NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA: Meditation On An Under-Reported Catastrophe By A Poet is an Official Selection. Screening at LetLive Theater in Los Angeles SAT March 2, 2024 7:30 p.m. I am happy, grateful, honored. Thanks to my theater and film directors, Carla Blank and Yoshiaki Tago, my brilliant tireless multicultural cast, my dedicated crew and team, everyone who stuck with and believed in my writing.
Ishmael and Tennessee Reed collected 62 contributions from people in China, Japan, Europe, Africa and the U.S. to write about their COVID experiences. And one of them is yours truly. The online collection of works crisscrossing the world and spanning two issues of KONCH literary magazine is coming out as a real-life book publication in 2024. On the cover is a photo taken in Venice of the poet, playwright, novelist, essayist, thinker and my forever mentor Ishmael Reed, standing next to a plague doctor (who else?) I am so happy, excited and honored. I can’t wait to get a copy.
My AP Story Sept. 4, 2023 about how the men who have come forward are hopeful, and fearful, ahead of the company’s first news conference on the scandal.
My AP Story Aug. 29, 2023 about a team looking into sexual assault allegations at Johnny’s and demanding Julie resign.
My AP Story and My AP Photos Aug. 4, 2023 about a U.N. group looking into the allegations at Johnny’s and how seven men saw that as a big step forward.
The ambulances are screaming. We look up and see a big tear in a steel fame right by our apartment building. We wonder but figure it’s not a murder because we don’t read about it, and there aren’t that many murders in Tokyo. Every time we see the broken frame, we wonder who it could have been. And what might have driven this individual, whom we don’t know and never will know, male or female, young or old, happy or unhappy, probably unhappy, literally over the ledge to a dark deep definitive leap of death. It does not make us feel very good. Every time we see that broken frame. A few weeks later, the frame gets fixed. And we stop wondering.
Featuring Tea on vocals and the YURICANE band with Hideyuki Asada (guitar, arrangement, audio mastering), Hiroshi Tokieda (bass) and Takuma Anzai (drums).
Photo by On Lim Wong.
I started working on this song in February 2019. It’s finally finished in 2023, as a recording, with singing and music. The piece is about how people like to talk about “what’s happening” or what’s going to happen. But most of the time, nothing happens. And nothing needs to happen. If anything, it can be a good thing when nothing happens. With the pandemic unfolding, the song became for me more pertinent than ever. I reworked the song to reflect that. In June 2020, I added the rap section in Japanese that refers to the death of George Floyd. We must not forget how precious those moments are when horrible things that can happen don’t happen, and we can just sit back and enjoy the passage of time, when utterly nothing happens.
Nothing happens なにもおこらない
_ a poem/song by Yuri Kageyama
(1)
Nothing happens
Bombs no longer falling
Nations aren’t
killing
Nothing happens
^___<
(2)
Nothing happens
Women aren’t
screaming
Children
aren’t starving
Nothing happens
^___<
(BRIDGE)
なにもおこらない
このきもち
なにもおこらない
しずけさ
^___<
(4)
Nothing happens
The stars will
shine
Behind clouds
that hide
Nothing
happens
^___<
(5)
Nothing happens
Birds, blossoms remind
The passing of
time
Nothing
happens
^___<
(rap section)
Nothing
happens
We took it for
granted
Nothing is
boring
Nobody up to
no good
Looking for something
Something to
happen
Before the
coronavirus
Now we wake
up to numbers
Pray the curve gets flattened
Pray it’s no
one we know
Waiting for
a vaccine
Scared by
the sirens
Italy, New
York, Spain, Wuhan, Tokyo
Now nothing
else happens
Nothing else
can happen
Now you know
it:
Now you wish
you didn’t wish it
Now you know
for sure you like it
When Nothing
happens
Yeah, Nothing happens
なにもおこらない
死ぬまえ
のこる生命で
えらんだ言葉
息ができない
彼のおもい
アメリカの差別
歴史のおもい
すべてすごくて
言葉がない
息ができない
息ができない
You know
that’s the view:
No news is
good news,
It’s so
quiet you can hear it
Silence is
the music
When NOTHING HAPPENS
^___<
なにもおこらない
このきもち
なにもおこらない
しずけさ
^__<
Nothing
happens
The Virus descends
Like a stranger
of death
Nothing
happens
^___<
Nothing happens
We can forget
the rest
How we miss
those days
When Nothing happens
^—–<
And this is how the song all started; the clip below is from while it’s in the works (Artwork by Munenori Tamagawa):
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).
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.
Nobutaka Yamasaki. Photo by On Lim Wong.
Yoshiaki Tago, film director for NEWS FROM FUKUSHIMA. Photo by On Lim Wong.
Hideyuki Asada. Photo by On Lim Wong. Takuma Anzai. Photo by On Lim Wong. Hiroshi Tokieda and tea. Photo by Ong Lim Wong.Nobutaka Yamasaki. Photo by On Lim Wong
From L to R: Toshiko Okada, Nobutaka Yamasaki, Yuri Kageyama, tea, Takuma Anzai, Hiroshi Tokieda, Hideyuki Asada.
