San Jose Taiko jumping, jiving and wailing in 2017.

Press release from Taiko Swing Humboldt, a project of the Humboldt Folklife Society, San Jose Taiko and the HSU Jazz Orchestra that’ll be jazzing up the Van Duzer Theatre with a free Fred Korematsu Day show tonight at 7 p.m.

Interested? Get there early! The crew’s shows at the Bayside Grange this weekend have sold out.

California Humanities has announced the recent round of Humanities For All Quick Grant awards. Humboldt Folklife Society has been awarded $5,000 for its project entitled “Taiko Swing Humboldt.”

The Humanities For All Quick Grant is a competitive grant program of California Humanities that supports locally-initiated public humanities projects that respond to the needs and interests of Californians, encourage greater public participation in humanities programming, particularly by new and/or underserved audiences, and promotes understanding and empathy among all our state’s peoples in order to cultivate a thriving democracy.

In January 2020, Taiko Swing Humboldt, a collaboration between San Jose Taiko and the Humboldt State University Jazz Orchestra, will host Swingposium on the Road, a four-day series of living history events set in a mess hall at a WWII Japanese American concentration camp. Through music and immersive theatre, the story of the big bands in the Japanese American incarceration camps explores the injustices inflicted by an unconstitutional executive order against an entire group of people, two-thirds of them American citizens. A shortened version of the program is paired with student discussion about the immigrant experience presented for two high school performances and one at Humboldt State University.

“These projects will bring the complexity and diversity of California to light in new ways that will engage Californians from every part of our state, and, will help us all understand each other better,” said Julie Fry, President & CEO of California Humanities. “We congratulate the grantees whose projects will promote understanding and provide insight into a wide range of topics, issues, and experiences.”

A complete list of all Humanities For All Quick Grants can be found on the calhum.org website here.

California Humanities, a nonprofit partner of the National Endowment of the Humanities, promotes the humanities – focused on ideas, conversation and learning – as relevant, meaningful ways to understand the human condition and connect us to each other in order to help strengthen California. California Humanities has provided grants and programs across the state since 1975. To learn more visit calhum.org, or follow California Humanities on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.