It Rhymes with Takei: George Takei Author Talk & Signing

SOLD-OUT EVENT: There is no online or email waitlist for sold-out events. Those wishing to attend sold-out events can visit the Japan Society Box Office in person at 333 East 47th Street. A physical waitlist will begin one hour before each sold-out event. 10 minutes prior to the event, any available tickets will be made available and can be purchased by those present in the order they arrived. Please note, there is no guarantee that tickets will be available for sold-out events.

Japan Society is honored to welcome George Takei to celebrate the release of It Rhymes with Takei. This event is co-presented by Top Shelf Productions.

Following his award-winning bestseller, They Called Us Enemy, George Takei’s new full-color graphic memoir reveals his most personal story of all. Takei has shown the world many faces: actor, author, outspoken activist, helmsman of the starship Enterprise, living witness to the internment of Japanese Americans and king of social media. But until October 27, 2005, there was always one piece missing. There was one very intimate fact he never shared. Now, for the first time ever, Takei shares the full story of his life in the closet, his decision to come out as gay at the age of 68 and the way that moment transformed his life.

Takei reunites with the They Called Us Enemy team of Harmony Becker, Steven Scott and Justin Eisinger for a true story that follows from his earliest childhood crushes and youthful experiments in the conformist 1950s, to his global fame as an actor and the terrible fear of exposure, to becoming one of the most high-profile gay men on the planet. Combining personal experiences and larger LGBTQ+ history, It Rhymes with Takei depicts the terror of entrapment even in gay community spaces, the anguish of speaking up for other issues while remaining silent on a personal one, the grief of losing friends to AIDS, the joy of finding true love and the determination to declare that love before the whole world. Looking back on his own astonishing life on both sides of the closet, George Takei presents a charismatic, candid and deeply personal witness to how far America has come… and how urgently we must fight to defend that precious progress.

About George Takei

George Takei is a civil rights activist, social media superstar, Grammy-nominated recording artist, New York Times bestselling author and pioneering actor whose career has spanned six decades. He has appeared in more than 40 feature films and hundreds of television roles, most famously as Hikaru Sulu in Star Trek, and he has used his success as a platform to fight for social justice, LGBTQ+ rights and marriage equality. His advocacy is personal: during World War II, Takei spent his childhood unjustly imprisoned in United States incarceration camps along with 125,000 other Japanese Americans. Takei is the author of five books, including his autobiography, To the Stars. His Eisner Award-winning and New York Times bestselling graphic memoir, They Called Us Enemy was released in July 2019. His picture book for children, My Lost Freedom: A Japanese American World War II Story, also became a New York Times bestseller upon its release in April 2024.

Autographs and Book Sales

Attendees of Japan Society’s talk and signing with George Takei will be able to purchase copies of It Rhymes with Takei at the event for a signing session following their talk. Please note, Takei will only be signing copies of It Rhymes with Takei, not other books or memorabilia. Attendees are welcome to take photos during the signing, but kindly asked not to pose with Takei for photographs.

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Japan Society’s 120th anniversary initiatives and related programs are generously supported by Champion Sponsor, MUFG Bank, Ltd.; Advocate Sponsor, Mizuho Americas; and Friend Sponsor, Mitsubishi Corporation (Americas).

Japan Society programs are supported by the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature.

Additional support for cultural programs is provided by an anonymous donor; Sendon and BuyJapon; the Sandy Heck Lecture Fund; and Anime NYC.

The NYC Japanese Literature Series is supported by a grant from the Toshiba International Foundation.