Film, Video Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii
Transcript:
TEXT
About this Item
- Title
- Voices from the Canefields: Folksongs from Japanese Immigrant Workers in Hawaii
- Summary
- Drawing on research for his recent book, "Voices from the Canefields," author Franklin Odo situates over two hundred songs of Japanese immigrant workers in Hawaii, in translation, in a hitherto largely unexplored historical context.
According to Odo, folk songs are short stories from the souls of common people. Some,like Mexican corridos or Scottish ballads reworked in the Appalachians, are stories of tragic or heroic episodes. Others, like the African American blues, reach from a difficult present back into slavery and forward into a troubled future.
Japanese workers on Hawaii's plantations created their own versions, in form more akin to their traditional tanka or haiku poetry. These holehole bushi describe the experiences of one particular group caught in the global movements of capital, empire, and labor during the late 19th and early 20th centuries.
- Event Date
- September 20, 2013
- Notes
- - Franklin S. Odo is a Japanese American author, scholar, activist and historian. Odo has served as the director of the Asian Pacific American Program at the Smithsonian Institution since the program's inception in 1997.
- Related Resources
- American Folklife Center: https://www.loc.gov/folklife/
- Running Time
- 57 minutes 18 seconds
- Online Format
- video
- image
- online text
Rights & Access
Cite This Item
More Films, Videos like this
-
Film, VideoMusical Soundscapes of Morocco: From Africa to America Samuel Torjman Thomas explores the circulation of Moroccan music in America and the place of music in constructing modern Moroccan-American hybrid identities. Morocco has long been a nexus point between east and...
- Contributor: Thomas, Samuel Torjman
- Date: 2016-06-06
-
Film, VideoDressing the Past: Civil War Reenactors, Williamsburg Historical Interpreters & Exploring American Identity Through Costume The periods of the American Revolution and the Civil War remain topics of pride and contention, subjects of popular writing, and inspiration for costumed performance. In 18th-century garments at Colonial Williamsburg and...
- Contributor: Shukla, Pravina
- Date: 2016-06-07
-
Film, VideoConversation with Roy & PJ Hirabayashi of San Jose Taiko A conversation with PJ and Roy Hirabayashi, creative director and co-founder emeriti of the performing ensemble San Jose Taiko.
- Contributor: Hirabayashi, Pj & Roy
- Date: 2017-06-30
-
Film, VideoCultural Integrity & Local Music: Cape Breton Fiddle, New Orleans Funk Burt Feintuch discusses how two seemingly very different places, Cape Breton Island in Nova Scotia and New Orleans, Louisiana, turn out to have much in common. In both, there is broad recognition...
- Contributor: Feintuch, Burt
- Date: 2017-07-07
-
Film, VideoFlowing Tides: Musical Memory, History and Global Culture in County Clare, Ireland Gearóid Ó hAllmhuráin discussed his book, "Flowing Tides: History and Memory in an Irish Soundscape."
- Contributor: Hallmhuráin, Gearóid
- Date: 2017-07-11