The Long Haul

Photo credit: Daren Mooko

It’s still, 7 years after moving to LA, odd to think of myself as part of the JTown community.  I remember sitting in my high school bedroom scouring blogs and webforums, looking for some semblance of community to latch onto.

Yet here I am reading this guest blog post on Angry Asian Man by my friend/mentor traci kato-kiriyama about Little Tokyo and Tuesday Night Cafe, feeling that sense of familiarity that comes with knowing the landscape, both physical and intangible.

“I think all the time about Los Angeles and the PEOPLE who brought me up and those, of all ages, who continue to raise me. I think of the undeniable power of art to bridge people at a totally necessary heart and spirit level. That, if I didn’t have art, I wouldn’t know how to survive and if I didn’t have community, I’d have no reason to. I think about all these wonderful people we’re surrounded by, who are passionate as much as they are grateful and forgiving of each other and themselves in order to stay in it… for the long haul.”

– traci kato-kiriyama, “Oldest-And-Still-Running-Blah-Blah-Blah…”

What is a community without the storytellers.