Katie Yamasaki: Shapes, Lines, and Light

Celebrated children’s book artist and muralist Katie Yamasaki shares over 25 original collages from her new book, Shapes, Lines and Light: My Grandfather’s American Journey (Norton Young Readers, Fall, 2022) in Central Library’s Youth Wing.

A personal story of the significant legacy of her grandfather, architect Minoru Yamasaki, her book shows how the power of serenity, surprise, and delight, can create new worlds, even against great odds. Her vivid collages and words capture the longer journey of the immigrant experience and his legacy. As an anti-racist touchstone, the book navigates painful Anti-Asian American hatred and histories, such as the Japanese-American mass incarceration of WWII. Yet in resistance to chronic racism and discrimination, Yama’s persistence and vision and the multigenerational love of his family uplift and inspire. His work, and his granddaughter’s in turn, urge us to look beyond our world—beyond the built environment, inequalities, and received ideas— and invite us to bring spaces of imagination, harmony and contemplation into existence.

A youth and family event on October 1st at 1 pm welcomes artist Katie Yamasaki to Central Library for a presentation and book signing.

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