No-No Boy visits Boulder campus
No-No Boy gets its name from the Japanese Americans who were ordered to live in internment camps during World War II, soon after the Pearl Harbor attack in 1942. Citizens incarcerated at these camps were deprived of their civil rights yet asked to serve in combat duty and swear allegiance to the US. Those answering 鈥渘o鈥 to those two demands on the government鈥檚 Loyalty Questionnaire became 鈥淣o No Boys,鈥 and today are viewed as heroes for standing up to the government that deprived them of their freedom, liberty and justice.
Saporiti opens the residency on October 7 with "Transforming Scholarship into Song," an academic presentation that looks at how the No-No Boy Project has transformed ethnographic and archival research into a musical and performative experience.
Saporiti takes inspiration for his work from his own family鈥檚 history of living through the Vietnam War, his doctoral work at Brown University, and interviews with World War II Japanese incarceration camp survivors. While on a national tour promoting their 2018 album, , No-No Boy performed for asylum seekers and aid workers in Laredo, Crystal City (former home of a WWII Internment Camp) and Dilley, TX (current home to the largest family detention center).
The AMRC is beyond thrilled to host No-No Boy on CU campus this October and invities everyone--students, faculty, staff and the community--to their culminating concert on Friday, October 11.