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VM: Can you tell us about some of the other members? Because I also don't know Joyce Nako, and I did get to hear Jude. I saw her perform once, but I don't really know them. Can you describe them for us?

AU: Well, Jude comes from kind of an unusual background. Her mother is a Nisei who I think is a jazz producer, or used to do that, in New York. I mean, that's sort of a rare job for anyone, much less a Nisei woman. So she comes from that background, I don't know how much that might have affected her, but I know Jude and one or two of her brothers were all kind of in the theater, in show business. So I don't think that's just coincidence. But Jude, she had to write her own scripts because, of course, she wasn't getting roles and she wanted to talk from an Asian American women's perspective, so she wrote her own narratives and did solo performances, which were great. And so Valerie, you said you got to see her once?

VM: Yes, it was really remarkable, at East West Players.

AU: Right.

VM: And tell us about Joyce Nako. What was she like?

AU: Joyce Nako is, she's a very high energy person, very high energy, very down to earth. I kind of remember her with a cigarette, I don't know if she still smokes. [Laughs] And she's funny, I didn't know her husband, but she was married to a Sansei man who, in the early movement years, I think a lot of people knew about his cooking. And then he passed at a pretty early age, but Joyce, I think, is currently trying to work on a book about her husband and his cooking and maybe that period in their life. So she's working on that, I think Miya Iwataki is contributing. But Joyce is, she's a very nice woman, cool. [Laughs]

VM: Well, you're a very cool group, I have to say. Are there other members that you kept in touch with?

AU: Not... well, not that I've kept in touch with. I wasn't in PAAWWW at the same time as Miya, but I'm very much in touch with Miya now. So she was there before me.

BN: And was Emma Gee -- oh, sorry.

AU: Oh yeah, I forgot, Emma Gee was also in PAAWWW. And Emma Gee was Yuji Ichioka's wife, and both of them were activists, activists to the max. You know how they gave Yuji credit for the "Asian American"? Sometimes I'm wondering if Emma had any input on that, coining that term. Because credit's given to Yuji, right? But Emma was good. I mean, she and Momoko were kind of the older people in PAAWWW. So I kind of looked up to them also just for their experience.

VM: It sounds like PAAWWW was really important to you in multiple ways. Can you give us sort of a capsule of that?

AU: Well, I think I mentioned, I mean, just being with fellow writers who are facing obstacles was good. And then doing performances with an all-Asian American group. I mean, that's not something you see every day. So that was pretty special when you'd get six or seven of us each doing our poem or story. So there was that aspect of it, which was a learning experience, performing our work. And also just, I think I mentioned the social aspect, it was nice, very, very nice. And I don't know what you would consider this, but for us to get out in the community and do those performances, we felt was also important for the community, the Asian American community to see this.

VM: Thank you.

BN: I'm actually curious about the performances. I mean, where, what kind of venues did you perform at, like how frequently?

AU: They weren't that frequent venues. One was a library, one or two were libraries. I don't really remember the other venues. Maybe I would remember better if I were in charge of finding the venue but I wasn't, I just went. [Laughs]

BN: And then was there like a, kind of unofficial leader of the group?

AU: Well, I think, actually, I think we did have a... my memory is so weak on this, but at some point I think Jude Narita was our... I don't know if we had a word for our president, our chairperson, something or other, but she was in charge. But I don't remember too much about that.

VM: Maybe she's the wrong generation, but did Wakako Yamauchi ever do anything with PAAWWW?

AU: She did. She did off and on. I think there was at least one performance where she joined us.

VM: And how about Mitsuye Yamada?

AU: Not with PAAWWW, not that I can recall, when I was in there. Of course, PAAWWW was there a long time before I joined.

<End Segment 5> - Copyright © 2022 Densho. All Rights Reserved.