Not Yo' Butterfly
by Nobuko Miyamoto, Deborah Wong
A mold-breaking memoir of Asian American identity, political activism, community, and purpose.
Not Yo' Butterfly is the intimate and unflinching life story of Nobuko Miyamoto—artist, activist, and mother. Beginning with the harrowing early years of her life as a Japanese American child navigating a fearful west coast during World War II, Miyamoto leads readers into the landscapes that defined the experiences of twentieth-century America and also foregrounds the struggles of people of color who reclaimed their histories, identities, and power through activism and art.
Miyamoto vividly describes her early life in the racialized atmosphere of Hollywood musicals and then her turn toward activism as an Asian American troubadour with the release of A Grain of Sand—considered to be the first Asian American folk album. Her narrative intersects with the stories of Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs, influential in both Asian and Black liberation movements. She tells how her experience of motherhood with an Afro-Asian son, as well as a marriage that intertwined Black and Japanese families and communities, placed her at the nexus of the 1992 Rodney King riots—and how she used art to create interracial solidarity and conciliation.
Through it all, Miyamoto has embraced her identity as an Asian American woman to create an antiracist body of work and a blueprint for empathy and praxis through community art. Her sometimes barbed, often provocative, and always steadfast story is now told.
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"I was present and participated in the 1973 recording of A Grain of Sand . While it was an album about the struggle of Asians in America, it also contributed to the second half of the twentieth-century Black liberation movement, and the songs became the childhood lullabies of my son Tupac. Nobuko reminds me of the foundation of my being. She reminds me that culture is a political weapon, a liberation force for the spirit."--Dr. Mutulu Shakur "With the thousands of existing books on white history and culture, Not Yo' Butterfly by Nobuko Miyamoto is a much needed, must-read book on Asian Pacific Americans and how we too have sung America. In her life, Nobuko has lived and experienced a wide-breadth of history: World War II incarceration and its aftermath; art--dancing and singing with American icons; and culture--being mixed herself and mixing it up more with her son and husband. And in each area--in history, art, and culture--she has been a leader of the best kind--unintentional--trailblazing pathways for generations whose own efforts would be rockier without her."--Karen L. Ishizuka, Chief Curator of the Japanese American National Museum and author of Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties "From a childhood thrown into turmoil by the wartime incarceration of her family, to dancing on Broadway, to pioneering Asian American music, to years spent in the pursuit of social and racial justice, Nobuko Miyamoto has lived a dozen lifetimes, all of them inspiring."--Oliver Wang, Professor of Sociology, California State University, Long Beach "A most vivid and compelling storyteller, Nobuko Miyamoto gives us a memoir that is a beautiful and astounding testimony of social justice, hope, and resilience! A monumental contribution to the history of Asian American artists and their creative and political contributions to this country."--Martha Gonzalez, author of Chican@ Artivistas: Music, Community, and Transborder Tactics in East Los Angeles "Miyamoto is a master storyteller. The pages of her memoir are soaked with honesty and vivid recollection. This powerful, well-written story is also a tale of the struggles and triumphs within family, as well as personal self-discovery and transformation. The awakening of consciousness, the dance, the song, the social struggles, and the spirituality are all sculpted here into an amazing life. Celebrated teacher, beloved artist, dedicated activist, wife, and mother, Nobuko Miyamoto is definitely 'Not Yo' Butterfly.'"--Kamau Da
Author Biography
Nobuko Miyamoto is a third-generation Japanese American songwriter, dance and theater artist, and activist, and is the Artistic Director of Great Leap. Her work has explored ways to reclaim and decolonize our minds, bodies, histories, and communities, using the arts to create social change and solidarity across cultural borders. Two of Nobuko's albums are part of the Smithsonian Folkways catalog: A Grain of Sand, with Chris Iijima and Charlie Chin, produced by Paredon Records in 1973, and 120,000 Stories, released by Smithsonian Folkways in 2021.
Table of Contents
List of Illustrations
Intro
First Movement
1 • A Travelin' Girl
2 • Don't Fence Me In
3 • A Tisket, a Tasket, a Brown and Yellow Basket
4 • From a Broken Past into the Future
5 • Twice as Good
6 • Shall We Dance!
7 • School Daze
8 • Chop Suey
9 • There's a Place for Us
10 • We Shall Overcome
Second Movement
11 • Power to the People
12 • A Single Stone, Many Ripples
13 • Something About Me Today
14 • The People's Beat
15 • A Song for Ourselves
16 • Somos Asiáticos
17 • Foster Children of the Pepsi Generation
18 • A Grain of Sand
19 • Free the Land
20 • What Will People Think?
21 • Some Things Live a Moment
22 • How to Mend What's Broken
Third Movement
23 • Women Hold Up Half the Sky
24 • Our Own Chop Suey
25 • What Is the Color of Love?
26 • Talk Story
27 • Yuiyo, Just Dance
28 • Float Hands Like Clouds
29 • Deep Is the Chasm
30 • To All Relations
31 • Bismillah Ir Rahman Ir Rahim
32 • The Seed of the Dandelion
33 • I Dream a Garden
34 • Mottainai—Waste Nothing
35 • Black Lives Matter
36 • Bambutsu—All Things Connected
Epilogue
Acknowledgments
Notes
Index
Review
"Frank and fierce, her story is bound to inspire." * Ms. Magazine *
"Starts with a bang and takes off into a poetic whirlwind. . . . The memoir captures an important part of American history that, at this point, has been rarely written about, especially by someone who lived it." * Rafu Shimpo *
"Playful, provocative, never boring. . . . The memoir captures an important part of American history that has been rarely written about. It is well worth reading." * Nichi Bei Weekly *
Review Quote
"Frank and fierce, her story is bound to inspire."
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