COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT

As a community artist for over 50 years, I have been involved with many organizations in the Bay Area, often taking on leadership roles. Some of them I have been with since their founding, and some I joined later on or was instrumental in their organizational development. The community arts scene in the Bay Area is a small tight-knit community and there are a lot of cross-over interactions between the groups. The three major organizations that I have had the longest involvement with are Kearny Street Workshop, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, and Asian American Women Artists Association. I have also developed longstanding relationships with other centers and groups through the years. I have participated in their projects, been an exhibited artist, or have created artwork for them. Many of the members are still my friends and colleagues and we continue to support each other. A selection is listed below the major ones, along with the years of involvement.

LEADERSHIP

KEARNY STREET WORKSHOP
I first joined Kearny Street Workshop (KSW) in 1974, when my husband Bob Hsiang and I moved to San Francisco. It had already been established for two years on Kearny Street inside the International Hotel (I-Hotel) and was running a series of art workshops for the community. That year, KSW rented a large space on the Jackson Street side of the I-Hotel with enough room for exhibitions and performances. Director Jim Dong had designed a block-long mural at the side of the building. I volunteered to help paint the mural and became part of the art scene down there. At KSW I found my creative outlet through teaching drawing, attending the poetry workshop, curating an exhibition, and/or presenting a program on stage. The exhibitions at KSW’s Jackson Street Gallery attracted students and like-minded artists from all over the Bay Area.

The I-Hotel was home to many Filipino farmworkers, merchant marines, and service workers. Various community organizations occupied the ground floor, including Kearny Street Workshop. For over nine years, the mostly elderly tenants faced threats of eviction but the community protested. KSW’s role in the efforts to save the building, besides attending and documenting rallies and marches, was to focus on the tenants, who were the heart of the struggle. Much of our art, poetry, photography, and exhibitions illumined the daily lives of the tenants so people could get to know them and care for their plight.

The battle to save the I-Hotel was lost in August 4th, 1977, when KSW and other storefronts were evicted along with the tenants upstairs. The police, carrying batons and riding horses, came at 3am and brutally evicted everyone despite a 3,000-member human shield that surrounded the Hotel. I and other members guarded the Workshop but by 5am the I-Hotel was fully evacuated. After the eviction, we found a storefront in North Beach but we were not able to fully continue the classes and community events. KSW would remain nomadic for many years, using other venues to produce and present artists’ work.

In 1995, I became director of KSW, the same year it received its official non-profit status, and held that position for almost nine years. I had to rebuild KSW in order to ensure its continuance as a multidisciplinary organization. I redirected the organization’s programming and expanded its resources. I formed relationships with other community groups within and beyond the Asian American community. From the communities cultivated, KSW grew into an organization with a vast network of APA participants and supporters. KSW presented several groundbreaking projects during that time, including Ricardo Alvarado’s photographs of post WWII Filipino life in the Bay Area, and Flo Oy Wong’s “made in usa, Angel Island Shhh,” an art project exploring the identity secrets of Chinese immigrants on Angel Island.

In 1998, there were no venues for young Asian Pacific American artists to meet and show their work and exchange ideas. With the help of my assistant Jean Chen, I formed a subgroup, KSW- Next, to provide a forum for that age group. KSW-Next and its showcase festival, “APAture, A Window on the Art of Young Asian Pacific Americans.” An annual multidisciplinary festival for young emerging artists, APAture completed its 26th year in 2025. Some of its past members now serve in leadership positions at KSW and elsewhere. In 2003, I stepped down as director so a new generation can take over KSW. After 53 years, KSW is still going strong. I continue to be a presented artist with the organization.

MANILATOWN HERITAGE FOUNDATION
Kearny Street Workshop and its annex Jackson Street Gallery were on the ground floor of the International Hotel (I-Hotel), When I joined KSW in 1974, I also became involved with the tenants of the I-Hotel and their struggle against eviction. The seniors came down to visit KSW storefront and Jackson Street Gallery all the time. We ate with them, talked story with them, sang and danced with them. We did what we could to help the fight against eviction – posters, photography, films, poetry, exhibitions, marches, rallies, countless meetings, and court appearances. In addition to Jim Dong’s mural shown above, our artistic contributions to the struggle included: PINOTOH (People in Need of Their Own Housing), one of several exhibits on affordable housing; “We Won’t Move,” a book of poetry and photos of the tenants and of life in the I-Hotel; and dozens of poetry readings.

After the tenants’ eviction in 1977, the I-Hotel stayed a hole in the ground for 28 years. Every year, the community kept the spirit and memory of Manilatown and the I-Hotel alive through annual Aug 4th activities, which included a march, candlelight vigil, songs, poems and speeches. We’d place flowers on the cyclone fence surrounding the empty pit where the Hotel once stood, and read the names of the tenants who were evicted so we would not forget. Activists fought for a new Hotel and successfully prevented any other building to be built there besides low-income housing. Under my leadership, KSW fiscally sponsored Manilatown Heritage Foundation (MHF) when it was formed in 1994 to preserve the memory of the I-Hotel and to advocate for a new building.

When the I-Hotel was finally rebuilt in 2005, due to the efforts of many community leaders and Mayor Dianne Feinstein, MHF was in charge of the Manilatown Center. I helped to raise money for the build-out of the I-Hotel Manilatown Center and worked with the I-Hotel Senior Housing,

Inc. board to produce a pamphlet on its history. I oversaw the Manilatown Center’s artistic programs and assisted with its organizational growth, working with directors Sylvia Vivar, Roy Recio, Evelyn Luluquisen, and Ron Muriera. I left my position as curator of programs in 2011, but continued to be part of the Center as an artist, poet, or panelist.

In 2025, I created a 6-ft mandala for MHF to commemorate the I-Hotel’s history of struggle and the 20th anniversary of the new I-Hotel and the Manilatown Center. The I-Hotel Manilatown Center, currently under the directorship of Caroline Cabading, offers a variety of classes and presentations that bridge the past and the present, teach Filipino culture and traditions, as well as performances in jazz and other genres. It produces a variety of programming that honors the I-Hotel’s history, struggles, and legacies as well as programming that is relevant to the communities it serves today.

ASIAN AMERICAN WOMEN ARTIST ASSOCIATION
In 1989, Asian American Women Artists Association (AAWAA) was established by Betty Kano, Flo Oy Wong, and Moira Roth for Asian women artists to network, to present their work, and to advocate for more visibility. I started attending the meetings during that time. AAWAA was instrumental in the development of my artwork. The organization, under the direction of its longtime leader Cynthia Tom, gave me many opportunities to exhibit and to experiment with other artistic media. Flo Oy Wong, and Moira Roth for Asian women artists to network, to present their work, and to advocate for more visibility. In turn, I served the organization as an arts consultant, board member, and participating artist. After I left KSW in 2003, I helped AAWAA transition into a nonprofit organization by forming a mock board and having it conduct itself as a 501(c)3 for a year until it received the official status. I continued as an advisor after Cynthia officially became the organization’s director, and for several years I guided the organization in strategic planning and development. Cynthia eventually left AAWAA to form her own non-profit, A Place of Her Own. Now, with the new leadership, I join the other senior members of AAWAA, including Lenore Chinn, Lydia Nakashima Degarrod, and Flo Oy Wong. As legacy members, we are often interviewed for our knowledge and experience about AAWAA or the Asian American arts scene.