Lynda Lin Grigsby

Artist Dan Santat worked through love and loss by drawing sea creatures in a diving suit.

The name on the wall near city hall makes Steve Nagano’s blood boil.
Fletcher Bowron Square offers a small respite from Downtown’s urban structures with open space and public art. But for Nagano, the square’s namesake evokes painful memories.
Nagano lives in Little Tokyo, within walking distance of the square, but his family roots stretch from Los Angeles to Arizona because in 1942 his father Paul M. Nagano was one of the many Japanese Americans who during World War II were forced to leave th...

The love affair between the place and its people has endured generations, but where is this love grounded, and how does it continue through uncontrollable forces of change?

At first glance, this sounds like a story about a retiree keeping busy, but it’s so much more. This story spans the world, includes wars, as well as one man’s relentless drive to bring a bird named Maggie from page to screen.

Take off your mask, and your kids likely will, too. Here's what experts say to do to keep kids safe during the summer.
Sa'iyda Shabazz says her 7-year-old son has major vaccine envy. He watched Shabazz and her partner, Beth Ryne, get vaccinated so he knows there is a light at the end of this pandemic tunnel, just not for him yet.
"He's very much at a point where he is very envious of everyone who is vaccinated because he's not," says the Los Angeles-based writer.
With easing restrictions and ...

Chief Roy Nakamura takes a moment to chat with community members at the April 28 event.
For Japanese Americans, there is a shared history with different viewpoints on policing and safety. Law enforcement and community leaders all seek to answer the question, ‘What should community safety look like?’ amid rising anti-Asian racism and violence.
By Lynda Lin Grigsby, Contributor
One life imprisoned can cause a ripple effect that spans generations. What happens when it is 120,000 people targeted ...

Before becoming a celebrated artist, Yumi Sakugawa cut her teeth in community work.

In a pandemic year marked by isolation and unrest, anti-Asian hate incidents soared. Most of the reported incidents, which can include slurs and physical attacks, took place in public spaces you and I move through frequently. A local park, a subway station, even a supermarket produce aisle became battlegrounds for Asian Americans in the time of hate and COVID-19. Accounts of the incidences often ignore the silent victims in these cases: the children.
Children have been present in these horrif...

In 1988, the U.S. government officially apologized and paid reparations for the mass incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II. It flipped the narrative on Japanese Americans as long-suffering victims to victors now with what many are calling a “moral obligation” to help others in need of racial healing.

It was the moment I have been waiting for all year: an e-mail confirming my kids' school reopening hit my inbox. Instantly, I squealed. I high-fived my husband. We linked arms and danced in gleeful little circles.
The news was like manna from heaven in a pandemic year that challenged, tested, and wrung out all of my virtues. In our home, remote learning with my young kids is best described as tempestuous and unpredictable. Some days, the kids are engaged and happily learning through screens. ...

The teacher crowned as a hero at the beginning of the pandemic and the teacher criticized for standing in the way of children’s education is the same person.
The teacher credited with the Herculean task of shifting an entire curriculum online and the teacher vilified today for being too lazy to return to work? Same person.
Hailed as heroes early in the pandemic, teachers are facing a turning point in public opinion a year later. The criticism sounds more like a street fight than a dialogue to...

A sexy Netflix series touted for bringing diversity to a lily-white British period drama genre made me feel invisible.
I binged the entire season of “Bridgerton” in one weekend because I was excited to see how a racially diverse cast of actors would translate onscreen in a genre that was exclusively white. It was history reimagined, and I wanted to be a part of it.
Each night, my darkened living room lit up with images of bucolic landscapes, sumptuous gowns, and corsets being masochistically ...

Something about the quarantine life unleashed a darkness in Helene Skantzikas. It insidiously snatched joy and plunged her into the depths of hopelessness. Nothing and everything has changed in her life in the last three months: she lives at home with her mother and her son. Same as before, but everything is different.
Even though the days blend together, there is one sure marker of time: before and after quarantine. Before, Helene (pronounced simply as Helen) ferried from one social scene to...