Westlake : Poems by Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947-1984)

In an all-too-brief life and literary career, Wayne Kaumualii Westlake (1947–1984) produced a substantial body of poetry. He broke new ground as a poet, translated Taoist classical literature and Japanese haiku, interwove perspectives from his Hawaiian heritage into his writing and art, and published his work locally, regionally, and internationally. Westlake was born on Maui and raised on the island of O‘ahu, where he attended Punahou School, and later the University of Oregon. He earned his B.A. in Chinese studies at the University of Hawai‘i. At the time of his tragic death in 1984, Westlake was at the height of his poetic career. Unfortunately, the only collection of his poems available at the time was a 32-page, limited edition chapbook independently published by a small press. The present volume, long overdue, includes nearly two hundred of Westlake’s poems—most unavailable to the public or never before published.

New York City is also home to one of the largest overseas Japanese populations in the world. Among them are artists and designers who produce cutting-edge work. Part of the so-called "creative class" and a growing segment of the neoliberal economy, they are usually middle-class and college-educated. They move to New York in the hope of realizing dreams and aspirations unavailable to them in Japan. Yet the creative careers they desire are competitive, and many end up working illegally in precarious, low paying jobs. Though they often migrate without fixed plans for return, nearly all eventually do, and their migrant trajectories are punctuated by visits home.

This book offers an intimate, ethnographic portrait of these Japanese creative migrants living and working in NYC. How do adults reinvent their lives? In the absence of any material or social need, what makes it worthwhile for people to abandon middle-class comfort and home for an unfamiliar and insecure life? Olga Sooudi explores this in four different venues patronized by Japanese: a grocery store and restaurant, where hopeful migrants work part-time as they pursue their ambitions; a fashion designer's atelier and an art gallery, both sites of migrant aspirations. As Sooudi's migrant artists toil and network, biding time until they "make it" in their chosen industries, their optimism is complicated by the material and social limitations of their lives.

The story of Japanese migrants in NYC is both a story about Japan and a way of examining Japan from beyond its borders. The Japanese presence abroad, a dynamic process involving the moving, settling, and return to Japan of people and their cultural products, is still underexplored.

Contents Preface Introduction Westlake—the Poems Afterword: The Poems Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography of the Publications of Wayne Edward Kaumualii Miller Westlake