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First Thursdays Arts Walk – The Power of the Letter: Civilian Exclusion Order No. 83 and the Incarceration of Riversiders

7:00-8:00 PM; doors open at 6:30 PM

Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties

3855 Market Street

Riverside, CA 92501

Free and open to the public.

In honor of Asian American Pacific Islander Month, Inlandia Institute, the Museum of Riverside and the Harada House Foundation, the Center for Social Justice & Civil Liberties, the Civil Rights Institute of Inland Southern California, and Riverside Public Library will present a program about the concentration camps and incarceration of Japanese American citizens – including prominent Riversiders like the Harada family – on Thursday, May 2, at the Center for Social Justice and Civil Liberties. Please join us!

The CSJCL will be reopening its Miné Okubo exhibit on April 26, so plan on taking a tour of Okubo’s artwork while you’re there! The Miné Okubo’s Eyes: A Life in Colors re-installation is a celebration of the artist’s remarkable body of work, which spans seven decades. The exhibition brings forth a dazzling array of paintings and drawings that have never been on public view. Okubo was a trailblazing artist who dedicated her life to creativity, beauty, and imagery that was “rooted in a concern for the humanities.”

In addition to being an artist, Miné Okubo famously wrote a graphic autobiography depicting her time as a prisoner at one of the camps, Citizen 13660. Mine Okubo was born in Riverside in 1912 and graduated from Riverside City College in 1933. She received a degree in Fine Arts from UC Berkeley, where she later taught. In 1974, the Riverside Community College District selected Okubo as its Alumnus of the Year, and 30 years later Riverside City College named a street on campus in her honor.