I Hotel: Feminist Perspectives on a Social Movement

Featuring: Estella Habal, Shoshana Arai, and Nancy Hom in conversation with Karen Tei Yamashita
Introduction by: Colleen Lye
For copyright reasons, the photos shared by Shoshanna Arai are not included in this video.
This event featured activists involved in the fight to save the International Hotel, home to elderly Filipino American and Chinese American residents until their eviction in 1977 by 400 police officers in riot gear. The I Hotel was part of a once-thriving "Manilatown," which was destroyed to make room for the Financial District. The nine-year anti-eviction campaign brought together community organizations, residents, and students from UC Berkeley and San Francisco State University. While the campaign was unsuccessful, it created community solidarity and led to new forms of organizing. In 2005, with the support of the International Hotel Block Development Citizens Advisory Committee, the new International Hotel was opened to provide housing to low-income seniors. Karen Tei Yamashita's book I Hotel, a multivoiced fusion of prose, playwriting, graphic art, and philosophy, tells the story of the fight for the International Hotel and the struggle for civil rights.
Some resources mentioned during the panel:
Book by Karen Tei Yamashita: I-Hotel coffeehousepress.org/products...
Kearny Street Workshop: www.kearnystreet.org
International Hotel: www.ihotel-sf.org
Nancy Hom’s artwork: www.nancyhomarts.com/nancyhoma...
Book by Estella Habal: San Francisco's International Hotel: Mobilizing the Filipino American Community in the Anti-Eviction Movement
tupress.temple.edu/books/san-...
Interested in learning more about the fight to save the International Hotel?
The UC Berkeley Ethnic Studies Library eslibrary.berkeley.edu has these archives and materials documenting the activism:
Wei Min She and Asian Community Center Photographs, 1970-1980
Save the International Hotel Records, 1968-2010
Third World Strike at University of California, Berkeley collection 1968-1972
UC Berkeley Asian American Political Alliance Oral History Project
H.K. Yuen Social Movement Archive, 1963-1982
Kalayaan, Bridge, Get Together, Rodan, and Gidra (serials)
The documentary film “The Fall of the I-Hotel,” by Curtis Choy (vimeo.com/ondemand/thefalloft..., Chonk Moonhunter Productions, is available at the UC Berkeley Media Resources Center: www.lib.berkeley.edu/visit/me...
This event was part of the inaugural Asian American Research Center Artist-in-Residence series, featuring Karen Tei Yamashita. For more on the series and the speaker bios, visit: issi.berkeley.edu/KTY2023
Sponsors: Asian American Research Center, Asian American and Asian Diaspora Studies Program, Department of English, Doreen B. Townsend Center for the Humanities, Japanese American Studies Advisory Committee, Multicultural Community Center (as part of the Week of Cultural Resistance), Othering & Belonging Institute
Music by: www.bensound.com
License code: MGA5U3PTDHORLIDD
March 16, 2023