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EK: Perfect. Okay, so, just to start off, if you don't mind telling us a bit about yourself and how and why you became active with the Seattle JACL chapter.

TB: Sure, certainly. So, I go by Theo Bickel. My full name is Theodore Kenzo Dante Bickel. I, even at a young age, didn't really like Theodore. So, I don't really know how old I was, but when I was pretty short, I started going by Theo, I think, still in elementary school. But a bit about myself, I'm living here in Seattle, I'm currently working in marketing at a nonprofit organization called the International Community Health Services. I'm Japanese American, I use he/him pronouns, and I've been living here in Seattle for about five, six years, but I've grown up in Washington. Went to school up in Bellingham, Washington, did a brief stint in the other Washington at the JACL office with the OCA, Organization of Asian Pacific American Advocates. And yeah, that's a bit about myself. I first got involved with Seattle JACL, basically, through getting involved through national JACL first, and I think this plays a big part into my identity as a Japanese American. My perspective that I bring to the chapter, and kind of how I see the community at large, is that when I was growing up, I did not identify as gay. I identified as Asian American and definitely identified more with the pan Asian American immigrant experience, but hearing or reading about JA history, or even on one occasion, having a history teacher, I think in middle school, kind of call me out and asked me to share about my family's history of incarceration. I was like, I have no idea what that word is. No idea what that history is, the first time I think I'd really heard about it.

But long story short, I got involved through national JACL by doing an internship in 2013 at the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Washington here in Seattle, great experience, and then the volunteer coordinator after that, they kind of popped over an email to me like, hey, there's a program you should apply for. It's a cool leadership program through this organization called the Japanese American Citizens League called the Kakehashi Project that would bring young JA's from around the country to Japan for a identity-building, sort of cultural exchange program, meet Japanese college students, and do some touring around, eat lots of food. And so I definitely wanted to sign up. And when I took part in that program, that was really my first exposure not only to JACL, but also to many Japanese Americans. I grew up in a small town called Ridgefield, Washington, close to Vancouver, no JAs in my town. I went to school up at Western Washington University, and suddenly there were Japanese Americans, both first generation and fourth, fifth generation, but didn't really get to know many of them. And really didn't have that as a specific of my identity. But this Kakehashi Project was really just powerful in so many ways. And when I got back, long story short, after graduating, I did an internship at the National JACL office, met Bill Tashima, met some other chapter members, I met Sheldon Arakaki, Sheldon was incredibly kind. I think in my first week I met him because he was visiting or in town, and basically had an open invite, "Hey, if you ever come back to Washington, come see us." and I sure did. And got involved as soon as I got back to Washington state in 2015, that would have been.

EK: Awesome.

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