#manilatown

How San Francisco erased a neighborhood, March 10, 2020

With an explosion of tech companies and startups in recent decades, San Francisco has struggled with a massive affordable housing crisis. But the beginnings of that crisis go back much further than Silicon Valley.

In 1968, a group of predominantly Filipino elders in San Francisco launched a battle to protect their home from eviction. Called the International Hotel, their home ended up in the crossroads of a city prioritizing the “Manhattanization” of its downtown area. Their fight for their neighborhood would evolve into a nearly decade-long protest with thousands of supporters and become a symbol of the campaign for affordable housing for decades to come.

In the Vox series Missing Chapter, Vox Senior Producer Ranjani Chakraborty revisits underreported and often overlooked moments from the past to give context to the present. Join her as she covers the histories that are often left out of our textbooks.

We feature an archival interview from 1997 with Nora Okja Keller about her book Comfort Woman, and Keller reads from the book. Also, interviews by Tony Robles, and poetry from at the Manilatown Heritage Foundation in San Francisco. Martha and Tony talk a

Listen & Be Heard Podcast Episode 28 Subscribe at Spotify Subscribe at Apple Subscribe at Google Poetry and Conversation live from Manilatown Heritage Foundation in SF. Nora Okja Keller talks about Comfort Woman in archival interview. We feature an archival interview from 1997 with Nora Okja Keller about her book Comfort Woman, and Keller reads from the book. Also, interviews by Tony Robles,…

You can always try Again Relax My friend Your sincerity and persistence Will Pan out Relax Try again

Notes to myself (excerpt) Peter Kenichi Yamamoto

August 4th marks the anniversary of the I-Hotel eviction, From 1968-1977, the mostly Asian, Filipino & elderly tenants along with Asian American activists, community and civil rights groups resisted eviction notices served by developers. After a nine-year battle, the tenants were forcibly evicted from the International Hotel in Manilatown, San Francisco. One of the I-Hotel’s tenants was a young artist and activist named Peter Yamamoto.

We were saddened to hear of the passing of Peter’s passing on May 27, 2018. Peter has been committed to social activism and the Asian American movement since the 1970s. He lived at the I-Hotel and was a key witness to the eviction of its residents.

For decades, Peter has been part of the fabric of San Francisco’s Asian American community as a poet, activist, and thinker. He served as Volunteer Coordinator for the National Japanese American Historical Society, and has been involved with many of San Francisco’s Asian American arts and community organizations, including another former I-Hotel tenant, Kearny Street Workshop. Peter published his first book of poetry Journey in 2012, and was working on his second book before his passing.

The International Hotel, often referred to locally as the I-Hotel was a low-income single-room-occupancy residential hotel in San Francisco, California’s Manilatown. It was home to many Asian Americans, specifically a large Filipino American population (the Manongs) who came to the US to work in agriculture and fisheries. Because of a scarcity of the Filipino women and American laws that prevented interracial marriage, most of the men were lifelong bachelors.

It is now converted into a retirement home.

City Lights on the other hand, is a landmark independent bookstore and publisher that specializes in world literature, the arts, and progressive politics.

I had most of the day free on January 3 before I flew back to Chicago in the evening, so I spent most of the day re-acquainting (?) with former Chicago-resident and University of the Philippines classmate, Lorna Lardizabal-Dietz, who lives right in the edge of Chinatown. I have known Lorns since 1974 when we were with the Freshman Orientation Program Committee welcoming new new students enrolling for the first time. So were practically the first people the new students were meeting to pick up their registration materials at the admin building. We kept in touch throughout the years – living parallel lives intersecting here and there, and reconnecting again this time in her own back of the woods.

We were just going to go around Waverly Place to see the murals, but our walk meandered around the area that included other parts of Chinatown, North Beach, Little Italy and back to Chinatown with lunch at an incredible vegan restaurant called Enjoy.

Grand time reuniting!