San Francisco: Kearny Street Workshop 1977 & 1982. Two uncommon publications of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multidisciplinary arts nonprofit in the United States addressing Asian Pacific American issues. Founded in 1972 in San Francisco, its mission is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities. It played a key role in the I-Hotel anti-eviction movement through community activism, murals, and protest posters. The first publication is a scarce booklet - "We Won't Move" - featuring poetry and photography by members of the Kearny Street Workshop - including Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Genny Lim, Janice Mirikitani and others - documenting the attempt to stop the eviction of the elderly Filipinos for…
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San Francisco: Kearny Street Workshop 1977 & 1982. Two uncommon publications of the Kearny Street Workshop, the oldest multidisciplinary arts nonprofit in the United States addressing Asian Pacific American issues. Founded in 1972 in San Francisco, its mission is to produce and present art that enriches and empowers Asian Pacific American communities. It played a key role in the I-Hotel anti-eviction movement through community activism, murals, and protest posters. The first publication is a scarce booklet - "We Won't Move" - featuring poetry and photography by members of the Kearny Street Workshop - including Teri Lee, Nelson Yee, Al Robles, Genny Lim, Janice Mirikitani and others - documenting the attempt to stop the eviction of the elderly Filipinos for whom the hotel had been home for many years. Originally built as a luxury destination in 1854, the International Hotel moved from Jackson St to Kearny St in 1873, and was rebuilt after the Great Earthquake of 1906, by 1968 it had become a low-income single-room-occupancy residential hotel in what was left of Manilatown. While originally the fight was to halt the tragic eviction process and larger community demise, it also sparked grassroots activism for affordable senior housing and was influential in developing a nationwide activist Asian American Movement. This copy has two newspaper photographs carefully taped inside the covers - in the front, the police on horseback are shown brutally riding through the phalanx of over 2000 protesters who tried to create a blockade to protect the building and in the rear is the infamous picture of Sheriff Richard Hongisto taking a sledgehammer to an apartment door, and on the final page is the handwritten comment 'Eviction carried out 8/4 at 3:00 AM" 40 pp. The front cover features a photograph of Felix Ayson standing in front of an International Hotel posting that announces a "rally to stop eviction." The eviction of the International Hotel tenants outraged the nation, and ended the developer's plans. After the building was demolished the lot stood empty for many years, until almost 30 years later, the city of San Francisco completed a new I-Hotel to provide affordable housing for senior citizens and low income residents and to house a Manila Cultural Center. 40 pp in stapled wrappers. The second book is "Texas Long Grain: Photographs" - an anthology of Asian American photographers from all over America, from New York City to Little Rock to the San Francisco Bay Area. It is entitled 'Texas Long Grain' because the people, moments, and scenes captured in the photographs are as familiar as a sack of rice. This book highlights the photographers' involvement with people in their own environments. These photographs reflect the artists' concern for the Asian American community and the social conditions under which they live and work." (editor's note) Among the photographers are Crystal K. D. Huie, Jerry Jew, Peter Man, Norman Yee, Sand Gee, Jim Dong and others. Illustrated throughout. Brief biographies of the contributors. 59 pp.
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