The Café Royal Cultural Foundation NYC has awarded a 2026 Winter Performance Grant to Benjamin Akio Kimitch for his upcoming currently untitled new work.

The ensemble work examines the global cultural forces that shaped Japanese American identity between the 1945 Hiroshima bombing and the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. By juxtaposing postwar pressures toward conformity in the United States with the expressive freedoms of postwar art movements in U.S.-occupied Japan, the work reflects Kimitch's lived experience as a Japanese American artist. Kimitch’s new work will have its world premiere in fall 2026 in New York City. It will be accompanied by a public symposium to help communities unpack the piece’s layered influences, including postwar Japanese art, U.S. soft power, and Japanese American incarceration.

Benjamin Akio Kimitch is an award-winning artist and producer based in Brooklyn, NY. He is the recent recipient of a New York Dance and Performance Bessie Award for Outstanding Choreographer, Creative Capital Award, and an Asian Cultural Council Fellowship. Kimitch’s work has been commissioned and presented at The Shed, The Noguchi Museum, The Kitchen, Danspace Project, and Princeton University. He has been awarded artistic residencies at MacDowell, Yaddo, MANCC, Movement Research, and others. Kimitch also brings to his artistic work over 16 years of experience as a professional producer, currently as the Producer for new opera, music, theater, and dance at Perelman Performing Arts Center.