Dan Kwong will perform “What? No Ping Pong Balls” on Sunday, June 3, from 2 to 4 p.m. at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave. in Little Tokyo.
Kwong teams up with taiko artist Kenny Endo for this moving and hilarious tribute to Kwong’s rebellious mother, Momo Nagano, who passed away in 2010 at the age of 84.
Kwong traces Nagano’s journey from her all-American girlhood in Los Angeles to World War II incarceration camp, her life as a single mother raising four kids, and her transformation from housewife to Venice Beach artist.
By including video interviews with other Japanese American single moms from the 1960s through today, Kwong weaves together the multiplicities of their experiences while revealing commonalities from their shared cultural background.
Kwong (www.dankwong.com) is a veteran performance artist, writer, teacher and visual artist who has been presenting solo shows since 1989. Hailed by critics as “a master storyteller,” he draws upon his own life experiences to explore the personal, the historical, the social and the unspeakable. With keen insight and a generous sense of humor, he intertwines storytelling, multimedia, dynamic physical movement, poetry, martial arts and music.
His major solo works include “Secrets of the Samurai Centerfielder,” ”Tales from the Fractured Tao,” “Monkhood in 3 Easy Lessons,” “Correspondence of a Dangerous Enemy Alien,” “The Dodo Vaccine,” and “The Night the Moon Landed on 39th Street.”
This program is included with museum admission. RSVPs are recommended. For more information, call (213) 625-0414 or visit www.janm.org.