Giant Robot Story Time: Yuri kochiyama

Yuri Kochiyama

There will never be and shouldn’t be a Mt Rushmore for Asian Americans, it sounds dumb, but if one had to be made, Yuri Kochiyama would be a first ballot choice. I’d say that Yuri Kochiyama is the grandmother of Civil Rights activism for Asian Americans today. Kochiyama’s work spanned her lifetime and across different races and ethnicities. She’s also the Asian American wearing cat eye glasses with Malcolm X when he was assassinated. 

In 1997 I met and interviewed Kochiyama while on a trip to New York I didn’t know enough as I should have, but in 97, where are you finding this information? She lived alone in an older high rise in Harlem. At show up time, she was seeing someone out the door, and it was Donald Byrd the legendary jazz player. I literally have his Royal Flush album on Blue Note. She said, “you gotta go” while I told him to stay, he insisted “I’m nobody” and took off. I took a photo that we used in the mag. A great moment. 

I was with filmmaker, Rea Tajiri who previously documented  the activist. Kochiyama spoke about Malcolm X up to the assassination. She relayed how it affected people including her own son. She showed us photos around her cozy apartment and even a handwritten postcard from Malcolm. She was gracious and patient. This interview sparked a 28 page Asian American Civil Rights section in issue 10, which is one of our publishing highlights. When would a popular culture magazine include an under known subject in nearly a third of its pages? Since magazines are gone, I guess we’ll never know. 

The 28 pages are reprinted in full in the GR Book.