Who Was Hisaye Yamamoto? Google Doodle Celebrates Japanese American Writer
On 5/4/21 at 4:43 AM EDT
Hisaye Yamamoto, a Japanese-American short story author and journalist, is celebrated in Tuesday s Google Doodle in honor of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
Yamamoto was born on August 23, 1921, in Redondo Beach, California, to Japanese immigrant parents. Her parents were from the Kumamoto Prefecture in Japan and immigrated to California where they farmed strawberries. Under the California Alien Land Law of 1913, Yamamoto s family was not allowed to own agricultural land and so they moved around as she was growing up.
In her teens, Yamamoto wrote for a daily newspaper for Japanese Californians under the name Napoleon.
I’m Carolina A. Miranda, arts and urban design columnist at the Los Angeles Times, and it’s the weekend which means it’s time for the week’s essential culture news.
San Francisco literary lion Lawrence Ferlinghetti died Monday at 101.
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A prolific poet with more than 30 collections published over a half-century, Ferlinghetti was known for the central role he played in San Francisco’s literary universe, where he arrived in 1951 in search of bohemia. (Quite literally. The San Francisco Chronicle reports that, soon after arriving, he “asked a stranger to point him in the direction of the bohemian quarter in the city” and then moved in.)
Ferlinghetti and a partner launched City Lights as the country’s first all-paperback bookstore in 1953, as the city’s Beat renaissance unfolded in the city. The bookshop is still going strong in North Beach nearly seven decades later, though it was closed for the first part of the day on Tuesday in his memory.
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Happy New Year to readers of The Wild.
Time to step into 2021, maybe by seeking out sunrise views in these places. Here are my picks for the best places to make tracks over the long holiday weekend while staying close to home.
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Mt. Hollywood, Griffith Park: This peak is good for a workout hike, day or night. By night, the ambient lights of the city are all you will need to find your way to the top. Depending on how clear the air is, you’ll see the observatory in the foreground and views of downtown L.A., Hollywood and Century City. A New Year’s Eve hike isn’t out of the question (no boozing it up), but remember that the park closes at 10 p.m. There are several routes to the top, the most direct 2½ miles uphill from the Griffith Observatory (though parking is difficult in that area). Check out our guide to Griffith Park for more details.