Velina Hasu Houston

Velina Hasu Houston (born Velina Avisa Hasu Houston on May 5, 1957) is an American playwright, essayist, poet, author, editor and screenwriter who has had many works produced, presented and published. Her work draws from her experience of being multiracial as well as from the immigrant experiences of her family and those she encountered growing up in Junction City, Kansas.

Houston is best known for her play Tea, which portrays the lives of Japanese war brides who move to the United States with their American serviceman husbands.

Early life
Houston, the youngest of three, was born in international waters on a military ship en route to a U.S. base in Japan. Her Japanese mother, Setsuko Takechi, was originally from Matsuyama, Ehime, a provincial town on Shikoku Island. Her father, Lemo Houston, was an African Native American/Blackfoot-Pikuni Native American Indian originally from Linden, Alabama. Houston's ancestral lineages include historical ethnic ties to India, Cuba, Armenia, Greece and China, as well as family ties to Hawaii, England, Germany, Brazil, Argentina and Scotland.

In 1946, the parents of Velina met each other in Kobe, initiating a nine-year courtship despite disapproval from Velina's maternal grandfather. The grandfather, devastated by his country's defeat in World War II and the loss of his family's land due to the land reform policies backed by the U.S. occupation, killed himself. Following their marriage, the couple eventually cut off contact with both sides of their respective families. Later on, they adopted their only son, Joji Kawada George Adam Houston, who was an Amerasian and had been orphaned at the age of eight during the U.S. occupation of Tokyo.

In 1949, Velina's father made his way back to the United States. In order to reunite with Setsuko, he enlisted for active duty in the Korean War and returned to Asia in 1951. The courtship of Lemo and Setsuko lasted for nine years. Lemo respects Setsuko's desire to remain in Japan and care for her sick mother. The couple exchanged vows in 1954 and subsequently migrated to the United States in 1957, accompanied by their children, Joji and Velina's sister, Hilda Rika Hatsuyo. While en route, Velina was born and granted citizenship during her father's initial U.S. military assignment at Fort Riley, Kansas.

The family settled in Junction City, Kansas, a small town adjacent to the military base, living a culturally Japanese lifestyle at the insistence of Velina's mother, Setsuko. In 1969, as a result of combat-related stress and alcoholism, Velina's father died. Setsuko continued raising her family in Junction City.

Education
Houston attended graduate school at the University of California at Los Angeles and at the University of Southern California. She holds a PhD from USC's School of Cinematic Arts, and an MFA from the University of California at Los Angeles' School of Theater, Film, and Television. She also attended Kansas State University in Manhattan, Kansas, majoring in journalism and theater with a minor in philosophy.

Awards
Houston has been recognized as a Japan Foundation Fellow, a Rockefeller Foundation Fellow (twice), a Sidney F. Brody Fellow, a James Zumberge Fellow (thrice), a California Arts Council fellow, and a Los Angeles Endowment for the Arts Fellow. She is a Pinter Review Prize for Drama Silver Medalist for Calling Aphrodite, which was also a finalist for the American Theatre Critics Association Steinberg New Play Award for its 2007 world premiere.

Present day
Houston continues to write plays and also works in other genres of writing.

Houston is the Professor, Associate Dean of Faculty, Resident Playwright, and Founder/Director of the undergraduate Playwriting Program and Master of Fine Arts in Dramatic Writing at the University of Southern California. For several years, she taught master classes in screenwriting at the University of California at Los Angeles School of Theater, Film, and Television.

One of her recent productions was the premiere of her adaptation of Little Women, produced by the Playwrights' Arena in Los Angeles in October and November 2017.

Personal life
Houston resides in Los Angeles, with homes in Hawaii and Kyoto. She is married to Peter H. Jones of Manchester, England, with whom she has two children and two stepsons: Kiyoshi S. S. Houston, K. Leilani Houston, Evan W. Jones and Jason K. Jones. Raised as a Buddhist and Shintoist, Houston attends an Episcopal parish but practices a polytheistic faith.

Works

 * (ed.) The Politics of Life: Four Plays by Asian American Women. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993. Anthology of plays by Wakako Yamauchi, Genny Lim and Velina Hasu Houston.
 * (ed.) But still, like air, I'll rise: new Asian American plays. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1997. Anthology of plays by Jeannie Barroga, Philip Kan Gotanda, Velina Hasu Houston, Huynh Quang Nhuong, David Henry Hwang, Victoria Nalani Kneubuhl, Sung Rno, Dmae Roberts, Lucy Wang, Elizabeth Wong and Chay Yew.