Kanayo Ueda
poet
Born in 1969 in Yoshino, Nara Prefecture, Ueda began writing poetry at age three and holding readings of her poetry at the age of 17. In 1992 she started holding nationwide poetry workshops. In 2001 she declared herself a poet-entrepreneur, and in 2003 she opened Cocoroom in Osaka’s Shinsekai area, an enterprise in the guise of a coffee shop designed to explore the relationship between society and expression based on the themes of expression, self-reliance, work and society. In 2008 she established infoshop and café Cocoroom in Nishinari Ward (commonly called Kamagasaki), and in 2012 began offering lectures and workshops under the “Kama Gei” (“Kamagasaki University of Arts”) project. She took the community-based initiative Kama Gei to the Yokohama Triennale 2014. In spring 2016, she relocated and opened the Cocoroom Guesthouse Café and Garden.
Publications include the photography and poetry collection “UTA” (published by WALL), “Seed for the heart and mind: art projects connecting memory and society” (Cocoroom Bunko), and “Cocoroom : A Café creating a place for expression in Kamagasaki” (Film Art Inc.). She has also released CDs of readings, including “Reciting the Constitution of Japan!” and “The Same Sky is Above You.”
Representative of NPO The Room for Full of Voice Words and Hearts ” Cocoroom.” Researcher at Osaka City University Urban Research Plaza.
Won the Asahi Kansai Square 21 Award in 2012 and received the 2014 New Artist Award from the Agency of Cultural Affairs, the Minister of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology’s Art Encouragement Prize.