tells how her experience of motherhood with an Afro-Asian son, as well as a marriage that intertwined Black and Japanese families and communities, placed her at the nexus of the 1992 Rodney King riotsand how she used art to create interracial solidarity and conciliation. Through it all, Miyamoto has embraced her identity as an Asian American woman to create an antiracist body of work and a blueprint for empathy and praxis through community art. Her sometimes barbed, often provocative, and always steadfast story is now told.
Trade Review"Frank and fierce, her story is bound to inspire." * Ms. Magazine *
"Starts with a bang and takes off into a poetic whirlwind. . . . The memoir captures an important part of American history that, at this point, has been rarely written about, especially by someone who lived it." * Rafu Shimpo *
"Playful, provocative, never boring. . . . The memoir captures an important part of American history that has been rarely written about. It is well worth reading." * Nichi Bei Weekly *
Table of ContentsList of Illustrations
Intro
First Movement
1 • A Travelin' Girl
2 • Don’t Fence Me In
3 • A Tisket, a Tasket, a Brown and Yellow Basket
4 • From a Broken Past into the Future
5 • Twice as Good
6 • Shall We Dance!
7 • School Daze
8 • Chop Suey
9 • There's a Place for Us
10 • We Shall Overcome
Second Movement
11 • Power to the People
12 • A Single Stone, Many Ripples
13 • Something About Me Today
14 • The People's Beat
15 • A Song for Ourselves
16 •
Somos Asiáticos 17 • Foster Children of the Pepsi Generation
18 • A Grain of Sand
19 • Free the Land
20 • What Will People Think?
21 • Some Things Live a Moment
22 • How to Mend What's Broken
Third Movement
23 • Women Hold Up Half the Sky
24 • Our Own Chop Suey
25 • What Is the Color of Love?
26 • Talk Story
27 •
Yuiyo, Just Dance
28 • Float Hands Like Clouds
29 • Deep Is the Chasm
30 • To All Relations
31 •
Bismillah Ir Rahman Ir Rahim 32 • The Seed of the Dandelion
33 • I Dream a Garden
34 •
Mottainai—Waste Nothing
35 • Black Lives Matter
36 •
Bambutsu—All Things Connected
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
