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"Growing up an Asian-American in Southern California during the Interwar period, Yuri Kochiyama joined clubs and volunteered to better her community, a drive that lasted her entire life. After being imprisoned in the Japanese camps during WWII, Yuri could only find jobs and acceptance within other minority communities, and living in Harlem drove her to fight for justice, supporting the Civil Rights movement by connecting activists in various parties with each other, building bridges until the very end of her life"--
About the author
Kai Naima Williams is a multi-disciplinary writer and performer based in Harlem. She is the author of the poetry collections
He Tried to Drown the Ocean, I Waved and
Tomorrow Maps, and a co-founder of Eat At The Table Theatre Company.
Her work has been honored by the Asian American Arts Alliance, MoCADA, the Tennessee Williams & New Orleans Literary Festival and The New York Times.
Summary
INTRODUCING THE NEXT GENERATION OF YOUNG READERS TO ONE OF THE TWENTIETH CENTURY'S MOST COURAGEOUS FREEDOM FIGHTERS, YURI KOCHIYAMA (1921 -- 2014).
Debut children's picture book author Kai Naima Williams -- great-granddaughter of Yuri Kochiyama -- intimately chronicles the experiences and lessons, hardships and victories, and people and places that shaped Yuri's life and influenced her activism. From Yuri's incarceration in a Japanese-American concentration camp during World War II to her participation in movements organizing for better schools in Harlem to her close friendship with Malcolm X, Yuri never wavered in her belief in the power of the people -- especially young people -- to bring about social change.
Through imaginative writing and vibrant illustrations by Anastasia Magloire Williams, THE BRIDGES YURI BUILT is sure to inspire young readers to embrace Yuri's unwavering belief that together we can build a bridge to a better world.
"The legacy I would like to leave is that people try to build bridges and not walls." -- Yuri Kochiyama
