Michiyo Fukaya

Michiyo Fukaya (25 April 1953 – 9 July 1987), also known as Michiyo Cornell, was a feminist poet and activist whose work played an important part in the lesbian and Asian American communities.[1] In 1979, Fukaya gave a speech entitled "Living in Asian America: An Asian American Lesbian's Address Before the Washington Monument" at the First National Third World Lesbian and Gay Conference.[2] Drawing a parallel between the oppression of men and women in Third World countries to the oppression experienced by lesbian and gay Asian Americans, she acknowledged they both stemmed from white racism.[3] Fukaya called attention to both racism in the lesbian and gay movement as well as heterosexism in the growing Asian American community.[4] Fukaya's writing appeared in publications such as Azalea: A Magazine by Third World Lesbians. Her poetry and prose is collected in A Fire Is Burning, It Is In Me: The Life and Writing of Michiyo Fukaya.[5][6]

Michiyo suffered from depression for a significant part of her life and had a difficult time living as an Asian-American lesbian and single mother in Vermont. As a result, she committed suicide with a gunshot wound to the head on 9 July 1987 at only 34 years of age. [7]

References
  1. Hom, Alice Y. "Fukaya, Michiyo (Michiyo Cornell)." Encyclopedia of Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgendered History in America. Ed. Marc Stein. Vol. 1. Detroit: Charles Scribner's Sons, 2004. 421-422. ISBN 9780684312613
  2. Haggerty, George, and Bonnie Zimmerman, eds. Encyclopedia of Lesbian and Gay Histories and Cultures. New York: Garland, 2000.
  3. Leong, Russell, Asian American Sexualities: Dimensions of the Gay and Lesbian Experience. London: Routledge, 1995.
  4. Hom, p. 421.
  5. Fukaya, Michiyo, and Gwendolyn L. Shervington. A Fire Is Burning, It Is in Me: The Life and Writings of Michiyo Fukaya. Norwich, VT: New Victoria Publishers, 1996.
  6. "Amazon.com: A Fire Is Burning It Is in Me: The Life and Writings of Michiyo Fukaya: 9780934678780". amazon.com. Retrieved 2014-06-01.
  7. "SONGS OF RESISTANCE: TRANSFORMATIONS OF TRAUMA IN THE WRITING OF MICHIYO FUKAYA" (PDF). SFSU-dspace.calstate.edu. Retrieved 2018-08-25.
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