![]() ![]() It is hard for people to express themselves at a place where their existence is not acknowledged or accepted. It finally hit me that he was illiterate and that maybe his ways of expressing himself had always been denied by others. Then, about 18 months later, he asked me to teach him how to write. He was a regular at the cafe, constantly causing trouble and making himself very unpopular. Shortly after we moved our base to Kamagasaki, we met an old man who wouldn't open up. I've come to think that this very cycle means to live. Expression is a way to call out and to respond. Also, since we humans can't live alone, we need an interactive cycle, which connects those expressing and those acknowledging and responding, in order to live freely and actively. Expressing yourself means to be in a natural human state. I didn't know that then, but I realized it later. You must keep thinking almost to the point of breaking down before becoming able to express yourself and break through a wall. ![]() I was on the edge, in short, and I expressed it in a poem. That experience broke my levees, making my antipathy toward adults overflow and a gap between my world and my friends' world to become apparent. When I was about 17, I had a chance to talk with a refugee girl from Vietnam who was around my age. In my opinion, making sure to express things you can only express at any given time is very important. I still remember verbalizing and writing down the feelings I discerned myself, and I've come to realize that I go back to the memory from time to time. I wasn't good at speaking, so I wrote instead. How does that difficulty relate to expressing yourself? I think I was an overly sensitive, troublesome child. Ueda) ──You've said that "the difficulty to live" is the origin of your work as a poet. "Kotoba no Mushiboshi" ("Airing of Words, or Stars of Words"), an exhibition by the Kamagasaki University of Arts at Saitama Triennale 2020 (Photo courtesy of Ms. We asked how she handled the crisis and about her days under the pandemic with people who cannot stay home as requested by the government. While the guesthouse is suffering a decline in tourists caused by the pandemic, one of the guests tested positive for COVID-19 in July 2020. Established in a belief that it is a "university" as long as there are people who want to learn from each other, it is a community-based initiative that considers the district as a university and provides various art and other workshops. The NPO runs a guesthouse and a cafe in Kamagasaki (also known as Airin District), Osaka City, and engages in expressive activities, including the Kamagasaki University of Arts*¹. In this sixth issue of our special feature "Crossing Borders, Engaging in Exchanges and Harnessing the Power of Creation amid COVID-19"( click here for a special feature overview), we welcome Ueda Kanayo, who is a poet, activist and representative of the Non-Profit Organization Room for Full of Voice, Words, and Hearts (Cocoroom). ![]()
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