When Yuri Met Malcolm
About the Event
First commissioned by East West Players in 2022, When Yuri Met Malcolm explores the legacy of Yuri Kochiyama through her friendship with Malcolm X, tracing her journey from Japanese American incarceration camps to a lifetime of activism.
Told through the prism of her unlikely friendship with Malcolm X, this play explores Yuri Kochiyama's legacy. We follow Yuri’s life from her “red, white, and blue” days in the Japanese American internment camps, to her rapid radicalization during the civil rights movement, to all her activism that followed through the decades. What does it mean to be a citizen of our flawed, flawed country? And how much can a single person do to change it?
Theatre for Youth is supported in part by the Dwight Stuart Youth Fund, L.L. Foundation for Youth, Cathay Bank Foundation, Green Foundation, California Arts Council, The Sun Family Foundation, The Tsao Family Foundation, The Walt Disney Company, and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture.
Season 61 is dedicated to the memory of Randall A. Tamura and is sponsored by Randall A. & Mari Tamura, with additional support from NBCUniversal and the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors through the Department of Arts and Culture. East West Players is a recipient of the 2026 THRIVE! Grant, funded by the Mark Edelman Theater Fund and administered by Theatre Communications Group, the national organization for theatre leadership for a just and thriving theatre ecology.
For disability-related accommodations, please call (213) 228-7430 at least five business days prior to the event. The City will make every effort to accommodate requests received with less notice.
