The Japan America Society of Greater Philadelphia, in collaboration with BlackSci-Fi.com, presents “Black History Month Bunka-sai (Cultural Fair)” – a day of film programming, anime workshops, and taiko drum performances to explore the cultural and historical intersections of African American and Japanese American Communities.

COVID-19 Vaccine Clinic will be onsite hosted by Penn Medicine.

Event schedule:

12pm Doors open

12:15pm Taiko performance by Mac Evans

12:30pm Double Victory (47 mins)
Through a series of short documentaries and period newsreels, this program tells the stories of African American veterans of WWII such as the Tuskegee Airmen and Black Panther Tank Battalion, alongside the stories of Japanese American veterans of the 442nd Regimental Combat Team.

1:30pm Blended Sounds (53 mins)
This compilation of music videos and short documentaries explores the rich legacy of Black music cultures in Japan such as the Reggae/Dancehall scene, and introduces a leading Japanese American hip hop artist who will be performing at the 2022 Cherry Blossom Festival.

2:30pm Shared Struggles (47 mins)
This final program looks at the long history of collaboration among African American and Japanese American activists through the stories of Malcolm X and Yuri Kochiyama, Jon Osaki’s short documentary Reparations, and a series of local focused protests that Japanese American activists participated in alongside the Haitian immigrant community.

3:30pm Taiko performance by Mac Evans

Address: Auditorium of The School of the Future, 4021 Parkside Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19104.

This event is sponsored by The Center for East Asian Studies, and supported by The Parkside Journal, School of the Future, BlackSci-Fi.com, and The Pew Center for Arts & Heritage.