[Libs-Or] Poet Laureate performs new readers theater piece in Salem Thursday

[Sonja Somerville]

Oregon Poet Laureate Lawson Inada takes the stage with Willamette
University professor Linda Tamura to tell two entwined stories from the
life of Toyo Suyemoto, a Japanese-American writer and poet who worked in
a library located inside a Japanese internment camp during World War II.
 “The Topaz Public Library” is a readers theater piece that will
have its world premiere:

7 p.m. Thursday, April 16
Loucks Auditorium
Salem Public Library, 585 Liberty St. SE
The event is free and open to the public.

Inada has interspersed Toyo Suyemoto's memories of the Topaz Public
Library with the story of her life before and during the internment as
well as her poetry, all to striking effect. 

Inada, the current Oregon Poet Laureate, is a third-generation Japanese
American born in Fresno, California who spent part of his childhood in
internments camps in California, Arkansas, and Colorado. He is an
emeritus professor at Southern Oregon University and authors of three
books of poetry, “Before the War,” “Legends from Camp,” and
“Drawing the Line.”

Linda Tamura is an orchard kid from Hood River, Oregon who was a young
adult when she finally understood the impact of World War II on her
family. She is the author of Oregon Book Award finalist, “The Hood
River Issei: An Oral History of Japanese Settlers in Oregon’s Hood
River Valley,” a book drawn from interviews of the members of her
grandmother’s generation in Hood River. Tamura is on the faculty of
the School of Education at Willamette University and is one of three
co-editors in chief of The Oregon Encyclopedia,
(www.oregonencyclopedia.org).

The books of both performers will be available for purchase at the
event through a partnership with The Willamette Store.

“The Topaz Public Library” is a part of a two-month series of
programs planned in conjunction with Oregon Reads 2009, focusing on the
book, “Stubborn Twig: Three Generations in the Life of a
Japanese-American Family” by Lauren Kessler.

More information about this event and about all the Oregon Reads 2009
activities at Salem Public Library is available at 503-588-6052 or
www.salemlibrary.org 



Sonja Somerville
Community Relations/Volunteer Coordinator
Salem Public Library Foundation

Phone:     503-588-6083
E-mail:      ssomerville at cityofsalem.net
FAX:         503-589-2011
Address:   585 Liberty St. SE
                 Salem, OR 97301