#i-hotel

[shayneblogs]

Filipino and Chinese Americans, and other supporters, rally in 1977 at the I-Hotel to stop its shutdown (Photograph by Crystal Huie)

[documentasian]

Michael Chin, “Save the International Hotel” (1972) Silkscreen Kearny Street Workshop and Sammi Madison Garcia Collection

[chsamuseum]

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.

Friends remember him as honest, generous, and caring, with a loving spirit. One of Peter’s close friends, artist Frank Wong, was inspired by his experiences at the I-Hotel and placed a portrait of Peter in the SRO diorama. We were pleased to welcome Peter to see the SRO diorama at CHSA in 2014. It is our privilege to continue sharing the SRO in tribute to Peter and the people he inspired.

[screensnot]

Had to visit the International Hotel and City Lights Bookstore before I went back to Chicago.

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!

Waverly Place, North Beach, Chinatown … the heart of San Francisco! Had to visit the International Hotel and City Lights Bookstore before I went back to Chicago. …

[documentasian]

Rachael Romero, “International Hotel Night” (1978) Linocut San Francisco Poster Brigade/Inkworks Kearny Street Workshop Collection

[hbmag]

37 years ago this week, the battle for the International Hotel in San Francisco was lost, but the police raid the night of August 4, 1977, is really only the beginning of the story: http://bit.ly/1zVpX4R 

[18mr]

37 years ago this week, the battle for the International Hotel in San Francisco was lost, but the police raid the night of August 4, 1977, is really only the beginning of the story. - CM