Nikki Louis Email and Phone Number

Second generation Japanese American (Nisei) whose fourth birthday falls on Pearl Harbor day. FBI removed father from Seattle home; sent to Santa Fe Internment Camp for Japan-born males suspected as security threats. Nikki and mother incarcerated in Minidoka, Idaho, 1942-45.Grew up in Chicago; father returned to Seattle. Professional dancer age 14, performing in all-white companies in Chicago and on national tours, including segregated South. Returned to Seattle to live with father, graduated high school. Joined China Doll nightclub revue, performing in Hollywood, Reno, Las Vegas. Graduated Cal State Long Beach, 1962 (English). Married Daniel K. Louis, daughter Kimberly Kay. Active in Seattle theater: Group Theatre; National Multicultural Playwrights Festival; Northwest Asian American Theater; "Word of Mouth," women's peace show; founded Playwrights in Progress; co-directed Local Access for the Arts in Education and writers' performance group, Women Who Write Too Much. In 1985, created oral history play on Japanese Americans, "Breaking the Silence" (BTS), to benefit civil liberties case of Gordon Hirabayashi. BTS continues to be performed, most recently in Hiroshima, Japan (2013), Salt Lake City, Ogden, UT, and Portland, OR (2014).Commissioned plays: "I Dream a World: Black Women Who Changed America" and "Winds of Change" (Museum of History & Industry, Seattle); "Our Mothers' Stories" (Washington State Centennial); "Issei" (Bainbridge Island Performing Arts); "Changing Faces" and "Keepers of the Dream" (Group Theatre), "Most Dangerous Women" (Women's International League for Peace & Freedom).1999-2001: MFA in Creative Writing; 2002-2007: Ph.D. in Creative Writing, Florida State U. 2008-09: taught Creative Writing and Asian American Literature, University of New Mexico (UNM),