Amy uyematsu biography

Poet Amy Uyematsu, a third-generation Japanese American, was raised in Southern California by parents who were interned at Manzanar and Gila concentration.
Amy Uyematsu (1947 – June 23, 2023) was an American poet.
Her poems draw from her personal experience as a third-generation Japanese American woman, activist, and high-school math teacher.

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Amy Uyematsu

after Jack Micheline’s “Poem”

(“I chose the whippoorwill”)

I chose Cisco Kid, Tonto, and men dressed in black.

I cheered the loudest when the Indians attacked.

I chose loners, despising cliques at every age

but secretly hoping one day I’d get picked.

I chose revolution, not evolution.

I carried the Red Book, Soul on Ice, quoted from

Paolo Freire’s Pedagogy of the Oppressed.

I knew the meaning of dialectal materialism.

Once I held my husband hostage for having no opinion.

Once a lover who wronged me said I take no prisoners.

I took sides like a junkie until I could see

they both cared about winning no matter the cost,

and when i chose to give up the battle,

a voice inside was still calling my name.

I always chose the romantic ending,

listened to torch songs long before

I’d ever died of longing.

I took my cues from the moon.

I chose saxophone and cha-cha, sipped Scotch

on the rocks, lounged

in the shade of June afternoons

slowly chewing the skin of a Japanese plum.

I chose purple for my bridesma

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Amy Uyematsu

Amy Uyematsu, born and raised in Southern California, is the author of six poetry collections that draw on her experiences as a third-generation Japanese American woman, activist, and high-school math teacher.

Uyematsu was born in Pasadena in 1947. Her grandfather was an influential flower farmer before his properties were seized and he, and her parents, were interned with other Japanese American citizens at a desert camp during World War II. That Blue Trickster Time (2022), released just before Uyematsu’s death, explores this family history. Written during the Trump and Covid-19 years, many poems reflect the deepening political and racial divides in America, including the surge of anti-Asian hate crimes since 2020.

Earlier in her career, Uyematsu co-edited the seminal anthology Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971). Her essay, “The Emergence of Yellow Power in America,” continues to be read in many Asian American studies classes. She lived in Los Angeles.

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Amy Uyematsu

Japanese-American poet (1947–2023)

Amy Uyematsu (1947 – June 23, 2023) was an American poet.^[1]

Early life and education

Uyematsu was a third-generation Japanese American from Pasadena, California. A graduate of University of California, Los Angeles in mathematics, Uyematsu became active in Asian American Studies in the late sixties. As a college senior, she penned the essay “The Emergence of Yellow Power in America” (Gidra, 1969), an assertion of Asian American identity influenced by the consciousness-raising theories of the Black Power movement.^[2] That same year she joined the staff of the newly formed UCLA Asian American Studies Center, where she co-edited the widely-used anthology, Roots: An Asian American Reader (1971).^[3]

Career

In the 1970s, Uyematsu was involved in what would become known as the Asian American movement. Modeled after the Black Power movement, it too emphasized racial pride, economic empowerment, and the creation of political and cultural institutions for Asian American peop