Nikiko Masumoto and Brynn Saito founded the Yonsei Memory Project to honor the stories of Japanese-Americans. And when the pandemic hit, they created a new program to give voice to valley writers called Valley Writers Respond. With funding from the California Wellness Foundation, they asked three writers - Will Freeney, Samina Najmi and Steven Church - to share their wisdom about the times we’re living in. Each writer was given a prompt. Here are excerpts from their essays.
To read the entire essays, go to yonseimemoryproject.com. The project and all of the writers are donating funds to help other artists through the Fresno Arts Council’s Safety Net Fund.