Heartbeat of Struggle: Yuri Kochiyama and Diane Fujino Author Event

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Heartbeat of Struggle: Yuri Kochiyama and Diane Fujino Author Event

Event Location: San Francisco Bay Area

Diane Fujino, author of Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama discusses the newly published biography with her honored guest, Yuri Kochiyama.

Yuri Kochiyama has also authored her memoirs, Passing It On.

UC Berkeley Asian American Studies and Asian Pacific Student Development are hosting the free event to honor Yuri Kochiyama's life.

Date: September 10, 2005 Saturday 2:00 pm

Where: Heller Lounge, located in the Martin Luther King Jr. Student Union Building , UC Berkeley, on Bancroft Ave. and Telegraph Ave. Berkeley. Public parking available in the MLK Student Union garage

For more information contact Eastwind Books of Berkeley (510) 548-2350, books@ewbb.com

Yuri Kochiyama's life has inspired generations. Yuri Kochiyama recently was nominated for the "1,000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize 2005" at the age of 84. Diane Fujino has written the first biography of this courageous champion of freedom and equality, titled Heartbeat of Struggle: The Revolutionary Life of Yuri Kochiyama, published by University of Minnesota Press.

On February 21, 1965, in the Audubon Ballroom, Yuri Kochiyama cradled Malcolm X in her arms as he died, but her role as a public servant and activist began much earlier than this pivotal public moment. Heartbeat of Struggle is the first biography of this courageous woman, the most prominent Asian American activist to emerge during the 1960s. Based on extensive archival research and interviews with Kochiyama's family, friends, and the subject herself, Diane C. Fujino traces Kochiyama's life from an "all-American" childhood to her accomplishments as a tireless defender of and fighter for human rights.

Growing up in a Japanese immigrant family in California during the 1920s and 1930s, Kochiyama was active in sports, school, and church. She was both unquestioningly patriotic and largely unconscious of race and racism in the United States. After Pearl Harbor, however, Kochiyama's family was among the thousands of Japanese Americans forcibly removed to internment camps for the duration of the war, a traumatic experience that opened her eyes to the existence of social injustice.

After the war, Kochiyama moved to New York. She began her activist career in the vibrant Black movement in Harlem in the 1960s, where she met Malcolm X, who inspired her radical political development and the ensuing four decades of incessant work for Black liberation, Asian American equality, Puerto Rican independence, and political prisoner defense. Kochiyama is widely respected for her work in forging unity among diverse communities, especially between Asian and African Americans.

Fujino, a scholar and activist, offers an in-depth examination of Kochiyama's political awakening, rich life, and impressive achievements with particular attention to how her public role so often defied gender, racial, and cultural norms. Heartbeat of Struggle is a source of inspiration and guidance for anyone committed to social change.

Diane C. Fujino is associate professor of Asian American studies at the University of California, Santa Barbara.

@Manja