Cruising J-Town, book talk with author Oliver Wang

Co-presented by Angel City Press, Curator and author Oliver Wang will be speaking about Cruising J-Town, which is both a new exhibition from the Japanese American National Museum as well as a companion book from Angel City Press. Both the exhibition and the book look at the 100+ year history of Japanese Americans in Los Angeles and their long relationship to the world of cars and trucks.

Since the earliest days of L.A.’s transformation into an “autotopia,” Japanese Americans have been part of the fabric in which cars and trucks have transformed neighborhoods and cities, changed the fortunes of families and communities, and been vehicles for self-expression and creativity. The overall Cruising J-Town project includes everything from prewar hot rods to 21st century drift racing, humble gardening trucks to tricked-out imports, cutting-edge design centers to neighborhood gas stations.

For this event, Oliver will be drawing on a selection of special stories from Cruising J-Town that highlight the myriad ways in which the Japanese American community has contributed to, and been shaped by, American car culture. That will include mini-histories of postwar fish trucks, WWII-era racing clubs and even a bit of Hollywood casting lore.