Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice

Dr. Satsuki Ina will discuss her memoir The Poet and the Silk Girl: A Memoir of Love, Imprisonment, and Protest, a compelling story of one family’s defiance in the face of injustice and how their story echoes across generations.

Satsuki Ina is an Emmy award-winning documentarian, community activist, and co-founder of Tsuru for Solidarity. The Poet and the Silk Girl explores her family’s experience of unjust incarceration during WWII.

Ina links her family’s story to struggles against WWII incarceration camps to ongoing mass incarceration of migrants at the U.S. — Mexico border. Her story and analysis are particularly relevant given national conversations about mass detention camps and invoking the Alien Enemies Act today.

This event is sponsored by the Center for Asian American Studies, Human Rights Watch, Immigration Clinic at the University of Texas School of Law, the Initiative for Law, Societies, and Justice, Rapoport Center for Human Rights and Justice, Sissy Farenthold Fund for Peace and Social Justice, Tsuru for Solidarity, and the William Wayne Justice Center for Public Interest Law.

Youth led mass protests are significantly challenging state legitimacy in Bangladesh, Nigeria, Venezuela and Kenya. Driven by deep economic distress, hopelessness and impunity, these nations lurch between constitutionalism, authoritarianism and anarchy with consequences for billions of people. What new human rights narratives and forms of organizing are emerging from these Gen Z social movements, human rights organisations and governments? Join Amnesty International Kenya’s Executive Director Irũngũ Houghton in exploring how current events are reshaping the right to expression, assembly and association globally.

Irũngũ Houghton has advised and held national governments, international and continental multi-lateral processes publicly accountable for the last thirty years. He currently serves as Amnesty International Kenya Executive Director. As Amnesty’s spokesperson and chief strategist in Kenya, he leads a team of committed investigative researchers and campaigners working to end human rights abuses and realise the Constitution of Kenya.

His work with Amnesty International Kenya led him to be cited among Kenya’s top 100 leaders in 2024. Amnesty International Kenya was also nominated in 2024 for the Best Governance and Human Rights NGO Category by the Public Benefits Regulatory Authority, Government of Kenya. In 2021, Amnesty Kenya was among the top ten most successful fundraising offices/sections in the Amnesty movement.

Irũngũ has previously worked with most of biggest NGOs in the world including Actionaid, Oxfam, Care, GreenPeace, London School of Economics and WWF among others. He was also the founding Chairperson of the Kilimani Project Foundation, a community foundation committed to creating livability and workability in the local community in which he lives (2012-2020). His public interest campaigns with others have received awards and citations from the African Union, New Partnership for Africa’s Development, Nation Media Group, New African, Architectural Association of Kenya and Sabre Africa Awards over the last decade.

Widely known as an inspirational speaker, change facilitator and skillful moderator, Irũngũ has published a weekly newspaper column for the last seven years and is an analyst of choice on Kenya for the national and international media. He is also the author of the recently published “Dialogue and Dissent: A Constitution in Search of a Country” available on either Amazon. He is married, father to seven adult children and grandfather to four alphas. Irũngũ holds two degrees from the University of Dar es Salaam (MA) and the School of Oriental and African Studies, London (BA). More X @irunguhoughton