Friday, September 1, 2017

Day 1863: A living legend!







No, junk mail collage














Want music?

 





Click here for Simply Red, If you don't know e by now.
then click back on this blog tab or here to listen as you browse, or not?









I'll apologize up front for my unabashed admiration for 

I am just short of a stalker, interviewing her in 2013 ,here.
Attending concerts of the Grateful Crane,
and lucky to be at some Nomura family events. 
Thanks to artist/friend Irene Rafael, I learned of this special event. 





 Wednesday, 30 August 2017, 6pm at
 LA Louver, a spectacular gallery in Venice, CA ...
they hosted a screening of "The Songbird of Manzanar",




 Cody Edison’s telling portrait of Mary Kageyama Nomura 
whose gift of song provided rare solace for the internees 
at the Manzanar Internment Camp during the 1940s.


  



Edison and Nomura sat for a discussion moderated by 
Academy Award nominated documentary filmmaker  
Renee Tajima-Peña (Who Killed Vincent Chin?, 1987). 




 



The conversation will be followed by a special performance 
by Mary Kagemura Nomura held in the poignant 
Ed and Nancy Kienholz’s The Non War Memorial.

 


Relaxed and so comfortable in front of the standing room only 
crowd, Mary has the most beautiful deep clear voice. 
Unusual for today, Mary sang the verse of the song,
I didn't recognize the song, and then ... wow,
she belted out St. Louis Woman to a rapt audience.
A standing ovation, flowers & an encore!
I can't explain what a treat it was to be there.




And after, a flurry of pictures, family, friends & admirers.





Before I met Mary, I saw Huell Howser's 2003 interview here.





Now a vibrant 91, with 12 grandchildren,  
2 great grandchildren, numerous nieces, nephews & family.
 Mary is a singer, talented gardener, cook, 
master seamstress (creating Designs by Meri),
beautiful, tall, graceful, smart, energetic ...
legend!












A smile for Friday ...













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