Lakota Middle School will hold a multicultural assembly on June 15.

The school has partnered with Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau to bring writer and historian Mayumi Tsutakawa to Federal Way.

Tsutakawa, a member of the 2012-14 Humanities Washington Speakers Bureau, will expound on the Japanese experience in Washington state before, during and after Executive Order 9066, which mandated Japanese internment camps.

Tsutakawa co-edited “The Forbidden Stich: Asian American Women’s Literacy Anthology” which received the Before Columbus Foundation’s American Book Award. She also edited two books on pioneer Asian American artists: “They Painted from their Hearts” and “Turning Shadows into Light.”

Tsutakawa received her master’s degree in communications and her bachelor’s degree in East Asian studies at the University of Washington. Her graduate thesis is one of the few documents to research pre-war Japanese American newspapers.

Tsutakawa also was manager of grants for the Washington State Arts Commission and previously directed King County’s arts and historic preservation programs.

Her presentation, “The Pine and the Cherry: Japanese Americans in Washington,” will take place at 8:30 a.m. June 15 at Lakota Middle School, 1415 SW 314th St., Federal Way. It is free and open to the public.

To learn more, visit www.humanities.org/event/the-pine-and-the-cherry-japanese-americans-in-washington-23/