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This page is an online archive of documentation gathered from past Rolling Counterpoint events. Click on each event name to view photos, videos, original artwork, and more. We hope enjoy browsing the collected materials!

South Bay Events 2017

​On February 15 through March 3, 2017 Rolling Counterpoint traveled to a variety of venues  across the South Bay, including De Anza College in Cupertino and the Japanese American Museum San Jose (JAMsj) and Parque de los Pobladores in San Jose.  Hattori invited community members to join him inside his teahouse to share their experiences of exclusion and social division, and address the question “what does belonging mean to you?”

​This series of events was  co-organized by the Audrey Edna Butcher Civil Liberties Education Initiative of the California History Center at De Anza College, and presented in association with San Jose Japanese American community’s commemoration of the 75th anniversary of Executive Order 9066, which authorized the mass forced removal and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II.
East Bay Events 2017

From April 13th through June 15th, Rolling Counterpoint participated in events across the East Bay, traveling to the Kala Art Institute, UC Berkeley’s 2017 Othering and Belonging Conference, Covenant Worship Center and Downtown Oakland’s Third Thursday at Latham Square.
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The East Bay’s diverse residents shared their stories and discussed issues facing their communities, notably the themes of gentrification and community displacement. For this series, Hattori invited and collaborated with a variety of local artists, including singer and “artivist” Jennifer Johns, print-maker Ben Engle, visual artist and vocalist Marissa Katarina Bergmann and dancer Krystal William.

San Francisco Events 2017


​From May 25th through June 10th, Rolling Counterpoint held events at the Tenderloin National Forest and the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco. These diverse spaces with multi-faceted histories yielded productive conversations around homelessness, the San Francisco community and how we might envision a better future.

These events included performances by visual artist and vocalist, Marissa Katarina Bergmann, and performer and storyteller, Dr. Dreame. Print-maker Ben Engle contributed letter pressed cards for participants to note their thoughts and pin them to the teahouse.

Community Questions


​The questions listed below were generated by participants involved in various Rolling Counterpoint conversation events around the Bay Area. They are designed to serve as an community resource as we endeavor to address the issues that divide us and forge new ways of being together and listening to one another. ​

From the Japanese American Museum Interviews (San Jose)

  • ​What brings us together?
  • What motivates you to reach out to others?
  • How can you discover what people need in their lives?
  • What stories have you learned from your community that may be helpful to others in difficult times?
  • How would you learn about communities you are not familiar with?
  • What would help us be honest with others we don’t know very well or might be uncomfortable with?
  • What can you do to build the sense of trust between people?
  • Do you have any stories that you want to share? How would you encourage people to share their stories?
  • How do you work with your enemies?
  • How would you communicate with someone who had a traumatic experience?
  • How do you understand other people’s fears?
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Record your Response

​From Tenderloin National Forest Interviews (San Francisco)

  • ​What do you (or society) need to do to accept people with trauma?
  • What makes you proud of yourself? What makes someone you know feel proud of her/himself?
  • When do you feel accepted?
  • Who is suffering today and what would you need if you were in the same situation?
  • What do you want to pass down to your friends, family and the world that would have an impact a 1000 years from now?
  • What could be a first step to escape the vicious cycle of poverty?
  • How do you work with someone who thinks you are their enemy?
  • What are the minimum requirements for you to live as a person with dignity?
  • When you or someone feels stuck in a difficult situation, how can we find pleasurable experiences?
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Record your Response

​From Covenant Worship Center Interviews (West Berkeley)

  • What for you is the most important way to improve quality of life beyond economic considerations?
  • How do you create space and time for being with your loved ones?
  • We all have misguided prejudice one way or another, what biases or stereotypes do you think you hold about other people and how can you challenge those ideas?
  • What are the most important life lessons to share with the next generation?
  • How can your community reach out to another community which may not share the same values?
  • With a person coming from a entirely different background to you, what would you like to do together, and how would you collaborate with the person?
  • Could you talk about what you appreciate about a culture dissimilar to your own? What are the similarities between this culture and yours?
  • What is your process of forgiving?
  • How can we make legal aid and knowledge more accessible for everyone?
  • What social problems are you possibly part of? And what can you contribute to these challenges?
  • What exactly can you do as a first step to embrace diversity?
  • How can you slow down and take more time to reflect?
  • How can we build solidarity with people whose backgrounds are dissimilar to our own?

Record your Response

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Rolling Counterpoint: A Community Conversation Project by Taro Hattori