REMEMBER: YURI KOCHIYAMA OF HARLEM

Harlem Bespoke: One of the local human rights activist of Harlem suddenly became visible to the nation for the first time in 1965 when a photo of a Japanese woman holding up the head of a wounded Malcolm X was published in LIFE magazine.  When gunfire erupted amongst the crowd at a rally at the Audubon Ballroom by 165th Street, everyone in the audience dispersed but Yuri Kochiyama ran to her friend's aid.  On the stage a small group of followers was desperately trying to save Brother Malcolm's life and the Asian woman who was part of the uptown community did not stand by and do nothing.  

We asked a few of our younger friends uptown if they knew who the woman in the mural on Old Broadway by 125th Street was and everyone said they were not familiar with the name.  Sister Yuri died at the age of 93 back in 2014 and the work of public art was dedicated to her just a block away from Manhattanville House where she raised her family for almost four decades.  Her husband and six children would call the housing project home starting in 1960 and she would remain a public figure at the address up until her senior years. The apartment notably hosted a salon for all types of activists to congregate at and a 9-year-old Tupac Shakur used to come over to participate in speaking out against the incarceration of political prisoners in the community.  

Yuri Kochiyama would later become a Nobel Peace Prize nominee and was directly responsible for getting reparations for the Japanese-Americans placed in camps during the last World War but sadly most in the neighborhood have forgotten her many achievements.  New York Times wrote an article about Ms. Kochiyama back in 1999 which mentioned she was still attending protests at the age of 78 but that has now been over two decades ago. The aforementioned painted wall has since chipped off at some parts but the words will still forever ring true for future generations:

Keep expanding your horizons, decolonize your mind and cross borders.

-Yuri Kochiyama