‘Samurai Centerfielder’ at Bat at Neofest

Baseball meets the martial arts when Sushi’s eighth annual Neofest continues with “Secrets of the Samurai Centerfielder,” tonight through Saturday at Sushi.

Written and performed by Los Angeles performance artist Dan Kwong, the show uses monologue, slides, dance and music to portray Kwong’s struggle to fashion an identity based on his Chinese, Japanese and American heritage.

Kwong, who in real life has been a member of the Little Tokyo Giants baseball team for the last 18 years as well as a student of the martial arts, stresses the physical similarities between traditional Japanese swordsmanship and baseball as a metaphor for racial oppression.

“Secrets of the Samurai Centerfielder” is the fourth event in Sushi’s Neofest. The series continues with “Bluebeard’s Hassles: The Writhes of the Wives,” written and performed by Pat Oleszko, May 24-26 at Sushi and a world premiere by the Latino comedy troupe, Culture Clash, called “Frida and Che Meet Los Bookies de Norte,” June 1 and 2 at the La Jolla Museum of Contemporary Art.