Kearny Street Workshop

The founders Jim Dong, Lora Joh Foo, and Mike Chin and other early leaders were involved in the Asian American movement, a Civil Rights Movement-inspired period of organizational and community building in the 1970s.

[1] However, the organization quickly expanded to cater to a multiethnic constituency, holding classes for Asian American activists and artists to practice photography, creative writing, and silkscreen printing.

[4] KSW also opened Jackson Street Gallery in an adjacent I-Hotel storefront space in 1974, where Workshop members held exhibitions, poetry readings, and musical performances.

Artists from KSW also aided in the anti-eviction protests by organizing rallies, attending court hearings, hosting exhibitions on affordable housing, and publishing poetry and pamphlets that depicted life in the I-Hotel.

Workshop members also spearheaded the development of the annual Hop Jok Fair, which not only promoted Asian American artwork, but introduced many low-income Chinatown residents to available social and health services.

KSW's press published poetry by Bay-area Asian American authors such as Virginia Cerenio, Bob Hsiang, Jaime Jacinto, Genny Lim, Lenny Limjoco, and Jeff Tagami.