
“News From Fukushima _ Meditation on an Under-Reported Catastrophe by a Poet,” directed by Yoshiaki Tago, gets a screening at Libra Hall in Tokyo SUN April 23, 2023, followed by My Poetry With Music.
The film documents a theater performance in San Francisco in 2017, directed by Carla Blank, starring Takemi Kitamura, Monisha Shiva and Shigeko Sara Suga with music by Stomu Takeishi, Isaku Kageyama, Kouzan Kikuchi and Joe Small. Lighting by Blu. Video by Yoshiaki Tago. Written by Yuri Kageyama.
Poems in order of the reading: “I Am The Virus,” “Hiphop Fukushima,” “Nothing Happens,” “ode to the stroller,” all written by Yuri Kageyama with music by The YURICANE band featuring Nobutaka Yamasaki (piano), Takuma Anzai (drums), tea (vocals), Hiroshi Tokieda (bass) and Hideyuki Asada (guitar).
Yuri Kageyama · I Am The Virus _ a poem by Yuri Kageyama with piano by Nobutaka Yamasaki
I AM THE VIRUS
a poem by Yuri Kageyama, read with piano by Nobutaka Yamasaki
I am the virus
I thrive on mossy envious egos
They keep showing up
Offices, clubs, picnics,
Choosing being seen, hoarding
Over social dis-tan-cing
I am the virus
I fester in corona-shaped clusters
Commuter trains, cruises, crowds
Peering at the Olympic torch,
I love the naming “Chinese virus”
The taunts, attacks on slant-eyed people
I am the virus
I cower when folks stay in
Takeout food, work from home,
A meter apart on solitary walks,
Wearing masks, washing hands,
Mixing aloe and alcohol
I am the virus
The crazy evil devoured
By doctors, vaccines, canceled concerts
Turning into live-streamed music,
People who remember to tell those they love
How much they really love them.














PHOTOS by On Lim Wong.