KINTSUGI
June 5 - 13, 2027
Asian Arts Initiative • 1219 Vine St, Philadelphia, PA 19107
TICKETS ON SALE MARCH 1
What does it mean to be Japanese American in this moment, and what are the lasting societal effects of isolating and punishing a group based on identity? Inspired by the traditional Japanese ceramic art of the same name, KINTSUGI fuses the stories of this connected but diverse community into a whole, with golden connective bonds that highlight rather than hide lines of break and repair.
Curated by Rob Buscher, directed by Makoto Hirano, underscored with original music by Sumi Tonooka, and performed by an ensemble of community members, KINTSUGI is a live performance of an original play with movement and music exploring intergenerational stories of Japanese Americans in Philadelphia.
Before a single scene is written, the project has been building the repair it portrays. Community members are gathering to speak what was often left unspoken: incarceration remembered only in fragments, language lost and half-recovered, grandparents' silences their grandchildren are still trying to translate, and the stories of postwar Nikkei immigrants and their experiences of belonging and connectedness. These conversations are held with care, first facilitated by Japanese American therapists Amy Danford (MA, ATR-BC) and Cliff Akiyama (MA, MPH, FAAFS) so that telling the story can itself be part of the repair.
What emerges is not a single narrative but many, connected. These stories, gathered with trust and held with tenderness, are the backbone of this original performance.
meet the artists
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meet the artists •
ROB BUSCHER is a film and media specialist, educator, curator, and writer who has held leadership positions in non-profit organizations for over a decade. A mixed-race Yonsei who is deeply involved in his community, Rob has lectured at University of Pennsylvania’s Asian American Studies Program since 2017, teaching courses on cinema and activism. He is the producer/host of Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation's thirteen-episode podcast Look Toward the Mountain, and host of PBS WHYY's six-episode TV-series Asian Americans & Pacific Islanders: A Philadelphia Story. Rob is currently co-producing a feature-length documentary under the working-title Kiyoshi about Sansei HIV/AIDS activist Kiyoshi Kuromiya.
AMY DANFORD is a fourth-generation Japanese American art therapist, educator, and artist with more than 25 years of experience using art to foster healing, connection, and self-expression. She has developed and led programs at institutions including the Queens Museum of Art, Cincinnati Art Museum, Philadelphia Museum of Art, and Brandywine Museum of Art, serving diverse audiences across the lifespan. Amy’s work has supported individuals with disabilities, incarcerated populations, Alzheimer’s patients, and those facing mental health challenges. Her family’s incarceration and her time at a Quaker school deeply inform her exploration of identity, resilience, and storytelling.
SUMI TONOOKA has been called a “fierce, fascinating composer pianist” by Jazz Times and “provocative and compelling” by The New York Times. Recently, Sumi is a winner of the 2023 PEW Artist Fellow Awardee. She is a winning finalist for the Emerging Black Composers Project to compose her fourth symphony, Only The Midnight Sky and Silent Stars, premiered by the San Francisco Conservatory in 2023. She is also a 2021 recipient of the Doris Duke, Creative Inflections Grant, with vocalist/composer Jen Shyu, for In The Green Room, inspired by the stories of Asian and African American women in Jazz. She was awarded the Chamber Music America New Jazz Works grant in 2019, premiering later this year for her trio plus Alchemy Sound Project, a composers collective that she started in 2015. @sumitonooka, http://sumitonooka.com
MAKOTO HIRANO is a Philadelphia-based choreographer. Over the past two decades, his award-winning performance projects have been presented and commissioned internationally from Cairo to Off-Broadway. As a collaborating performer, Hirano has originated over 35 roles including projects with Bill Irwin, Pig Iron Theatre Co., and Nichole Canuso Dance Co. Hirano is a founding member and current advisor to the arts collective PAPA (Philly Asian Performing Artists) and Co-Artistic Director of Team Sunshine Performance. From 2007-2014 Hirano was a Facilitator with Philly-based professional development program Artists U, and is currently on faculty at the Pig Iron School/Rowan University. A former U.S. Marine, Hirano earned his BFA in dance at Temple University.
CLIFF AKIYAMA is a licensed Pediatric Behavioral Specialist (LBS) in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania working with youth in the cross-sections of the juvenile justice, public health, and behavioral health systems, as Cliff specializes in trauma therapy, holding space for those that are affected by violence in all forms. Cliff is the Secretary of the Board of Directors of the Anti-Violence Partnership of Philadelphia (AVP). In addition, Cliff is the current President and Board Member of the Philadelphia Chapter of the Japanese American Citizens League (JACL). Cliff received his BA in Philosophy from the University of Virginia, his MA in Criminology and his MPH from the University of Pennsylvania.
Rooted in Philadelphia, Mel Hsu’s restless spirit finds adventure across time zones and oceans as administrative bedrock and musical accompaniment for others who inspire her. Mel’s work comes from a lineage of artists and culture workers who deeply believe in the power of song to disrupt and shift flows of power. Mel is a former Conference Logistics Coordinator for the international Girls Rock Camp Alliance and former Co-Director at Girls Rock Philly. Mel was a co-leader of Philadelphia’s notorious No Arena Flash Chorus, a 100+ member force that brought fierceness and joy to the No Arena Coalition’s fight against billionaire development in Philadelphia’s Chinatown. Mel is a spreadsheet nerd, a slow reader and a shameless instigator of kitchen dance parties.