This year marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence promised life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. In May, New Breath Foundation will honor the movement leaders who continue the work of making those promises true for everyone at our annual awards ceremony and fundraiser. NBF’s Director of Strategic Partnerships, Maya Iwata, recently joined Akemi Kochiyama, Co-Director of the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project for a Harlem walking tour and shares the behind-the-scenes stories that stayed with her. The following reflects her perspective and has been edited for length and clarity.
Behind Every Movement Leader
Last month, a walking tour through Harlem – led by Akemi Kochiyama, Yuri Kochiyama’s granddaughter – served as a reminder that movement work belongs not only to the names we remember, but also to the many people who show up every day to keep our movements going.
Most people know Yuri Kochiyama as the extraordinary activist she was: a Japanese American woman politicized by her family’s forced internment during World War II, who became a powerful voice for cross-racial solidarity in American history. What fewer people know is the quiet, steady force who made so much of her work possible – her husband, Bill.
Bill Kochiyama grew up in Harlem, on the same street where he and Yuri would later raise their family and organize for four decades. In the early years, he created graphics for Yuri’s organizing activities and washed down the floors each night after their home had filled, as it often did, with artists, writers, organizers, and community members. When Yuri traveled to speak and organize, Bill would leave a teddy bear on a chair to welcome her home.
That small gesture grew into something larger. Friends and fellow organizers began gifting Yuri stuffed animals. One became many, then a whole family. What began as a quiet act of love became something the whole movement contributed to, reflecting a deeper truth: movements aren’t built by individuals alone, but by the many people holding them together, seen and unseen.
A Mural Built and Protected by Community
The teddy bear tradition is one kind of behind-the-scenes movement building. The Yuri Kochiyama and Malcolm X mural is another.
Shortly after Yuri’s passing in 2014, artists, activists, and educators came together with the Kochiyama family to create a lasting tribute: a community mural honoring Yuri and her mentor and friend Malcolm X. Titled From Harlem with Love, it sits on Old Broadway between 125th and 126th streets, across from the Manhattanville Projects where the Kochiyamas lived and organized.
What makes the mural remarkable isn’t the art alone. It’s who made it possible. Over two years, the design emerged through community conversations, focus groups, and deep neighborhood engagement. It was shaped and owned by the community in a way most public art never is. There was no single artist, no single vision – over 100 community members, young people and adults alike, helped bring it to life. They weren’t building for recognition. They were building for what comes next.
And it has lasted. Akemi shared a story that captures this perfectly. In 2021, when Yuri’s grandson Zulu arrived with paint and ladders to restore the mural, a group of young people on bikes stopped him, questioning his intentions. Only once he explained who he was did the moment soften and the misunderstanding resolve.
Over the years, the mural has remained untouched by graffiti, protected by neighbors who claim it as their own.
The artists even left some protest signs drawn on it intentionally blank, building in space for whatever fights still lay ahead. That kind of foresight is its own form of leadership and commitment – quiet, collective, and built to last. It’s exactly what we mean when we say that true freedom isn’t won alone or in one moment. It’s built together, through co-creation, by people who keep the movement alive.
Why It All Matters Today
Yuri Kochiyama was a mentor to New Breath Foundation’s president and founder, Eddy, during his incarceration. Her belief that our struggles – and our liberation – are interconnected lives at the heart of everything New Breath Foundation does. We’re proud to support the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project, a grantee partner of the New Breath Fund, and to remain in relationship with their legacy.
Across our network, grantee partners led by Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities are writing the next chapter. They are building bridges across cultures and creating spaces where safety comes through healing and restoration, not punishment. Every day, they’re proving that winning true freedom requires all of us.
Collective Liberation 2026: Celebrating Leaders Behind the Movement
Next month, we’re honored to celebrate Audee Kochiyama, Co-Director of the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project, as one of our movement elders at Collective Liberation 2026. Like her father, Bill, Audee has long worked behind the scenes, making this recognition especially meaningful.
We’re also delighted that Akemi will be there to celebrate with us.
Join us in celebrating the leaders behind the movement, the ones who make movements possible.
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Learn more about the Yuri Kochiyama Solidarity Project at yurikochiyama.com.
Join us at New Breath Foundation’s annual awards ceremony and fundraiser, Collective Liberation 2026: Celebrating Leaders Behind the Movement.
Maya Iwata (she/her) brings three decades of cross-racial social justice work, rooted in the HIV/AIDS and harm reduction movement of the 90s, which paired structural change with holistic direct service. A mixed-generation Japanese American and Chartered Advisor in Philanthropy®, Maya holds a B.A. from Cornell University and an M.S. from Columbia University School of Social Work.