Sad Asian Music by Steve Fujimura

Each poem in Sad Asian Music is remarkably distinct in form and content, and together grow into a connective web of words that transform the everyday into contemplative sites for truth-seeking through family histories and personal storytelling, often amidst the violent backdrop of racism, white supremacy, colonialism, and militarism. Steve Fujimura‘s deft handling of words dare us to obsess with and squarely face the very question that is asked in the poem, “Dear, or Un-Dear, Man in the Compact Sedan”: who are we? And in doing so, they require that we reflect on the meaning, and intersections, of identity, memory, and justice.

–Anita Chang, author of Third Digital Documentary and director of Tongues of Heaven

Sad Asian Music traces the social, cultural, and familial connections that form the everyday and extraordinary beauty of Japanese American lives. Fujimura filters popular culture and history, geopolitics and dreams, through the psyche and moral compass of a poet. This volume has heft and ballast, rooted as it is in reflections on white supremacy and the love that overcomes tragedy.
–Amanda Mei Kim, writer