tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-44301186062901572532024-03-19T05:54:22.013-07:00Noriko: with an American Accentone woman's multiracial perspectiveNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.comBlogger275125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-36156470775213213712023-12-30T16:23:00.000-08:002023-12-30T22:24:40.920-08:00See Ya, 2023!Today I drove my partner's very fast car down the 101 from Pepperdine back into the city. The sky was hazy-cloudy-gray, and the ocean stretched out to the horizon. The sun was falling toward the sea and the whole world shimmered like it had been dipped in silver. 2023 has been a year, but I'm trying to let go of judgement. I don't know if 2023 is was better or worse than the one before. It Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-48756452901010877202023-08-20T14:50:00.006-07:002023-08-20T14:55:39.634-07:00What's Up With Dress Codes? I thought I was going to write another back-to-school essay about the start of this school year. I was going to praise the new supplies, the shiny floors, the fresh faces, and my anticipation of another group of students. But then the week started, and I didn't make make it to the page to write. Now things have shifted. Kiara started middle school on Monday. This could be a whole post, but Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-84258304713481037502023-06-15T09:33:00.004-07:002023-06-15T21:00:38.433-07:00For the Class of 2023I didn't realize until this morning, a week after these students had walked the stage and the year had come to a close, that although this speech had been passed on to students, I never shared it here. So, here it is, my honoring of this year's students. Click here for previous culmination addresses. To the Class of 2023Do you remember that moment? Sometime this past winter, we discussed Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-88268119884825993692022-12-31T12:44:00.007-08:002023-01-01T11:13:41.379-08:00Closing Out 2022It's the last day of the year. I stayed up too late last night watching season two of The White Lotus, but this morning we all slept in and woke up to a dreary December 31st. The oldest is studying her state capitals. The littlest is working on a puzzle. The partner is getting in a workout which leaves me taking stock. 2022 has not been an easy year. This past school year was my hardestNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-63667010725732261872022-05-30T11:21:00.002-07:002022-05-30T11:26:31.623-07:00For the Class of 2022 and a World in Need of RepairIsn't time wild? The seasons just keep changing and the kids keep growing and once again it's the end of spring and summer awaits. It's graduation season again and this life in a modern pandemic carries on. Here is my offering to my eighth graders this year. To the Class of 2022,I’ve never had a school year when I was unsure we would make it. This year I wondered how we would come back, stepNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-9257261831140035492022-05-01T13:13:00.005-07:002022-05-01T17:45:16.553-07:00Can We Get Along?The corner of 7th St. and Union Ave., a building is ablaze during the Los Angeles Uprising, 1992; Photo by Ted Soqui, 1992. Courtesy the artist. Courtesy the artist. Photo: Ted Soqui from the California African American Museum exhibit.Thirty years ago I was a senior in high school and had just turned eighteen. Our choir group took a trip to San Diego for a competition and to visit Sea World, Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0Los Angeles, CA, USA34.0522342 -118.24368495.7420003638211554 -153.3999349 62.362468036178846 -83.0874349tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-89272899445138450952021-08-15T21:15:00.009-07:002023-08-16T05:46:32.550-07:00First Day of School 2021As I slid desks across the shiny, clean floors in anticipation for another school year, I was more nervous and anxious than I've been in years. There is still the exciting promise of a fresh start and the tension of meeting a new group of students, but this year hits a little differently. I struggled to see how I could maintain social distancing for 34 students, and I kept coming across relics Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-43474426062917489652021-06-08T22:40:00.005-07:002022-05-30T11:23:26.476-07:00This Year's Speech for the Class of 2021How do you let go of something that you never held to begin with? That's how I feel about this year. Still, tomorrow is the Emerson Middle School culmination and here is my speech for our eighth graders. I am so proud of them. They got through the eighth grade during a global pandemic. Wow. Class of 2021, This past August, we opened the school year like no other. Instead of opening my Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-28173501313977660652020-12-30T18:12:00.012-08:002020-12-30T22:42:59.157-08:00A Quiet 2020 Blog Review It's almost here, the end of 2020 which once held the optimism of this whole new decade, right? But what... what in the world happened? When 2020 held so much promise.To be honest, 2020 feels like a decade all on it's own. I haven't written much here or elsewhere during the past twelve months, but it is what it is. 2020 has helped remind me to let go of things I can't control, and I control Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-74624865804630095542020-12-28T11:43:00.002-08:002020-12-28T11:43:40.216-08:002020: the year in booksI thought I was going to read so much during the lockdown, but to my surprise, the stacks and stacks of books to read kept growing higher and higher. Still, I read and these are the books that got me through 2020. I recommend them all.pre-pandemic reads: In the early days of 2020, I read Jami Attenberg's novel, All This Could Be Yours. It is the story of the Tuchman family during the Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-77775413176000733452020-12-22T17:53:00.003-08:002020-12-22T17:53:48.134-08:00Publications in 2020: A Year of Anthologies and Virtual ReadingsThis year has been many things, but for me as a writer, it's been a year of anthologies and recorded readings. First is the ACCOLADES: A Women Who Submit Anthology which included my poem, "Camp Stories," originally published in Kartika. This anthology launched at AWP in San Antonio in March. I had my flight and housing booked, was ready to go, but with the news of COVID accelerating, I Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-33318492130220947602020-08-19T22:59:00.017-07:002020-12-30T17:48:01.121-08:00The First Day of School 2020Y'all, I've been writing first-day-of-school blogs for a long time. I almost didn't write one this year because nothing seems to matter, but then I watched Michelle Obama speak, and I felt something I haven't felt in such a long time, something these Obamas seem to be able to provide for us precisely when we need it. She gave me hope. So I'm here, on the night before the first day of Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-13823396045947250532020-05-16T16:56:00.003-07:002021-05-12T09:55:23.936-07:00For the Class of 2020
For the past five years, I've written graduation speeches for my eighth graders. This year's graduation speech was a little different, mostly because the end of this year has been so different. But here it is, my model for my current eighth graders. It has me thinking so much about all of the graduates and all of the graduations worthy of celebrating. So before Obama and all of the other amazingNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-36536141796750201012020-01-18T08:06:00.000-08:002020-01-18T09:56:19.409-08:00The UTLA Strike: One Year Later
One day five of the UTLA strike in 2019, it finally stopped raining. We all showed up at our schools for morning picketing and although our negotiations team was still hard at work and a resolution was not yet in sight, the clear skies made the day feel different.
One reason was that at our site, NEA Vice President Cecily Myart-Cruz was on the line with us that morning. She has taught at Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-20442059389120728932020-01-12T20:26:00.003-08:002020-12-30T17:41:05.583-08:00A Year After the Night Before the First Day of the Strike...This winter break, it was hard to not remember how we were feeling a year ago. We are a two-UTLA salary home, so the looming strike brought a whole lot of worry and stress along with sign-making and rain-gear gathering. All we had to say this year was, "Aren't you glad we aren't getting ready to go on strike?"
photo by ESA alumni Sophie Sanchez
And we are glad. We are proud of the gains that Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-43201963753585637472019-12-31T12:50:00.000-08:002019-12-31T12:50:13.395-08:00Blog Round Up: Is This the End?
Why do the kids look so little here?
It's been a decade for the blog, and here we are 260 blog posts later...
For the year, readership, is down. Where did I go wrong? Have I forgotten what readers really want? I don't know, but this year was about the UTLA strike and those were my most read posts. The others introduced the re-release of Through Eyes Like Mine, and Overdue Apologies and Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-78288652985604341462019-12-31T12:04:00.002-08:002020-12-03T20:14:35.930-08:00Fifteen Books I Loved This YearThis year I tried to do something a little different reading books in fiction, nonfiction, poetry, and YA each month. I fell short, of course, reading 35 all told, but I read more poetry this year than ever before, and honestly, this was an amazing year for nonfiction. So many great books. Anyway, these are my favorites this year.
Young Adult
P.S. I Still Love You and Always and Forever, LaraNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-13887677856197429012019-12-30T22:54:00.002-08:002022-05-30T11:24:29.590-07:00Publishing Round-Up for 2019The year is coming to a close, and it has been a busy one. With the publication of I Tried completing the Through Eyes Like Mine Trilogy, I'm ready to shift my focus to other writing projects. This is where my words found homes over the past year:
On the other end of our UTLA strike, Cultural Weekly published "Lessons from the Picket Lines" about my experience as a teacher and mother during our Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-54580202347257223522019-11-25T23:27:00.001-08:002019-11-25T23:27:12.347-08:00I Tried: A Playlist 1990-1992Here is the second playlist for the high school memoir: I Tried.
The first playlist is all new wave (with a little L'Trimm thrown in), but there are surprisingly few mentions of music during my junior and senior years in high school. Much of my soundtrack from those years was choir with lots of a cappella.
Two of those songs are from the a cappella group Mint Juleps and the girls in swing choirNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-13828070586788371002019-10-27T19:52:00.001-07:002019-10-27T19:52:34.972-07:00I Tried: 1988- 1990 PlaylistMy freshman year, I was still listening to the music that defined middle school: George Michael and INXS. But as the 80s came to a close, the music shifted too, and these are a few of the songs from those days.
Scene: these are two of the songs I remember listening to with Dayna during those years. When In Rome's "Promises" and Love and Rockets' "So Alive."
Scene: the DJ mix tapes: Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-84332612104898159462019-10-23T05:31:00.002-07:002019-10-23T07:45:47.851-07:00I Tried: Tales of an Emerging High School FeministI Tried: Tales of an Emerging High School Feminist is here.
The Nakadas in 1988 and 1992.
I Tried tells of the days in-between.
Today, on my oldest brother's birthday, the third book in the Through Eyes Like Mine series is ready for the world. It has gone through so many revisions. I wrote it in present tense, changed it to past, and then changed it back again. I drafted poems and Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-36677474975746593302019-10-22T05:40:00.000-07:002019-10-22T05:40:23.836-07:00I'm Sorry, Again: Doing Right by Overdue Apologies...I work at Emerson, a wonderful little middle school in Los Angeles. I've taught here for twenty years, and it's where I've gotten to know so many young people and learned so much about myself as a person, a teacher, and a writer. And it is at Emerson that I learned to forgive the Pilot Butte Junior High School girl from the second book in the Through Eyes Like Mine series: Overdue Apologies.
Noriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-58445614734876651822019-10-21T05:54:00.000-07:002019-10-21T05:57:31.793-07:00Celebrating Through Eyes Like MineThis weekend, I watched my little ones chase a ball across green grass. I moved laundry from hamper, to washer, to dryer, folded and put away small pajamas, underwear, socks, shirt, shorts, and sweaters. Friends came over to play, and we watched sports and movies and snuggled on the couch on a fall weekend when the weather in our city was still to hot for my liking. I went to bed tired each nightNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-13327798384193239572019-10-14T20:59:00.002-07:002019-10-16T20:04:23.479-07:00Support An Independent Author (Me)
The release of the final book in the Through Eyes Like Mine series is a few weeks away. Edits are complete; proof copies have been combed through, tweaked and edited. I'm so close to the end of this project, so why am I still battling my decision to publish these books independently?
It might have been a conversation I had this weekend, and the implication that publishing my books on my own isNoriko Nakadahttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13754758344933929490noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-4430118606290157253.post-63604910518362623022019-10-04T05:47:00.001-07:002019-10-14T21:06:06.372-07:00Vying for Mom's Blessing<!--[if gte mso 9]>
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