Today is the legendary activist Yuri Kochiyama’s birthday! We’re celebrating by revisiting one of our favorite AAWW Radio episodes You Don’t Say No to Yuri Kochiyama, featuring audio from our 2005 event with Yuri Kochiyama’s biographer Diane C. Fujino, as well as Fred Ho, Baba Herman Ferguson, Esperanza Martell, and Laura Whitehorn. You’ll hear about how Yuri’s Harlem apartment was a social hub for activists in the 60s, her work liberating political prisoners, fighting for Puerto Rican independence, her prolific note taking, and how she transformed from a budding activist to a symbol of revolutionary change.

When Yuri Kochiyama passed away in 2014, we published this tribute by Scott Kurashige on The Margins. Read about her “sweeping view of history and fierce commitment to revolutionary activism” here.