Nobuko Miyamoto/ ‘120,000 Stories’/ Smithsonian Folkways | Shore Fire Media

29 January 2021

Nobuko Miyamoto/ ‘120,000 Stories’/ Smithsonian Folkways

Nobuko Miyamoto/ ‘120,000 Stories’/ Smithsonian Folkways

Singer, artist, and activist Nobuko Miyamoto has announced her newest album 120,000 Stories, out January 29th on Smithsonian Folkways. It is her first release since 1973’s seminal A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle by Asians in America, released by Barbara Dane’s Paredon label, which was the first album of its kind detailing the experiences of Asian Americans in the 20thcentury. 120,000 Stories continues that legacy; its title evokes the approximate number of people of Japanese ancestry who were incarcerated in camps run by the United States government during World War II. It collects new music, recorded with GRAMMY-winner Quetzal Flores in Los Angeles, that speaks to issues such as Asian American stereotypes and the Black Lives Matter movement, as well as music from A Grain of Sand, recordings of her late-1970s group Warriors of the Rainbow, and performances from various stage productions throughout the past several decades.