Choreography by Glenn Potter-Takata
with evan ray suzuki
and Kimiko Tanabe
Performance by Kimiko Tanabe,
evan ray suzuki,
and Glenn Potter-Takata
Text by Glenn Potter-Takata
Lighting Design by WhimZee Hanna
Sound Design by Glenn Potter-Takata
Projection Design by Glenn Potter-Takata
Scenic Design/Carpentry by Alec Welhouse
Plastic Fabrication by Glenn Potter-Takata
Costume Consulting by evan ray suzuki
Dramaturgical Support by Lu Yim
Stage Management by Mia Harada

The instigation for this work came about in a senior living facility living room in the suburbs of Los Angeles. I grew up attending a Shingon Buddhist temple called Koyasan Beikoku Betsuin in the Little Tokyo area of Los Angeles. My grandparents started regularly attending the Betsuin in the 1950s. As I was beginning to work on what would become this piece, I asked my mother if she knew anyone who was a ‘No-No’ person.

At the Japanese internment camps in the 1940s, the Selective Service Board required internees to fill out a Loyalty Questionnaire, which was presented as a precursor for leave clearance, but which was actually the beginnings of the Selective Service extending the draft mandate to those in camp. People were not crazy about questions 27 and 28.

27. Are you willing to serve in the armed forces of the United States on combat duty, wherever ordered?

28. Will you swear unqualified allegiance to the United States of America and faithfully defend the United States from any or all attack by foreign or domestic forces, and forswear any form of allegiance or obedience to the Japanese emperor, or any other foreign government, power, or organization?

Many people had issues with the first question since they had already been essentially stripped of their rights as citizens through their unconstitutional imprisonment without trial, and felt their rights as citizens should be restored before being asked to fulfill any Selective Service duties. Question 28 posed a potentially serious issue for those of Japanese citizenship, who were not eligible for United States citizenship, and by answering yes to the question could theoretically find themselves stateless. Most people generally answered yes to both questions (possibly out of fear of repercussions). Notably, there was a segregated Japanese-American unit in the U.S. Army called the 442nd Regimental Combat Team, which remains the most highly decorated unit of its size in U.S. military history. The 442 has a bit of a religious fervor around it in the Japanese-American community, which I have nothing against and has always fascinated me. Two of Evan’s grand uncle served as part of the 442.

Any individual who answered ‘no’ to questions 27 and 28 were commonly referred to as a ‘No-No Boy’ or ‘No-No Girl’, and were subjected to additional questioning, and potentially being transferred to the maximum security facility at the Tule Lake War Relocation Center in California.

So I asked my mother if she knew any ‘No-No’ people, and she said she thought she did and would look into it. The next time I was in Los Angeles, she said she found a guy through temple, and we drove out to a senior living facility in the suburbs where I met Tom and Suzie Oki. I got to hear stories about their families, how Tom lost a finger in a machinery accident (Suzie’s nickname for Tom was Mickey, because she said with only four fingers he looked like Mickey Mouse), and stories about camp. What I didn’t expect was Tom’s story of the Fair Play Committee, which was a group of internees at the Heart Mountain Relocation Center in Wyoming who collectively refused the draft as an act of protest and civil disobedience. Their idea was to get the case to the Supreme Court to contest the legality of internment, but all eighty-something of them ended up being sent to prison.

I still have questions about any stigma around the draft avoiders, and wonder what I would have done if I was there in that place and time at Heart Mountain in 1944.

A NOTE FROM GLENN

Glenn Potter-Takata is a Japanese-American artist, media designer, and educator based in the Bronx. He utilizes butoh, media equipment, and consumer materials to construct performances around the body as a historical site in post-internment America. Born into a Buddhist family in Los Angeles, Glenn grew up in the Shingon and Jodo Shin traditions of Japanese Buddhism. His practice integrates and elaborates on Buddhist philosophy, song cycles, and image-based traditions through the dancing body and moving image. His original performance works have been shown in New York City at Danspace Project, Mabou Mines, Pageant, Center for Performance Research, Movement Research at Judson Church, Grace Exhibition Space, Flux Factory, and with Pioneers Go East, among other places. Nationally, his work has been presented by Cannonball in Philadelphia and Rogers Studio Gallery in Las Vegas. Glenn has been awarded residencies with Movement Research, Gibney Dance Center, CUNY Dance Initiative at Lehman College, Ucross (Clearmont, WY), Rogers Art Loft (Las Vegas, NV), and is the recipient of a MAP Fund Award, Bronx Cultural Visions Award, Bronx Dance Fund Award, and a Mabou Mines SUITE/Space Fellowship. He is currently a teacher of sound and projection design at Sarah Lawrence College.

evan ray suzuki is a NYC-based choreographer, performer, and filmmaker of yonsei Japanese descent who has been collaborating with Glenn Potter-Takata since 2018. evan creates multidisciplinary projects in a butoh-ish choreographic style, drawing on references from both internet culture and nature to capture alienation through abstraction and intimacy through fragmentation. evan’s work has been presented internationally at the Umbria Factory Festival in Spoleto, Italy and at venues such as Ars Nova, Abrons Arts Center, JACK, Movement Research at the Judson Church, Pageant, Center for Performance Research, Trans-Pecos, WestFest (New York), Icebox Project Space (Philadelphia), and many galleries, parks, and basements. Recent projects have been supported by grants and residencies from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts, NYSCA, La MaMa, Ars Nova, New Dance Alliance, and Centro Umbro di Residenze Artistiche. evan's credits as a performer include works by Kim Brandt, maura nguyễn donohue, Ayano Elson, Gordon Hall, David Neumann, Mina Nishimura, Glenn Potter-Takata, and as a member of La MaMa’s Great Jones Repertory Company.

Kimiko Tanabe is a fourth-generation Japanese-American artist and dance-maker based in Brooklyn, New York.
@kimiko_tanabe www.kimikotanabe.com

WhimZee Lee Hanna (She/Her) is a NYC based lighting designer and performer originally from Florida. Previous design credits include Brought Up (University Settlement); 100 Ft in the Air, Time’s Up, and I’m the Monster, It’s Me *Cries in Shark* (The Tank!); Hummingbirds (The Chain); Amity, Letters to Home (Hudson Guild Theater); Winter Solstice, Ama, and Gilda, With an Olive (Target Margin); Vape Kid’s Cool Zone (The Brick). www.zeehannaLD.com

Alec Welhouse is an actor, set designer, and carpenter. He is a second-year graduate theatre student at Sarah Lawrence College and holds his BA from Lawrence University. Selected acting credits include: The Miraculous Journey of Edward Tulane, The Brothers Menaechmus, The Musical of Musicals (The Musical), Le Médecin volant or The Flying Doctor, and A Misanthrope. Selected set design credits include: RENT, Mean Girls: High School Version, The Brothers Menaechmus, The Sixth Biennial Fred Gaines Student Playwrights Series, and The Musical of Musicals (The Musical). He currently serves as the graduate scenic assistant at Sarah Lawrence. He would like to thank his friends, family and wonderful girlfriend, Ella Rose, for all of their constant support.

Lu Yim (b. San Diego, CA) is a transdisciplinary artist working in experimental sound and dance. Yim is currently a 2024-2025 Artist-in-Residence at Movement Research. Their work has been presented at Performance Space NY, Pageant, Center for Performance Research, and most recently at A.I.R. Gallery (NYC). Since 2013 Yim has co-organized with queer and BIPOC-centered collective Physical Education alongside Allie Hankins, keyon gaskin, and Takahiro Yamamoto. www.lu-yim.com

Mia Harada was born in Tokyo, Japan, and received her BA with a concentration in theatre from Sarah Lawrence College in December 2024. Her recent credits include working as stage manager for New York Theatre Ballet School and In-Version Ensemble.

BIOGRAPHIES

Special thanks to Katie Workum, Anna Adams Stark, Amanda Hameline, Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation, and the Sarah Lawrence College Theatre and Dance Departments, without the support and resources of which this project would not have been possible.

This project was funded, in part, by the MAP Fund, supported by the Doris Duke Charitable Foundation, Howard Gilman Foundation, and Mellon Foundation, and through the Bronx Cultural Visions Fund, administered by the Bronx Council on the Arts with support by the Howard Gilman Foundation.

Partial development of this work was facilitated by a residency at Ucross Foundation in Ucross, WY.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

In memory of Tom and Suzie Oki

On sanmaya sato ban.