Fighting Fear Through Poetry /
Xenophobia, Allies, and Identity
The COVID-19 pandemic has resurfaced stronger anti-Asian xenophobia, particularly directed at Chinese communities. San Francisco’s Chinese for Affirmative Action has noted over 1,100 reports within just the initial two weeks since their STOP AAPI HATE Reporting Center was launched.
“The current wave of anti-Asian xenophobia is just the latest version of an old story etched on the walls of the Angel Island Immigration Station,” said AIISF board president Buck Gee. “With the wisdom of hindsight, it is plain to see that xenophobic leaders from that time were wrongheaded demagogues and that the country should learn from those mistakes in our past.”
Asian Americans and allies of the community have been increasingly vocal in their denouncement of anti-Asian hate crimes nationwide. Many leaders continue to speak up to promote solidarity as the world grapples with the fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.
Reprise / Sonia Lake
When another great pandemic arises
Wish with all your heart and pray
That you won’t forget play
That you won’t forget society
Don’t just hide and lie quietly
Don’t forget to let people be people
Despite those who blame
They hurt like fire and flame
The fault does not lie in any one peoples’ lap
Let racism rear its ugly head at that
Sonia Lake is a currently a middle school student in the Bay Area. She enjoys writing, poetry, singing, acting, and has a passion for animals and the preservation of their habitats.
We Eat Chicken Feet and We Are Not Dead / Nellie Wong
We eat chicken feet and we are not dead
Our bowls are rimmed with bats and fire flies
Our feet pedal sewing machines making blue denim jeans
We march in Chinatown protesting discrimination
Corona virus has no yellow skin nor brown eyes
We are delivery workers, doctors, dancers, actors
Our ancestors memorized the number of doors and windows in the
home village, whether our fathers had more than one wife
Our foremothers sold their bodies to feed their children
Ah Bing cultivated wild and sweet cherries in Oregon,
disappeared in China
We make masks and we don't hide
We fight for Asian American Studies
Agitating for inclusion is a political act
We strike for higher wages, rest periods for our aching backs
We are immigrants at home all over the world
We are natives, born in Eureka, Augusta, Oakland, Phoenix, Flushing
We dispense herbs, make soup to heal our bodies
Harvest chrysanthemums, grapes, pea shoots, taro
Oh yeah, we yakety yack, we jitterbug and jive, play flutes and drums
We dream and we braise and steam and we write
We eat chicken feet and we are not dead.
Poet Nellie Wong reads We Eat Chicken Feet and We Are Not Dead
Oakland Chinatown born and raised, Nellie Wong has published several collections of poetry, the last being Breakfast Lunch Dinner. She appeared in the documentary film, Mitsuye and Nellie Asian America Poets. She's been recognized by University of California Santa Barbara, San Francisco Women's Foundation, among others, including a building named after her at Oakland High School.
Her poems and essays have been published in many anthologies in the U.S., Australia, France, and Italy. She's a founder of Unbound Feet, an Asian American writing and performing collective. Wong has taught at Mills College and the University of Minnesota. A long-time activist in the labor, anti-war, feminist and socialist movements, she resides in San Francisco.
Felicia Lowe (left) & Flo Oy Wong (right) at a AIISF Luncheon, May 15, 2014
Flo Oy Wong, artist, poet, and educator, was born and raised in Oakland’s Chinatown. A graduate of UC Berkeley as an English major, she taught elementary school and became an artist at the age of forty. Co-founder of the San Francisco-based Asian American Women Artists Association, she is the recipient of three National Endowment for the Arts Awards.
In 2000, in collaboration with Kearny Street Workshop, she mounted made in usa: Angel Island Shhh at the Angel Island Immigration Station. This exhibit was shown at the Ellis Island National Museum of Immigration in 2004. When Flo turned 75, she began studying poetry in earnest. She published her first book of art and poetry, Dreaming of Glistening Pomelos, in 2018 to celebrate her eightieth birthday.
Along with Genny Lim and Nellie Wong, Flo is a member of The Last Hoisan poets, who give readings in their parents' native dialect, Hoisan-wa. She has read her poetry at various venues, including the Chinese Historical Society of America and in association with the Cupertino Poet Laureate Program in the South Bay.
Love Your Friends / Flo Oy Wong
Alice Walker says to love your friends
and I do.The one who wakes our hearts
chewing on issues too challenging to digest.The one who seeds youthful minds
to bring about hopeful changes.The one who hears chirping birds
knowing bullets of child soldiers kill.The one who feeds those in need
bearing platters of care along with carrots.The one who fishes for ideas
from humans in cribs and rocking chairs.The one who asks what if
rising from the past to foster the present.The one who walks with difference
understanding those who are not like us matter.The one who shows maskless face
revealing compassion to nurture process.The one who listens tenderly
accepting us where we are.The one who stands by our side
embracing elusive dreams.Love your friends Alice Walker says
and I do.
