The national broadcast of From a Silk Cocoon provides an unprecedented opportunity to encourage millions of Americans to examine the backdrop, emotions, and reasons for the decision made by over 5,000 Japanese Americans to renounce their citizenship; and the frightening and tragic outcome resulting from the wartime hysteria and racial profiling that occurred in the name of “military necessity.” Chilling similarities in government decisionmaking, euphemistic language, and suspension of constitutional and human rights are echoed in today’s post 9/11 America.

Here are the ways you can help publicize From a Silk Cocoon and use the program in your community. Please do as much as you can!

Contact your PBS station . . .

Your local station can be a valuable resource and an ally in local publicity and outreach efforts.

• Confirm with your local PBS station if and when it will broadcast From a Silk Cocoon. The program has been made available to PBS affiliate stations nationwide by the Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA). Stations will then decide whether and when they will air the program. If at all possible, we would like to see the program air in May, which is Asian Pacific American Heritage month. Call your local station (www.pbs.org/stationfinder). Encourage them to air it if they are not yet planning to. Please let us know your station’s broadcast plans by calling or e-mailing us so we can publish that information on our Web site and encourage local media to review the program.
  
  
• Ask the station to work with you to hold a special preview event, where local groups are invited to view the program in advance of the broadcast and encouraged to help publicize and use the broadcast. Contact the Outreach Director at the station. Help the station come up with a list of groups to invite (civil rights, church, college and university, community/social justice organizations, JACL, etc.). At the preview event, encourage groups to promote the program to their members and plan a group viewing or other events. Hand out copies of press releases and reproduce the camera-ready flyer found on this site.
  
  
• Call the station’s program guide editor and ask him/her to feature From a Silk Cocoon in their printed guide or on their Web site. Tell them they can get a sample article about From a Silk Cocoon from the From a Silk Cocoon Web site (see below). Also ask them to consider doing a profile of a local individual that was interned in one of the internment camps, a local organization that exhibits internment artifacts or artwork, or a local oral history organization.
  
  
• Consider buying underwriting time on your local NPR station. On many NPR stations a group or individual can get low-cost 15-second underwriting spots that will permit you to mention your group name and the fact that you are helping to publicize the broadcast of From a Silk Cocoon, including the exact broadcast times. Contact your local station for guidelines and rates.

Publicize the broadcast . . .

There are many different ways to help get the word out about the broadcast. Be creative!

• Announce the broadcast and From a Silk Cocoon Web site in your group’s newsletter or mailings. Use the press release(s) on this site to write an article, or reproduce the sample flyer found on this site as an insert. Include the details on your local station and broadcast times, and any events you may have planned around the broadcast. In your mailings, encourage your members to reproduce the flyer and hand it out to their friends or post it at work.
  

• Publicize the program in your community. Customize and reproduce the camera-ready flyer found on this site. Make a list of local groups that you feel would be interested in the program. (For instance, community organizations or churches will find the program raises central issues of cultural values, family, social justice, etc.) Encourage them to hand out flyers at their meetings or include an announcement in their local publications. Post copies of the flyer on bulletin boards (at libraries, work, day care centers, senior centers, etc.) – or even hand them out at church or a community event.
  
  
• Use the Internet (e-mail, Web sites, listservs, user groups, etc.) to publicize the broadcast and any activities your group may have planned around it. Send e-mail messages to your group’s members, your friends, family, et al. (see the following sample). Post announcements on news groups or listservs you may be a part of. Keep messages short and to the point, and personalize them as much as possible. Timing the delivery of your message is important so people don’t forget. The week prior to broadcast is probably best (unless you are inviting people to a group viewing.) Ask recipients to forward the message on to everyone they know that has e-mail, so it has a multiplying effect that could reach many thousands. If you have a Web site, please include a notice on your site about the broadcast, with a link to the From a Silk Cocoon site at www.fromasilkcocoon.com.

Sample E-mail Announcement (copy, adapt and send):

“Hi! I wanted to make sure that you tune in to the upcoming national broadcast on PBS of an Emmy Award-winning documentary with great relevance to us all. Titled From a Silk Cocoon, this powerful documentary program is the first to share, through censored letters, diary entries, and poetry, the experience of a Japanese American couple who respond to the loss of their civil liberties and incarceration during World War II by renouncing their citizenship in hopes of a better life for their children. From a Silk Cocoon, will air beginning in May of 2007 on many PBS stations (check local listings).

I’m inviting people over for a group viewing to talk about the program and discuss what we can each do. We’ll get together at (time) at my place at (address).

Please come join me, or plan your own group viewing.

You can visit the From a Silk Cocoon Web site at www.fromasilkcocoon.com to learn more about the program, view a clip, get a Viewer’s Guide, provide feedback on the documentary and find related Internet sites.

PLEASE SPREAD THE WORD BY SENDING THIS MESSAGE TO EVERYONE YOU KNOW. AND DON’T FORGET TO WATCH!”

Use the program to motivate . . .

Help people take the first steps to a better understanding.

• Have a group or family viewing and encourage others to do the same. A group or family viewing in your home or other setting allows people to discuss the program, the documentary?s impact on their lives, and what each person can do. Make the group viewing simple, comfortable, and meaningful. Have a potluck or dessert and tea. Be sure to use the Viewer?s Guide found on this site, which includes sample discussion points and lists of resources and references.

• Host a community viewing event. Use a local church or meeting hall to invite people from your group or a variety of groups. Again, the Viewer’s Guide will be helpful to focus discussion. The event can also be used to plan follow-up activities in the community. If the broadcast time isn’t convenient, order a video copy of From a Silk Cocoon to show at another time (see below).
  
  
• Purchase video copies of From a Silk Cocoon for ongoing education and outreach, or for sharing with friends, family and neighbors. Copies are available for educational, grassroots and home use from the Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) in San Francisco at (415) 863-0814, or contact them by e-mail at: www.asianamericanmedia.org. Purchase of the program will ensure you have the proper rights to use it in the settings you wish.

Important!

Please report your activities to us. Email us to let us know about local publicity and outreach efforts around the broadcast and provide us with feedback.

To order materials . . .

A Viewer’s Guide and copies of Outreach materials are available on our Web site, or you can contact us at:

Kim Ina, Associate Producer, Outreach Coordinator
From a Silk Cocoon
2346-A 32nd Avenue
San Francisco CA 94116
E-MAIL: kimina@fromasilkcocoon.com
PH/FAX: (415) 566-3487
WEB SITE: www.fromasilkcocoon.com

From a Silk Cocoon is made possible by grants from The California Civil Liberties Public Education Program and the Center for Asian American Media (formerly NAATA) under the auspices of Asian Pacific Community Counseling of Sacramento.