The Red Dirt Project Begins

Last year I applied to the Fund for Teachers , an organization that provides grants for educators to renew, rejuvenate and learn. The project I chose to pursue was my "Red Dirt Project." In my application, I wrote the following:
“The Red Dirt Project” has been percolating in my head for the last five years. It is a writing endeavor that will explore the connections between my two ethnic backgrounds: African American and Japanese American. My late father was a native of Alabama; my mother is from the island of Kauai in Hawai’i. On the surface, one might think, as I did for many years, that these are two very disparate backgrounds that would present some big challenges in terms of defining one’s ethnic identity. And it absolutely has. But over the past few years, pieces of the puzzle have come together in interesting ways. These clues came to me through artistic expression.
The idea for Red Dirt “sprouted” during a theatre production on the history of the Hawaiian Islands, “Ulalena,” I realized that I have a “plantation history on both sides of my family. My maternal grandparents were both born in Makaweli Camp, a sugar plantation on the West Side of Kauai. I know that somewhere in my African American history (although like most, I don’t have specific details) is a plantation.
My second epiphany came while watching the movie, “Picture Bride,” a film about young Japanese women coming to Hawai’i as picture brides for Japanese sugar cane plantation workers. Life for the women was difficult as they too were required to work the fields for very little pay, much like sharecroppers in the South. In order to pass the workday, they would sing field songs called hano hano bushi, very similar to slave field hollers. Realizing this connection whet my interest and I began thinking of other connections there might be between the experiences of my forebears. The thought came in the form of – literally – red dirt.
While I don’t have many memories my father’s hometown, for some reason I have always remembered the red clay I’d seen when visiting as a child. The volcanic soil of Hawaii is also red. It is here where the journey begins: the red soil of my two heritages, a metaphor of the life eventually given to me.
These odd, yet poignant intersections are not the stuff of comprehensive genealogy projects but the beginnings of good stories. With “Red Dirt” the point isn’t the find, it is the search, the journey about which I will write, film and photograph."

I invite you to join me on this journey and keep me accountable for recording each step. Hope you enjoy!