FUKUSHIMA HIPHOP: Poetry by Yuri Kageyama written in homage to Ahmir Khalib Thompson and The Roots


Official video by The Roots “What They Do” 1996 Geffen Records.

FUKUSHIMA HIPHOP
Poetry by Yuri Kageyama
in homage to Ahmir Khalib Thompson and The Roots

fukushima3
photo by Yuri Kageyama

Y’all, it’s a Meltdown nation
Since Three-Eleven
Covered in the fear
Of unseen radiation
But Don’t you expect
Any revolution
All you will find
Is fear and contamination.

Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima

Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
Instead of a holler
Hear just a whimper
They say it is safe
The kids like Chernobyl
Are coming down sick
With Thyroid cancer.

Y’all, it’s no hallucination
The refugees’ life
No compensation
No resolution
Just nuclear explosions
Get your dosimeter
Cesium in the water
Lost Imagination

Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima

Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
The radiated Brothers
Faces are hidden
Goggles and masks
Like an astronaut
From head to toe
The Invisible workers

Tsunami Demolition
God’s DeCreation
Genetic Devastation
Our next Generation.
Here in Fukushima
It rhymes with Hiroshima
No-go zones forever
The World must remember.

Fukushima
Fukushima
Fukushima

fukushima1

fukushima2
photos by Yuri Kageyama

TURNING JAPANESE poetry and reading by Yuri Kageyama

TURNING JAPANESE a poem by Yuri Kageyama
Film and Photos by Ian Thomas Ash
Reading by Yuri Kageyama
Wincester Nii Tete on percussion and Hiromichi Ugaya on bass at The Pink Cow in Tokyo for a “Looking At Fukushima” event May 7, 2013.

TURNING JAPANESE

a poem by Yuri Kageyama

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Take architecture:
We take space that’s smaller than a toilet
Create a garden to express the Universe
Todaiji Temple grandeur hierachy
It doesn’t even use any nails

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Take ikebana:
Flowers and herbs and blades of grass
Sculpture ecology Basho-esque balance
Homage to God’s perfection of design
It doesn’t even last a week

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be fore sale
So be proud

Take law and order:
Our trains are clean, run always on time
Apology on the PA if they’re two minutes late
The homeless politely take off their shoes
To get in their cardboard homes

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Take politics:
They tell us we have a democracy
Imported direct from the US of A
A new prime minister every year or so
What’s his name _ Koizumi, Abe, Fukuda, Aso, Hatoyama, Kan, Noda _ Abe again?
Please remember!

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Take women:
Excuse me, I mean, Take girls:
Uniform miniskirts, eyelash extensions
Never have jobs or grow older than 13
But grow Barbie’s breasts

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Technology:
Robots, Pokemon, gadgets galore
Attention to detail, precision with vengeance
We get everything right _ unless something goes wrong
Like a nuclear meltdown

Turning Japanese is not masturbation
Could even be for sale
So be proud

Celebration
Revolution
Masturbation
Nuclear nation
Hydrogen explosion
Can I have your attention
Masturbation
Radiation
Nuclear nation …..

LOOKING AT FUKUSHIMA


The Asian American Journalists Association presents
“LOOKING AT FUKUSHIMA _ An Evening with Hiromichi Ugaya,”
a talk, photo slideshow and discussion session with a veteran journalist documenting a post-nuclear disaster landscape.

THE PINK COW
5-5-1 Roppongi Minatoku Tokyo Roi Building B1F
TUESDAY May 7, 2013 7 p.m. – 10 p.m.
2,500 yen for a Great Buffet is the only charge. Drinks pay as you go at the bar.
A public English-language event.
Come on time to catch a musical performance opening the event.
Musicians and poets welcome for Jam Open Mike to close the event.

Hiromichi “Hiro” UGAYA is a veteran journalist, photographer and educator, who has devoted his life recently to intensive coverage of the Fukushima nuclear catastrophe and the plight of the tens of thousands of people the accident has displaced. A former reporter at Asahi newspaper and writer for AERA magazine, he has authored more than half a dozen books on security issues, media criticism, Internet technology and Japanese pop culture. A graduate of Kyoto University, he holds a Master’s in International Security Affairs from Columbia University. His latest book “Fukushima’s Lost Seasons” is a poetic photo essay of the serene flowers and trees of the region that have been invisibly devastated by radiation. He is also a bassist and performs regularly at Tokyo clubs.

A Letter to Isaku in Konch magazine

My piece on Japan’s nuclear disaster, “A Letter to Isaku,” and all our children, is published in the new issue of Konch Magazine from Ishmael Reed Publishing Co.

Newer Entries »