Lauren Ito – To Our Ancesors – SFAC Emerging Artist Grant

Read the Zine here!
https://toourancestors.com/

The late Janice Mirikitani shared that we must, “write towards the light.” In this spirit of Janice’s message and calling in care, a cohort of Japanese diasporic artists will convene to co-create a love letter to our ancestors inspired by the Japanese poetic form of renshi.

Renshi is a collaborative “linked” poetry form used to inspire bridging and healing. When practicing renshi poetry, each poet creates a poem, then takes the last line of their poem and passes it onto the next person in the “chain” to use as the first line of their work—and so on. The works that emerge reflect dynamism of individual exploration, collective inspiration, and deeply relational authorship.

To Our Ancestors is a project that convenes six artists to create a digital “renshi love letter” to our ancestors that bridges across mediums and artist perspectives by alternating between poets and visual artists.

Each artist had 2-4 weeks to create their piece before passing whatever they interpret as the concluding element of their piece to the next artist to serve as the starting point of inspiration for their contribution.

Lauren Ito received an SFAC Emerging Artist Grant to fund this project in partnership with fiscal sponsor, National Japanese American Historical Society (NJAHS).

Read the Zine here!

https://toourancestors.com/