LaborFest

1 week ago

Harry Bridges Back to the Waterfront
milleravenuemusings.com/tag/harry-bridges/
Miller Avenue Musings
by John H Myers

Somewhere in the midst of my comedown and the start of my depression, my childhood friend Robbie Bridges, appeared and invited me to go on a road trip to southern California. Robbie was the son of Harry Bridges and he and I used to play together when we were very young. After his parents’ divorce, he’d been living back east with his mother Nancy. He was now based in San Francisco and doing some kind of a white collar job which was nothing to do with Harry or the longshore union.

Robbie must have known what I’d been through the past few months but my memory of our drive down the coast was that we talked as if nothing had happened to me and I responded well to this. Everybody around me at this time was treating me with tremendous delicacy and somehow Robbie not thinking there was anything wrong with me was liberating. At one point he asked me to drive and I did. It was an exciting moment of self discovery to learn that I actually knew how to drive a car.

He told me all about the pop music he was keen on. He was particularly taken by The Who and told me about gigs he’d been to. I cannot remember where we stayed on this trip but I think we were away from San Francisco for a few days.

A little bit of logical thinking was seeping into my fevered brain. The idea of a trip to England, became something I felt I had to do. I knew that in order to get the money for such a journey, I would need to go back to work on the waterfront. But to do that I would have to pull myself together and make accommodations with the world around me. For someone who, a mere six weeks earlier, had been stomping around the psychiatric wards at Napa State Hospital insisting that John Lennon was in the next room, this was something of a tall order. But at every point on my journey of madness, I had responded to the signals around me and the fact I had two contacts in London: my sister Nell and my friend Jo Bergman, I took as just such a signal. It did, however, require some organisation on my part.

That I had the opportunity to work on the waterfront as a ship’s clerk was a privilege indeed. This privilege came to me as a result of being Blackie Myers’ son. I was aware just how sought after the clerking jobs on the front were. For starters they paid very well indeed and it could be more than a bit interesting, particularly when you worked down inside the hold of a cargo ship.

Had I never worked on the front before, the prospect of clerking would have terrified me, but the waterfront was a world I was familiar with having done it a fair bit. However this time was different. The recent experiences I’d been through had taken me into dimensions outside the social boundaries of normal society and I realised I’d have to conform to my father’s ways. The first thing would be to cut my hair and dress in a sober manner. There was a huge prejudice against long hairs on the front and, after several months of being a hippie mental patient, my hair was long indeed. My father was a very respected guy up and down the Embarcadero and I knew that it would be disrespectful of me to behave in any way which upset or embarrassed him.

blackie-montage-1.jpeg
Blackie with his brothers Billie and Harvey in Brooklyn(left), Blackie at his desk in the NMU, and Blackie on Market Street with a seafaring friend.

Also it was very important to be conscientious in the work, which wasn’t really that difficult but accuracy was essential. Blackie always stressed the importance of doing your job to the best of your ability. The reason he always gave for this was to protect the union. After all that was his history. He was a sailor by trade and had helped build the National Maritime Union which was no cake walk. Whenever they tied up a ship and went on strike they were up against all the forces that the ship owners had at their disposal: the police, the national guard, and gangs of strike breakers known as Goon Squads. The fight to build their union had been long and bloody. A few of Blackie’s comrades had been killed in the struggle and while he and his sailors were building the NMU on the east coast, Harry Bridges was leading the longshore union on the west coast.

From left: Blackie Myers, Harry Bridges, Vincent Hallinan.

The west coast longshore strike of 1934 was a crucial turning point for the American trade union movement. The police, firing live rounds at the striking stevedores, injured many and killed two. The union held a funeral march for the two dead men which processed up Market Street. Thousands of people lined the street to watch. This was a major factor which led to a general strike.

How the Hearst press Examiner reported the first days of the 1934 longshore strike.

The 1934 strike was the beginning and the original union, the ILA, became the ILWU (International Longshore & Warehouse Union). Their militancy improved working conditions and wages for ordinary labourers. But it also made Harry a target. Those that felt the working class should know their place conspired against him. He was, after all, an Australian by birth, and the federal government would do their damndest to deport him. But that was in the 1930s.

ilwu-montage.jpeg
From left: the 1934 longshore strike, the ILWU logo, the longshoremen march up Market Street in 1939.

From left: Harry getting good news, speaking at a conference, and speaking to a large crowd in San Francisco.



In 1952, the Myers family had travelled all the way from Connecticut to California because every job Blackie managed to get on the east coast would last only as long as it took the FBI to turn up and tell his employer what a dangerous radical he was.

The last leg of our journey west was from Taos, New Mexico to Mill Valley. All of us, Blackie, Beth, Nellie, Katie, Jimmy and I were bleary-eyed from the endless stretches of highway but when we crossed the Golden Gate Bridge and climbed Waldo Grade, the end was in sight. Turning left off Miller Avenue at the 2am Club, we drove into Homestead Valley where a welcome party for us was in progress at Bob Robertson’s house. Bob was an executive of the longshore union, the ILWU. Every family friend we would know in the town we were destined to grow up in was there. The Dreyfus family, the Hallinan family and the Bridges family along with the Goldblatts and the Cox’s. It was such a friendly gathering of people and I instantly thought of all these folks as family.

The reason we had come west was the possibility of work for Blackie on the San Francisco waterfront. Harry Bridges and Blackie Myers were trade union comrades of old. However it took some time before Black was allowed to work on the front. With hindsight, I think the delay was possibly because Harry, with all the political persecution he was continuing to suffer, felt nervous about provoking the federal government. After all Blackie had been a prominent trade unionist in New York and was an early target of the witch hunters.

bb-montage.jpeg
Beth and Blackie pictured on the left in Connecticut in 1950 and on the right in San Francisco in the 1960s.

jim-montage.jpeg
From left: Johnny Myers with Blackie in Manhattan, centre: Jimmy. Blackie & John, on the right Johnny, Blackie, Jim and Totem our cat.

Harry was born in Melbourne, and had gone to sea at a young age, winding up working on the docks in San Francisco. The federal government had tried repeatedly to prosecute and deport Harry, claiming he’d lied about not being a member of the Communist Party.

The propaganda of the post war anti-Communist era was very powerful indeed. Hollywood fell in line with the government by creating a blacklist for writers, directors and actors who wouldn’t cooperate with the House Un-American Activities Committee. The cooperation the committee required was to name names of those who either were Communists or fellow travellers. The Hollywood Ten all went to prison, Alger Hiss too went to jail and in 1953 the Rosenbergs were executed for treason so by that time the terror in the country was pretty substantial.

The House Un-American Activities Committee featuring a young Richard Nixon on the right and J. Parnell Thomas in the centre.

Pressbook advertising for the 1951 Warner Brothers film ‘I Was A Communist For The F.B.I’

For Americans who have grown up believing the propaganda of the McCarthy era, the image of a Communist was a ruthless person with shifty mannerisms and dishonest tendencies. Many of my parents’ friends were actually party members but none of them behaved remotely like that. Humour played a big role in most of those friendships.

Blackie had a mischievous sense of humour and was what he called a pork chop socialist. Whatever put food on the table was what motivated him and he was always fair with others. During the depression he found himself in a town where they had a fist fight contest with a prize of ten dollars for whoever won. Handy with his fists, Blackie fought the guy and beat him, but then split the money with his opponent. When I asked him if he was tougher than the other guy, his answer was: “No. I was hungrier.”

As kids, we always enjoyed Blackie’s performances. He was a very good mimic and did a pitch perfect impersonation of Harry, who he always called The Nose.

There were party members who did behave in a stereotypical secretive way but none of my parents’ friends were like that at all. One such person was our neighbour, Dennis Brogan’s grandmother Jean. She used to bring us her copies of The People’s World newspaper and my memory of her was that she was completely humourless.

The American Communist Party became a political force in the early days of the Great Depression. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt had no qualms about dealing with Communists. His administration had many advisors from all avenues of left wing politics including the NMU, and Blackie was one of them. A family friend, Albert Kahn, wrote in his book, High Treason, quoting FDR just after his electoral victory in 1932: “Coming back from the west last week, I talked to an old friend who runs a great western railroad. ‘Fred,’ I asked him, ‘what are the people talking about out here?’ I can hear him answer even now. ‘Frank,’ he replied, ‘I’m sorry to say that men out here are talking revolution.’”

Blackie had gone to sea at age fourteen and became an able bodied seaman. Following the Wall Street Crash of 1929 and the great depression it had caused, he was often out of work and would “grab a handful of boxcars” to get from one port to another in search of a ship to sign on. The hiring halls in every port were referred to as Fink Halls as sailors would have to bribe the man handing out the jobs. The pay was low and working conditions on the ships were often dangerous. Blackie was a tough guy who during those years was both hungry and angry. It wasn’t until he became involved with those working to organise as a union that he was able to channel his anger in a constructive way.

But the fights ahead were deadly dangerous as the shipowners perceived the formation of the union as a direct attack on their interests and deployed all their weapons. The NMU organised strikes on the east coast and ports in the Gulf of Mexico and not one of them was won easily. In addition to the brute force of the military, police and goon squads, the shipowners also had the help of press barons like William Randolph Hearst whose newspapers utilised highly effective anti-labour propaganda. One of Hearst’s papers was the San Francisco Examiner, whose readers were told on a regular basis of what an enemy of the state, Harry Bridges was. During the 1934 strike the Examiner described the strikers as rioters, and celebrated the National Guard and police as heroes defending decent citizens. The fact that they were firing live rounds at unarmed workers was celebrated as protecting the interests of decent society.

People who aren’t too clear on their history often mix up the House Un-American Activities Committee with the senate committee of Joe McCarthy but the two are separate. The House Committee began stirring things up in 1947 while Joe McCarthy didn’t discover Anti-Communism as a cause until 1950. Once he did, he went at it with a vengeance, grilling ordinary citizens on television about petitions they might have signed years before or meetings they may have attended.

Blackie and Beth had been popular folks about town before he was blacklisted but after that, people they’d known pretty well would pass them on the streets of Manhattan without a glimmer of recognition.

He told me later that he truly hadn’t seen the red scare coming. But the signs were there. As an advisor to the U.S. Government on labour relations during World War 2, he was sent into Germany with the occupying troops in 1945. He told me he’d had a meeting with General Patton not long before the accident which killed him. After they’d dealt with their business, Patton poured them each a snifter of the finest brandy and held his glass up in a toast, saying: “Now that this is over, we’re going to get you bastards.” Black told me that he just laughed. But soon after his return to the U.S. his passport was taken away from him. A sailor without a passport cannot work as a seaman.

The choreography of the cold war was designed with military precision and one of the most important weapons was propaganda. Convincing the American public to forget about the Germans, Italians and Japanese being their enemy and to concentrate their fear on the Russians, was essential to this endeavour.

They were helped in no small part by the hearings held by HUAC and Senator McCarthy but also by Hollywood and those who controlled the media. People with left wing or liberal tendencies during the 1930s and 40s suddenly found themselves perceived as highly suspicious individuals and began running for cover. Many of them became stool pigeons and turned on their friends. The fifth amendment, which protects citizens from incriminating themselves, was seen by the newspapers as an admission of guilt and people who took it often lost their jobs.

But the machinations of the federal government didn’t work on my parents and their close friends and I grew up hearing fantastic trade union tales from the 1930s and 40s.

So here I was, fresh out of Napa Hospital, preparing myself for going back to work on the waterfront and yet there were still a few hoops which I had to jump through. True, I wasn’t over my crazyiness but was capable of putting on a reasonable appearance of “not so crazy.” I continued taking Thorazine, but in smaller doses. I went to the barber shop and got my hair cut short. I started shaving regularly and dressing in a conservative way. When Black was convinced I was okay he told me he’d had a word with Johnny Aitken who was the dispatcher in the hiring hall and when I felt up to it I could turn up for work. … See MoreSee Less

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LaborFest

1 week ago

Review: “Upstream” Misses Chance to Advocate for China’s Gig Workers
Directed by Xu Zheng, "Upstream" focuses on a coder-turned-delivery driver — and deserves Chinese netizens' furor over its insufficiently nuanced attempt at social consciousness.
www.cinemaescapist.com/2024/09/review-upstream-china-movie/

BY TIANSHU HU, 17 SEP 24 04:19 GMT

Over the past few years, China’s leading internet companies—like ByteDance and Alibaba—have gone through rounds of layoffs and cost-cutting amidst slower economic growth and regulatory pressures. Employees over 35 are particularly vulnerable, often facing termination without proper compensation as companies prioritize younger blood. With no other job prospects available, some former white-collar workers have turned to working as ride-share drivers or food delivery riders in order to make ends meet.

2024’s Upstream is a reflection of this trend. In the film, famed comedic actor-director Xu Zheng plays a 45 year-old coder named Gao Zhilei who loses his job. With a sick father, a child aspiring to attend international school, a housewife, and mortgage, Gao becomes a food delivery driver after failing to find a white-collar job for months. As a consequence, he comes to learn about the exploitative nature of China’s food delivery apps.

Even before its release in China in early August 2024, Upstreamsparked intense debate among Chinese netizens, who saw it as further exploiting the working class for entertainment rather than providing helpful social advocacy. An analysis of the film’s narrative choices shows such accusations hold water, even if it is not as exploitative as some critics claim. Upstream’s first half does make a commendable effort to accurately depict the social environment of China’s delivery drivers. However, the movie disjointedly veers into a more conventional “overcoming adversity” genre mold in its second half, resulting in an overall superficial attempt at social commentary.

Starting on an Authentic Note

If Upstream leaned more into its first half, it would’ve been a better film; its first hour offers a realistic portrayal of food delivery workers as nuanced humans suffering under an exploitative system. Gao Zhilei becomes a proxy for the viewer; as Gao navigates his delivery station in Shanghai, he meets a diverse set of fellow delivery workers both young and middle-aged, from provinces ranging from Inner Mongolia to Hubei.

Gao soon learns that the delivery drivers are ranked, with lower-ranked ones assigned “trash orders” that require driving longer distances for less pay. While each month’s top performer can get a substantial bonus, other drivers rack up penalties—negative reviews (often for arbitrary reasons like not disposing of a customer’s trash) result in deductions, failing to complete system verifications can lead to account suspensions, and so forth. Given these challenges—which China’s delivery drivers face in real life—Gao only earns a paltry 4,000 RMB in his first month, and must learn tips like building relationships with security guards to enter malls and restaurants for quicker pickups, and understanding the layout of old neighborhoods where GPS is ineffective.

By helping viewers build emotional connections with an array of delivery drivers, and then highlighting in detail their struggles and skillful attempts to persevere, Upstream helps audiences who may not be aware of delivery drivers’ plight to feel a sense of empathy and understanding.

Squandering its Second Half
While a better social commentary movie might’ve taken that empathy and understanding as fuel for advocacy, Upstreamunfortunately goes in an opposite direction. In its second half, Upstream decides to make a spectacle out of the delivery drivers’ lives, and becomes complicit with an exploitative system instead of offering critiques. The film’s last hour focuses primarily on Gao Zhilei’s attempt to become the delivery service’s top performer, in a competition that comes to evoke the Olympics and features racing scenes and melodramatic car crashes.

Gao starts to gain an edge not just by applying the tips he learned from other delivery drivers, but also by using his white-collar programming skills to develop an app that aids in deliveries. Without giving too much away, Upstream ends on a more optimistic note, one which implies Gao might get a coding job, and that white-collar workers needn’t worry too much about unemployment as long as they have strong qualifications.

This not only gives a slap in the face to the myriad unemployed or underemployed white-collar workers in China today, but also disrespects those who choose to make a profession out of delivery work without a white-collar background. Upstream’s implication that a “happy ending” means escaping gig work creates a dichotomy of white versus blue collar, one in which blue-collar jobs like delivery work are always “bad” and taken only out of desperation. Reframed through this lens, the film’s empathetic treatment of delivery workers in its first half also starts feeling emotionally manipulative; we see Gao’s delivery worker colleagues embodying an exaggerated litany of woes, whether raising money for a child’s leukemia treatment, repaying debts, or paying off bills after losing their limbs.

Instead of suggesting that the path to a better life is to exit delivery work entirely, perhaps Upstream could’ve discussed ways to make delivery work more humane and respected. Yet, beyond cursory mentions of exploitative corporate systems and labor arbitrations, it fails to have this discussion. The film chooses to depict delivery workers and users as opposing forces, and never critiques the platform company itself. Safety guarantees, reforms of the driver penalty system, and fair pay schemes never come up.

Division through Optimism
What could’ve been a valuable piece of social commentary like Xu Zheng’s Dying to Survive instead became yet another excessively optimistic “overcoming adversity” film common to Chinese cinema, closer to examples like 2022’s Nice View—which shows a 20 year-old boy miraculously transforming from phone repairman to tech company CEO as he tries to help his heart disease-stricken sister. Upstream’s relatively poor box office performance, combined with its negative internet discourse, suggest that such “overcoming adversity” narratives have become less persuasive to even middle-class Chinese audiences.

The notion that hard work can guarantee a return to one’s dream life seems disconnected from contemporary China’s cruel social reality. In fact, netizens have noted how, in the real world, the 45 year-old Gao Zhilei might not even have a chance at delivery work. After a 50 year-old deliveryman died in Hangzhou last month after working 16-hour days, Chinese social media buzzed with screenshots saying that delivery companies (who’ve denied such charges) were excluding drivers 45 and over from their platforms.

Ultimately, Upstream is not made for delivery workers. It’s meant to be a salve for middle-class viewers facing life changes, one which tries to deliver its medicine by reminding said viewers that they could always be worse off—creating class division instead of solidarity. In today’s slowing economy, perhaps it’s even more important for people to have empathy for one another, and challenge the excesses of capitalist corporate practices. Upstreamunfortunately squanders this opportunity in favor of a tired chicken soup narrative.

• • •

hqdefault.jpg
Upstream (Chinese: 逆行人生)—China. Dialog in Mandarin Chinese. Directed by Xu Zheng. First released August 9, 2024. Running time 2hr 1min. Starring Xu Zheng, Xin Zhilei, Wang Xiao.

Tianshu Hu is a contributor based in Chicago focusing on Asian films, TV, and pop culture. … See MoreSee Less

Review: "Upstream" Misses Chance to Advocate for China’s Gig Workers | Cinema Escapist

www.cinemaescapist.com

Directed by Xu Zheng, “Upstream” focuses on a coder-turned-delivery driver — and deserves Chinese netizens’ furor over its insufficiently nuanced attempt at social consciousness.

LaborFest

1 week ago

July 17th In San Francisco New Opera "Echoes of Eureka", a powerful seven-movement opera about Chinese immigration to California by Artistic Director, Eric Tua
www.piedmontchoirs.org/spotlight-echoes-of-eureka
Golden Gate Festival: Spotlight Concert 5
PEBCC & Vox Aurea
In collaboration with the Chinese Historical Society of America
Friday, July 17, 2026
4 PM
ECHOES OF EUREKA
A NEW OPERA BRIDGING HISTORY AND HOPE
CLICK HERE FOR THE DIGITAL PROGRAM!
Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir proudly presents Echoes of Eureka, a powerful seven-movement opera by Artistic Director, Eric Tuan. This inspiring new work brings to life a pivotal chapter of California’s history, shedding light on the struggles and resilience of Chinese immigrants in the 19th century. Echoes of Eureka emerges as a timely piece, resonating with contemporary conversations on justice, inclusion, and belonging.

Echoes of Eureka follows the true story of Charley Wei Lum, a young Chinese immigrant who arrived in 1880s California and settled in Eureka, a thriving redwood logging town that housed the largest Chinese community in the state outside of San Francisco. During the height of the Gilded Age—a period of deep economic inequality and rising anti-immigrant sentiment—Charley and his community faced devastating violence. In 1885, an angry mob expelled Eureka’s 300 Chinese residents, forcing them onto a steamship bound for San Francisco. Charley narrowly escaped lynching thanks to a compassionate clergyman. In the aftermath, the exiled Chinese community took the unprecedented step of filing a federal lawsuit—the first known attempt at seeking reparations in U.S. history. The ways they fought back included several foundational Supreme Court cases, including Wong Kim Ark, which established the basis for birthright citizenship.

Composer Eric Tuan reflects, "I first heard this story in a book called Driven Out by historian Jean Pfaelzer, which documents the hundreds of anti-Chinese deportations and lynchings that took place in California. I composed the seven-movement opera, narrating the story in collaboration with Jean Pfaelzer, fellow historian Alex Service, and Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity. We’re very grateful to have received a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts to support the opera and presented the world premiere at our Making History Concert on April 12, 2025 followed by performances in Eureka itself in May 2025. The resonances with our national life are striking, and I hope you’ll attend one of our upcoming performances.”
ECHOES OF
EUREKA
A New Opera
Bridging History and Hope
Image: Courtesy of Cal Poly Humboldt Library Special CollectionsECHOES OF EUREKA
T A B L E O F C O N T E N T S
01
03
07
08
18
19
21
23
25
About the Opera
Welcome Letters
Program
Synopsis & Libretto
Singers
About the Artists
About the Choir
Leadership & Staff
AcknowledgementsABOUT THE OPERA
Echoes of Eureka is a new choral opera which sheds light
on the struggles and resilience of Chinese immigrants
to California during the 19th century. Commissioned by
Scott Ziegler and Shirley Pao in honor of their children
Zia and Veda, the opera was composed for the Piedmont
East Bay Children’s Choir by Artistic Director Eric Tuan.
Image: Courtesy Clarke Historical Museum
Echoes of Eureka follows the true story of “Charley” Wei
Lum, a young Chinese immigrant who arrived in 1880s
California and settled in Eureka, a thriving redwood log-
ging town that housed one of the largest Chinese com-
munities in the state outside of San Francisco. During
the height of the Gilded Age—a period of deep economic
inequality and rising anti-immigrant sentiment—Charley
and his community faced devastating violence. In 1885,
an angry mob expelled Eureka’s 300 Chinese residents,
forcing them onto a steamship bound for San Francisco.
Charley narrowly escaped lynching thanks to a compas-
sionate clergyman.In the aftermath, the exiled Chinese community took the
unprecedented step of filing a federal lawsuit—the first
known attempt at seeking reparations in U.S. history.
The Chinese communities of California continued their
resistance through several foundational Supreme Court
cases including Wong Kim Ark, which established the ba-
sis for birthright citizenship. Echoes of Eureka emerges as
a timely piece, resonating with contemporary conversa-
tions on justice, inclusion, and belonging.
Echoes of Eureka is a collaboration with Humboldt Asians
and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity and Cal Poly Humboldt;
poets Emily Jiang and Daryl Ngee Chinn; historians Jean
Pfaelzer (author of “Driven Out”) and Alex Service; part-
ner choir Vox Aurea, directed by Sanna Salminen; and
choreographer Daniel Raaflaub. We are deeply grateful
to be in community with these amazing artists, thinkers,
and creators.Welcome from PEBCC’s Artistic Director
Around ten years ago, I picked
up a copy of Jean Pfaelzer’s re-
markable work of history, Driven
Out. I was shocked to learn of the
hundreds of anti-Chinese depor-
tations and lynchings that had taken place across the
American West, alongside the heroic efforts of Chinese
communities to fight back through lawsuits and mass civ-
il disobedience. Despite being a lifelong California res-
ident of Chinese descent, I had never heard any of this
before.
I was particularly haunted by the story of one particu-
lar young man, “Charley” Wei Lum, who lived in the red-
wood logging town of Eureka on California’s foggy north-
ern coast. When an angry white mob expelled Eureka’s
Chinese community in 1885, Charley was nearly lynched
after trying to say goodbye to his white neighbors. Only
the timely intervention of a sympathetic minister saved
him from the scaffold.
Charley’s story echoes uncannily across the years into
our own time. Eureka’s Chinese community was accused
of bringing crime and taking away jobs from “real Amer-
icans”. They were deported en masse and fought back
in the courts to seek redress. And amid the chaos, their
neighbors made choices about whether to stand up or
stay silent.
This is an old story – but it is your story, too. When you
carry it away into the world, who will you be?
Artistic Director and ComposerWelcome from Jean Pfaelzer
Speak Memory
Professor Jean Pfaelzer is an interna-
tionally recognized scholar and public
intellectual in the fields of American
History, Asian American Studies, Cul-
tural & Literary Studies, Gender Studies, and Slavery. Writing
about multi-racial stories and hidden histories drawn from
buried archives, Jean is committed to finding and giving voice
to individuals and experiences that have been overlooked
or silenced for far too long in American history. Jean’s book
Driven Out was the inspiration for Echoes of Eureka.
The Chinese called it Pai Hua, or The Driven Out. My jour-
ney into this history began in the 1970s when I moved
with my six-year-old daughter into a cabin in the redwood
forest of remote Humboldt County to begin my career as
a temporary professor of American Studies. Each morning
I would drive south through a little community of beach
cottages, damp and empty in the chilled fog and gray
light of California’s north coast, past jagged rocks and
powerful crashing waves, where tall white egrets guard-
ed the fern prairies, finally climbing the hill to Humboldt
State University (now Cal Poly Humboldt)—my first aca-
demic job. I was living on Yurok land. That year President
Nixon resigned; the following spring the last American
soldier was killed in Vietnam. And Vietnamese refugees,
many “boat people,” slowly found their way to the United
States, many to California. The Civil Rights movement was
tracking victories of access to voting rights and education.
Our spirits were hopeful.
Humboldt State then had an unusual mix of white and
tribal students. But in my classes and in the hallways andat tense meetings demanding that Native American his-
tory and myths be taught, I noticed the complete ab-
sence of Asian American students. I was born and raised
in Los Angeles. This did not look like the California I
knew. When I asked about the absence of Asian kids, I
was told by a local poet that Chinese parents would not
send their kids to HSU because ninety years earlier, Chi-
nese immigrants—gardeners, domestic servants, fisher-
men, merchants, laundry workers, cooks—had been driv-
en out—purged—from the lumber town of Eureka.
For hundreds and hundreds of years before gold miners
and the lumber companies arrived in Humboldt, Yurok
people lived in small clans along the lagoons. They called
the land Oketo—“there where it is calm.” Within a year
I left Humboldt for a regular professorship at Univ. Cali-
fornia San Diego, but I had fallen in love with the coun-
ty and bought a share in a rustic cabin. As I returned to
Humboldt every year, I remained haunted by the missing
students. And as with other places of great beauty, I was
disturbed by the history of violence embedded in the
landscape.
Thirty years later I decided to find the story of the miss-
ing Asians. On the first day of my quest, sitting at a
cloudy microfilm reader at the UC Berkeley library, I dis-
covered a much larger story and I began to follow the
footsteps of thousands of Chinese people who were vi-
olently thrown onto rail cars, steams, or logging rafts,
marched out of town, expelled not just from Eureka but
from towns along the Pacific Coast to the rocky Moun-
tains, from Seattle and Portland, into the Siskiyou Moun-
tains, down through the arid Central valley to Los Ange-
les. Between 1850 and 1906 there were close to two
hundred rounds, designed to rid the United States of
Chinese people.
I also learned that the Chinese fought every effort to
expel them from the coast, from orchards and vine-
yards. In Wing Hing vs. the city of Eureka (1885-6) theyfiled the first lawsuit for reparations. In San Jose they
used trespass law to sue against police harassment. In
Truckee they bought rifles from China. The Chinese gar-
deners organized vegetable boycotts against hotels and
households that supported the anti-Chinese purges.
Kidnapped Chinese prostitutes fled. Elsewhere they re-
turned laundry, neatly folded but still dirty.
I believe that “tellings” knit communities together and let
healing begin. People on the run do not stop to tell their
stories. But in history, monuments, stories, and song—
“echoes” bring us to truth, and to justice that repairs.
Welcome from HAPI
Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI)
builds and empowers our community by amplifying di-
verse voices and perspectives for a more engaged and
inclusive future. We are honored to have supported
Echoes of Eureka, a groundbreaking and transformative
work with special resonance with our community. HAPI
and our Eureka Chinatown Project deeply appreciate the
well-researched approach that Eric Tuan has taken to
depict vividly the historical events occurring around the
Eureka Chinatown expulsions. Eric’s ability to transform
historical facts into moving drama and dynamic lyricism
brings this story into contemporary meaning. It is a great
gift.
-Humboldt Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity (HAPI)PROGRAM
Echoes of Eureka
Eric Tuan (b. 1990)
Commissioned by Scott Ziegler and Shirley Pao,
dedicated to Zia and Veda,
for the Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
This is the Story of Charley Wei
Wipe Out the Plague Spots (Text from The
Humboldt Times and the memoir of the Rev.
Charles Huntington, courtesy of Alex Service.)
Solidarity
Boarding the Boats
Interlude: Now Comes Wing Hing
Why Should I Leave?
Does the Land Forget? ( Text excerpted from “The
Water Book of Questions” by Daryl Ngee Chinn.
Used by permission of the poet.)
Echoes
Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir
Eric Tuan, Conductor and Artistic Director
Kymry Esainko, Collaborative Pianist
Daniel Raaflaub, ChoreographerSYNOPSIS
Echoes of Eureka sets the scene with a narrative prologue
(“This is the Story of Charley Wei”) before depicting the
mob violence that drove the Chinese community from
Eureka in 1885 (“Wipe Out the Plague Spots”). A sym-
pathetic minister saves Charley from being lynched on
a scaffold, leading to a reflection on what it means to
stand together against violence (“Solidarity”). As the Chi-
nese community boards the ships that will carry them
to San Francisco, they protest by sharing their names
and stories (“Boarding the Boats”). Upon arriving in San
Francisco, they file suit for reparations (“Interlude: Now
Comes Wing Hing”) and fight back against their mass
deportation (“Why Should I Leave”). The opera con-
cludes by inviting us to reflect on the powerful ambigu-
ity of historical memory (“Does the Land Forget?”) and
insisting that while this is an old story, it is our story too
(“Echoes”).
Libretto
I. This is the Story of Charley Wei
This is the story of Charley Wei:
Eighteen years old, resident of Eureka, Gold Mountain,
Home to redwoods, sky, and sea.In eighteen hundred and eighty five,
Charley and his neighbors were expelled.
Packed onto ships, houses burned down,
Businesses looted, threatened with the noose, driven out
–
Because they were Chinese.
In San Francisco they regrouped, fought back, resisted in
the courts –
Made history.
This is an old story, but it is your story too.
When you carry it away into the world,
Who will you be?
II. Wipe Out the Plague Spots
Text: adapted from articles in the Humboldt Times, gra-
ciously shared by Humboldt County historian Alex Ser-
vice. Inspired by Jean Pfalezer’s book Driven Out and the
memoir of the Rev. Charles Huntington.
Wipe out the plague spots!
Did you hear the news?
Councilman Kendall’s been shot!
Caught in a shootout between two Chinese gangsters, up
from San Francisco.
Those Chinese. They’re always bringing crime – bloody
brawls, opium dens, and God knows what else.
This is the last straw. This leper’s colony is a curse to the
city. Goodbye to Chinatown – all three hundred of them.
They must go!
This leprous, pestilential hellhole – this leper’s colony is a
curse to the city.
What are you doing here? Can’t you read the sign?“Any Chinese seen on the street after three o’clock to-day
will be hung to this gallows.”
Grab your things and take them to the wharf. The boats for
San Francisco are sailing tonight, and you’d better be on
them.
Why? What have I done?
You are Chinese, and you must go.
You must leave today. No Chinese person can live in Hum-
boldt County.
Goodbye to Chinatown!
The Chinese must never return. They must go! Say good-
bye to Chinatown.
It’s nearly three o’clock. The Chinese should all be at the
wharf by now.
Look! There’s one we haven’t caught yet! And entering a
white man’s house.
Where’s that Chinese boy who just ran in?
Charley is here on his way to the wharf. He is a member of
our church, and just called to say goodbye and ask for our
prayers.
Out of the way! We want him now.
We want him now! Wipe out the plague spots! Hang the
Chinese!
Boys, take that rope off that boy’s neck! If you hang him
you’ll hang him over my dead body!III. Solidarity
Who will you be?
IV. Boarding the Boats
Text: Composer’s paraphrase of “Early Departure from
Baidi City” by Li Bai (701-762), and remembrances based
on Alex Service’s research on the plaintiffs of the court
case Wing Hing vs. The City of Eureka, census records
from Humboldt County, and newspaper advertisements
for Chinese businesses in Eureka.
I left at dawn amid the fog,
Four hundred miles in just one day.
The monkeys mock me on the way,
My boat sweeps on past rocky cliffs.
My name is Wong Hing. I’m forty-five years old and am a
merchant from Guangdong.
My name is Sam Lee. I’m twenty-four years old. I run the
“New Chinese Laundry” on the corner of 4th Street and E
Street.
My name is Yee Hop. I’m sixty years old and I’m a bookkeep-
er.
My name is Sieu Lin. I’m married to Yee Hop and I’m here
with my son.
My name is Yee Ban On. I’m twelve years old.
My name is Kang Hop. I’m sixty-two years old and married.
I run a store selling groceries, lacquerware, and clothing at
4th Street and F Street.My name is Hop Sing. I’m fifty-five years old and I’m a wash-
erman.
My name is Tom. I’m twenty-four years old and I’m a servant
in the house of a clergyman.
My name is Chan Woo. I’m twenty-five years old and I own
a laundry.
My name is Woc Ho. I’m thirty-five years old and I work on
the railroad.
My name is Charles. I’m twenty-two years old and I’m a ser-
vant for a local farmer.
My name is Jim. I’m thirty-eight years old and I’m a lumber-
man.
My name is Lung Mow. I’m twenty-nine years old and I’m a
cigar maker.
My name is Charlie Mok. I’m twenty-eight years old. I run a
grocery store and employment office on E Street, between
4th and 5th.
My name is Hin Yee. I’m thirty-nine years old and I’m a ped-
dler.
My name is Ah Cow. I’m sixty years old and I own a laundry.
I came to Eureka with my wife and five of my cousins.
My name is Leong Cook. I’m forty-five years old and I’m a
tailor.
My name is Ah Yung. I’m thirty-three years old and I’m a
cook for the Flanagan family.My name is Jow Lum. I’m twenty-nine years old and I clean
wool.
My name is Wong Chung Hai. I run a grocery and clothing
store on E Street, between 4th and 5th.
My name is Mong Ching. I’m forty years old. I’m a cook in a
shingle mill.
My name is Chong Quin. I’m thirty years old and I iron
clothes in a laundry.
My name is Fook Loui. I’m twenty-one years old and I’m a
cook.
My name is Sing Chung. I run the F Street Laundry between
4th and 5th Streets.
My name is Lun Kee. I sell fruits and confectionary.
My name is Mary. I’m thirty years old and I’m a housekeeper.
My name is Wong Tai Sing. I’m twenty-three years old and
I’m a cook. I have a scar on the left side of my forehead.
My name is Fong Chu. I’m forty-three years old and I was a
gold miner in the Sierra foothills.
My name is Yung King. I’m twenty-four years old and I’m
from a family of goldsmiths.
My name is Lum Poy. I’m twenty-three years old and I’m a
shoemaker.
My name is Jake. I’m thirty-two years old, and I’m a cook for
the family of a carpenter.My name is La Lung. I run a grocery store on the south side
of Chinatown.
My name is Ar Yung. I’m forty-seven years old and I’m a gold
miner in the Siskiyou Mountains.
My name is Sing Lee. I’m a painter and carpenter.
My name is Sun Sing Kee. I’m a butcher and run a grocery
store.
My name is Jim. I’m thirty four years old and I work at the
Vance Hotel.
My name is Chan Mon. I’m twenty-nine years old, and I’m a
fisherman.
My name is Ah How. I’m forty years old, and I run a laundry
with my husband Tam.
My name is Tung Sing. I run a washing and ironing business-
es on the northeast corner of 4th Street and E Street.
My name is Ah Chung. I’m thirty-one years old. I’m a cook in
a hotel.
My name is Suen Ying. I’m twenty-one years old and I was
born here in California.
Interlude: Now Comes Wing Hing
Now comes Wing Hing – plaintiff!
Versus the City of Eureka – defendant!
Now comes Wing Hing by his Attorney Thomas D. Riordan,
and complains of the defendant The City of Eureka:The said action is brought to recover thousands of dollars in
damages, due to a riot created by a mob of disorderly and
riotous persons.
On the 27th day of February 1885, the rioters broke into
the premises of Wing Hing and Company.
The said rioters destroyed their goods, and drove the mem-
bers, and clerks, and agents, and servants from their store
and from their city.
Therefore plaintiff demands judgment against the defendant
for the sum of one hundred and thirty two thousand eight
hundred and twenty dollars, together with his costs of suit.
V. Why Should I Leave?
Text: Emily Jiang
Why? Why should I leave?
I’ve toiled these fields,
I’ve worked this land.
I’ve sown so many
seeds by hand.
Why? Why should I leave?
I met my wife
While tending the land.
We’re raising children,
Taught them to stand.
Why must I leave at others’ command?
I’ve done nothing wrong.
I must take a stand.You may take away my house,
But you can’t take away my home.
You may take away my clothing,
But you can’t take away my dignity.
You may take away my money,
But I will always be rich in spirit.
You may take away my food,
But I will grow more.
I stand as long as I can
Against injustice,
Against tyranny.
I stand as long as I can
For my human rights,
For all human decency.
I stand as long as I can
Against fear and ignorance,
Against mobs of hate.
I stand as long as I can
For curiosity and understanding,
For empathy and love.
And when I can no longer stand,
When I must rest and sit a while,
Others will stand in my stead.
United, we stand.
Divided, we fall.
We stand for freedom
To choose our homes,To raise our families,
To live our dreams.
VI. Does The Land Forget?
Text: Excerpted from “The Water Book of Questions” by
Daryl Ngee Chinn. Used by permission of the poet.
Does the land forget?
Does the land deny?
Does the air remember?
How do we talk without words?
Do the animals and trees pass down memories,
like horses standing silently next to one another?
What is our language?
What is memory? Is it stories or rumors?
Is it in a book never opened,
a stone in rain?
VII. Echoes
This is the story of Charley Wei:
Eighteen years old, resident of Eureka, Gold Mountain.
This is an old story, but it is your story too.
When you carry it away into the world,
Who will you be?SINGERS
E N S E M B L E
C U R R E N T
Nicolas Adams
Roya Agarwal
Phoebe An
Nora Bell
Alexis Byrnes
Laura Caceres Spears
Emiko Critchlow
Joshua Daniel
Isaac Ets-Hokin
Anjali Falbo-Nicosia
Olivia Gamper
Zoe Grundy
Daniel Hinton
Violet Irie
Sarah Khan-Akselrod
Audrey Levin
Ember McCall
Ayla Montanez
Ainsley Mullane
Georgia Orcharton
Sophi Ouyang
Nora Pfister
Elodie Plauché
Josie Renaud
Michael Sidbury
Felix Sudat
Lisa Treichler
Matilda Trenkle
Murielle Vance
Aviram Vartanian
Beatrix Vartanian
Zofia Wang
Mignon La’Niyah Michelle
Williams
Zuri Zkiyah Nia Williams
Alexandria Wilson
Caroline Wolferson
Molly Wolferson
2 0 2 4 – 2 5
E N S E M B L E
Karena Che
Elana Cortes
Ilana Eustace-Shoham
Keira Lee
Maeve McMullen
Loki Olsen
Veda Pao-Ziegler
Carys Pligavko
Rafael Rajan
Laurna Sudat
Mei Takeuchi
Naomi WalkerABOUT THE ARTISTS
Eric Tuan—Artistic Director & Conductor—An alum and
longtime faculty member of PEBCC, Eric began as Artis-
tic Director of the organization in July 2019. Tuan cur-
rently serves as the director of the Stanford Early Music
Singers, and served for twelve years as founding Artistic
Director of the chamber chorus Convivium and Director
of Music at Christ Episcopal Church, Los Altos. In addi-
tion to his work as a professional singer, keyboardist, and
composer, his choral music has been widely performed
throughout the United States and Europe. Tuan received
his Master of Music degree at the University of Cam-
bridge with the support of a Gates Cambridge Scholar-
ship, and his undergraduate degree from Stanford Uni-
versity.
Kymry Esainko—Collaborative Pianist—Kymry Esainko is
principal pianist for the Santa Rosa Symphony and en-
joys playing chamber music with many of his orchestra
colleagues. He plays with Piedmont Community Church
and with the chorus at LOPC, and loves playing for both
his daughter Stella with Ensemble and his son Kai with
Pacific Boychoir. He also performs regularly at Flower
Piano every September in Golden Gate Park. An accom-
plished jazz and improvisatory pianist, Kymry plays with
Matt Small’s Crushing Spiral Ensemble and the silent film
ensemble Club Foot Orchestra. Kymry graduated from
Oberlin College and Conservatory of Music with degrees
in piano performance and American history. He lives in
Oakland with his vocalist/trombonist wife Becca, his son
Kai, daughter Stella, and a menagerie of cats and dogs.
Daniel Raaflaub—Choreographer— Daniel Raaflaub be-
gan his musical education at an early age in the choir
school of the Basel Boys Choir (Knabenkantorei Basel),
where he gained valuable experience as both a chorister
and soloist. In the cultural capital of Vienna, he studiedvoice, acting, and dance at the prestigious University of
Music and Performing Arts, and took part in various mas-
terclasses, including “Camera Acting.” Over the past 15
years, Daniel Raaflaub has performed on musical theatre,
drama, and concert stages across Switzerland, Germa-
ny, and Austria. With leading roles in productions such
as Chess, Godspell, Jesus Christ Superstar, and RENT, he
has established himself as a versatile artist. Today, Dan-
iel Raaflaub is a sought-after vocal pedagogue and guest
lecturer, working as a vocal coach for numerous projects
and choirs both nationally and internationally. As a cho-
ral stage director and choreographer in Switzerland (e.g.
Knabenkantorei Basel, OYENGA Gospel Choir Basel) as
well as internationally (e.g. Vox Aurea in Finland, Kristina
Academy Children’s Choir in Kenya), he creates compel-
ling and inspiring musical dramaturgy. His tireless ded-
ication has earned him multiple awards at international
choir festivals.ORGANIZATIONAL BIO
The internationally acclaimed Piedmont East Bay Chil-
dren’s Choir (PEBCC) offers children throughout San
Francisco’s East Bay an outstanding program of mu-
sic training and choral performance. Started in 1982 by
founding Executive Director Susan Rahl with Artistic Di-
rector Robert Geary, the Choir has performed with the
Barenaked Ladies, Berkeley Symphony, John Denver,
The Mark Morris Dance Group, Oakland Symphony, San
Francisco Choral Society, San Francisco Opera, San Fran-
cisco Symphony, Volti, San Francisco Choral Society, at
national and regional conventions of the American Cho-
ral Directors Association, Chorus America and Organi-
zation of American Kodaly Educators. In recent years,
they sang with Joyce di Donato in EDEN and premiered
Michael Gilbertson’s Denial with Volti and the San Fran-
cisco Chamber Orchestra. In addition to vigorous pro-
gramming of innovative new music commissions and pre-
mieres, the Choir is a leading force in international choral
activities, with far-reaching collaborations, high marks in
competitions world-wide, and the establishment of the
Golden Gate International Children’s and Youth Choral
Festival in 1991.
Ensemble from PEBCC has earned grand prizes, first priz-
es and gold medals at prestigious competitions across
Europe, Asia and the Americas. In 2024, the Choir
earned first prize in the senior children’s choir category
and the coveted “Young Choir of the World” title at the
Llangollen International Musical Eisteddfod in Wales,
after earning two second prizes at the same competi-
tion in 2017. In 2014, the Choir attended the Interna-
tional Youth Music Festival in Bratislava, Slovak Repub-
lic and won the Grand Prix Award for Choral Music and
four gold medals. In 2010, the Choir earned first prize in
Contemporary Music and second prize in the Children’s
Choir category at the 2010 Kathaumixw InternationalChoral Festival in British Columbia, Canada. In 2008, En-
semble was the only choir to win three gold medals at
the Grand Prix St. Petersburg (Russia) Choral Festival. In
2006, they earned two gold medals at the Hong Kong
International Children’s Choral Festival. In 2003, Geary
led the Choir to a special award for highest score among
equal voice choirs and a second prize in contemporary
music at the prestigious Guido D’Arezzo competition in
Gorizia, Italy and in 2000 Ensemble became the first and
only American children’s choir then to date to earn a first
prize at the Choral Olympics/ World Choir Games.
Recognizing that the creation of art is a forward-look-
ing and forward-thinking endeavor, the Choir has com-
missioned and premiered dozens of new works by living
composers including Sue Bohlin, Kui Dong, Stacy Garrop,
Anne Hege, Jacqueline Hairston, Olli Kortekangas, Pekka
Kostiainen, Kirke Mechem, Zae Munn, Melissa Dunphy,
Pablo Ortiz, Eric Tuan, Mark Winges, Robin Estrada, Jens
Ibsen, and many others.BOARD OF DIRECTORS
Amy Hillyard
Katherine Wolfe
Jim Trenkle
Tony Ouyang
President
Vice President,
Development
Committee Chair
Treasurer, Finance
Committee Chair
Secretary, Governance and
Nominating
Committee Chair
Yiting Jin
Poppy Crum
Yogeeta Gamper
Mia Atkinson
Fellow
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Erica Orcharton
Balvinder (Val) Hansra
James Bell
Shirley Tong
Fei Ouyang
Amber McClure
Qali Vartanian
Governance
Audit
Finance
Audit Chair
Development
Finance
Development
STAFF
Eric Tuan
Jill Dineen
Artistic Director
Executive Director
Tate Bissinger
Anastasia Morris
Ron LeGaux
Natalie Titone
Jessica Rauf
Greg Rosas
Marina Zubareva
Linda McMullen
Mick Lim
Madeline Ashburn
Camp and Production
Director
Program Director
Finance Director
Development Manager
Office Manager
Registrar
Program Manager
Program Assistant PD
Program Assistant TD
Festival CoordinatorFOUNDERS
Susan Emmett Rahl
Robert Geary
Committed to innovative, socially relevant,
and cutting-edge programming, PEBCC fo-
cuses on amplifying marginalized voices
through its commissioning program and pro-
vides youth singers the opportunity to work
with living composers to premiere new music
and share it broadly with our communities.
With your support, you can help us continue
to provide and share our programs with your
donation today!
TAP TO DONATEACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We wish to share our heartfelt gratitude for all of the
partners who have made Echoes of Eureka possible.
Special thanks go to:
Our partner organizations in Humboldt County, who
have supported the project from the very beginning
and hosted us for an amazing weekend tour in Eureka
and Arcata.
Humboldt Asians and Pacific Islanders in Solidarity
Morris Graves Museum of Art
Eureka Chinatown Project
Cal Poly HumboldtPoets Emily Jiang and Daryl Ngee Chinn, who have
woven their powerful words into the fabric of Echoes
of Eureka.
Emily Jiang Daryl Ngee Chinn
Historians Jean Pfaelzer and Alex Service, who have
been so generous in sharing their stories, research,
and primary source materials during the creation of
the opera.
Jean Pfaelzer
Alex Service
Our partner choir Vox Aurea in Finland and their con-
ductor Sanna Salminen, who hosted us for the Eu-
ropean premiere and connected us to the amazing
Daniel Raaflaub, whose choreography has added an
entirely new layer of artistry to the opera.
Vox Aurea
Daniel Raaflaub
Thank you to the incredible Daniel Raaflaub who has
infused the opera with his choreography, shaping its
movement and storytelling with a depth and artistry
that has become truly integral.Thank you to the Oakland Asian Cultural Center
(OACC) for collaborating with PEBCC to hold an
Echoes of Eureka performance.
The Oakland Asian Cultural Center (OACC) builds
community through arts and culture in the heart of
Oakland’s Chinatown. For over 40 years, OACC has
presented performances, exhibitions, workshops, and
festivals that celebrate Asian American, Native Ha-
waiian, and Pacific Islander heritage while fostering
solidarity across Oakland’s diverse communities.
Thank you to the Chinese Historical and Cultural
Project (CHCP) for collaborating with PEBCC to hold
an Echoes of Eureka performance.
Founded in 1987, the Chinese Historical and Cultur-
al Project (CHCP) is a nonprofit based in Santa Clara
County, California, who promotes, educates, and pre-
serves Chinese and Chinese American history and
culture through community outreach activities.And the singers, parents, and staff of the Piedmont
East Bay Children’s Choir, who have worked so hard
to bring this piece to life.
Piedmont East Bay Children’s Choir
This project is supported in part by an award from the
National Endowment for the Arts.Echoes of Eureka tells a powerful and often-over-
looked story from California’s history — a story of
resilience, injustice, and the enduring fight for be-
longing. More than just a historical retelling, this op-
era invites us to reflect on the ways our past contin-
ues to shape the present.
We believe that music has the power to spark con-
versation, deepen understanding, and build empa-
thy across time and communities. Your reflections
help us understand how this story resonates with
you — what it made you feel, what it made you
question, and what it helped you see in a new light.
Thank you for sharing your experience with us. Your
response helps ensure these voices — once silenced
— are heard and remembered. … See MoreSee Less

Spotlight: Echoes of Eureka — Piedmont East Bay Children's Choir

www.piedmontchoirs.org

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www.sfchronicle.com/entertainment/comedy/article/auntie-pho-comedy-hour-22266918.php
By Lily Janiak,
Theater Critic
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Alvin Adrian Lee, from left, Rebecca Pierce, Tirumari Jothi, Sarah Ranney, Phil Wong and April Pascua perform in the “Auntie Pho Comedy Hour” at Z Below.
Alvin Adrian Lee, from left, Rebecca Pierce, Tirumari Jothi, Sarah Ranney, Phil Wong and April Pascua perform in the “Auntie Pho Comedy Hour” at Z Below.
Kayleigh Shawn Photography

DATEBOOK PICK
If you get all your knowledge of antifa from Fox News, you might picture it as a massive, militarized, violent organization with tentacles everywhere, brainwashing kindergarten classrooms with hatred of America. After all, last year, President Donald Trump signed an executive order designating antifa — as if the decentralized movement were a single entity to begin with — a “domestic terrorist organization.”

More Information
“Auntie Pho Comedy Hour”: 7:30 p.m. Thursday-Sunday, June 4-7. Pay what you can. Z Below, 470 Florida St., S.F. www.zspace.org

Into this climate, where evidently being against antifascism is un-American, comes the Auntie Pho Comedy Hour — a brilliant homophone for a world where even writing the word “antifa” might get you in trouble.

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May 26, 2026
Photo of Lily Janiak
Lily Janiak

Phil Wong presents

THE AUNTIE PHO COMEDY HOUR

Directed by Phil Wong
Written by Tirumari Jothi, Alvin Adrian Lee, April Pascua, Rebecca Pierce, Sarah Ranney, Phil Wong

June 4-7
at Z Below

It’s time for The Bay’s brand new gleefully anti-fascist talk variety show! The very real, very scary leftist organization known as Antifa Auntie Pho is scrambling to rebrand after a certain Executive Order deemed their activities Un-American! It’s up to Auntie Pho CEO Phil Wong and his gang of blue-pilled betas to save the future of The Woke Mind Virus the only way they know how… a late night talk show with a live studio audience!

Join us for an anarchic celebration of our collective power hosted by Phil Wong and featuring sketches, characters, and songs from the demented liberal minds of Tirumari Jothi, Rebecca Pierce, Sarah Ranney, Alvin Lee, and April Pascua (Killing My Lobster) and a live punk rock soundtrack by Oakland’s OG black dyke rockers Skip the Needle.

The evening concludes with an interview with real Bay Area activists and community leaders at the frontlines of resistance. Our special guest will engage audience with actionable tasks and inspiration to make organizing against fascism as easy as talking to your neighbor.

Special Guests:
June 4th – Ian Buddy
June 5th – KaiKai Bee Michaels
June 6th – Kochina Rude
June 7th – LBXX
BUY TICKETS
We’re all Auntie Pho… and you can be too!

@AuntiePhoComedy

All tickets for The Auntie Pho Comedy Hour are FREE to sliding scale!

The actual cost of tickets are between $20-$80, so please feel free to pay whatever your circumstances allow. Think of it like buying a ticket for a fellow audience member 🙂

You can make a separate donation to support the costs of production below.

Phil Wong presents … See MoreSee Less

This Bay Area comedy show turns antifa panic into punk rock satire

www.sfchronicle.com

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jeonjureview.jeonjufest.kr/post/2667
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그녀: 공장의 전사들She
감독 파르시팔 레파라토Parsifal REPARATO | Italy, France | 2025 | 74 min | Documentary | 프론트라인Frontline

For Parsifal Reparato, cinema functions as more than a medium of documentation; it acts as “a catalyst of events, relationships, and understanding.” His film She, presented in the Frontline section of the Jeonju International Film Festival, follows women workers in one of the biggest electronics factories in Vietnam, distilling his anthropologically grounded practice. Rather than simply representing the experiences of others, Reparato seeks to create a space in which they can become subjects of their own narratives. In this approach, he naturally invokes the legacy of Jean Rouch. As the pioneer of cinéma vérité—who expanded the horizons of anthropology through film—Rouch suggested that the camera can become an extension of the body. Reparato, in turn, sets that body in motion to write new stories.
In She, you focus on Vietnamese women working in the electronics industry. What led you to explore this subject? Following your first documentary Nimble Fingers, how did this project come about, and what key questions or concerns did it begin with?
What led me to explore this subject has long been part of my life. It comes from a deep sense of belonging to the working class, shaped by my personal background and my political and activist experiences from a very young age. Growing up, I took part in workers’ protests and picket lines in my city in Italy, and that was where I began to understand how central the workers’ perspective is—not only as a social condition, but as a way of interpreting the world. Over time, I became convinced that workers’ knowledge offers a fundamental lens to understand the structural injustices of our present, and to imagine how to overcome them. A turning point came when I graduated and worked for a large USA multinational company producing electronic devices. Even though I was not a factory worker, I had the opportunity to closely observe the broader system of global production and exploitation behind these corporations. That experience raised a crucial question: what actually happens at the core of global electronics production? This question led me to Vietnam for the first time in 2011, where I began the journey that would become Nimble Fingers. She emerged later, as part of a longer and more structured research process. I worked in collaboration with the University of Naples L’Orientale and the Vietnam Academy of Social Sciences, and in 2020 I was involved in a EU-funded research project focused on trade union representation and the empowerment of civil society within electronics factories. The film is thus rooted in both a personal trajectory and a long-term research process, driven by a central concern: how global systems of production shape workers’ lives, bodies, and possibilities—and how, within these conditions, forms of awareness and resistance can still emerge.

As a European male scholar and artist, this project seems to involve thinking about your position as an outsider. How did you begin to think about this difference in perspective at the beginning, and what kinds of questions did it lead you to consider as the work developed?
I understand why my position might be seen as that of an outsider. But I don’t perceive myself in those terms. Rather, I see myself as giving form to a perspective that is widely shared, yet often silenced—a perspective that belongs to the vast majority of people, but is rarely represented in mainstream discourse. We are constantly exposed to narratives that serve the interests of global capital, often erasing or marginalizing the voices of workers. I come from that world. I belong to the working class, and that is the standpoint from which I began to think and work. This process has never been individual, but developed through collective work with workers and researchers. Michela Cerimele, who has extensive experience on labor issues in both Italy and Asia, played a key role in grounding the work. The broader research framework, including scholars like Pietro Masina and Do Ta Khanh, helped create a space where questions could be developed collectively over time.
What has guided me throughout is a shared condition rather than a distance. The injustice experienced by these workers is not abstract or external—it resonates with a broader global reality. In this sense, Vietnam is not an isolated case. It represents, in a concentrated form, the dynamics of global capitalism today—where technological progress and the rhetoric of Industry 4.0 are built on the bodies and lives of workers. This has been true not only in Vietnam, but also in South Korea, India, Indonesia, and increasingly again in Europe and the United States. So rather than thinking in terms of inside or outside, I see this work as an attempt to connect structurally linked experiences. Vietnam becomes a lens—a way to read the condition of the working class globally. And it is from within that condition that I speak.

This film carries a depth that seems difficult to achieve through straightforward reportage alone. Could you talk about the time you spent meeting and getting to know the participants before filming, and how you invited them to take part?
This film is far from a simple reportage. My background is in anthropology, and before working as a filmmaker, I always conduct research as an anthropologist—engaging in ethnographic work and immersing myself in the communities I want to understand. This process takes time.
This project began as a collaboration with universities and trade unions, and I was initially supposed to create an advocacy video. But the research coincided with the pandemic, and instead of staying in Vietnam for three months, I remained for seven. Those seven months were fundamental. I met hundreds of workers living in the industrial area of Bắc Ninh. At first, there was a strong sense of fear—not only towards me, but also towards the Vietnamese researchers. Speaking about working conditions could have serious consequences, so trust had to be built slowly. In the early months, I focused on interviews and observation with my assistant, Phuong Minh Nguyen, trying to understand a wide range of experiences. Over time, I developed closer relationships with a smaller group of women workers. They began to recognize a common ground—something that comes from a shared condition within the working class, even across different countries. This process deeply influenced the form of the film. From the very beginning, protecting the workers’ anonymity was essential, in order to avoid any risk of retaliation. Everything that appears in the film comes from the trust they chose to give me, often in the very limited time they had outside of work. For this reason, I see the film not as something I made alone, but as something that emerged from a collective process—grounded in trust and collaboration.

It wasn’t possible to access the factory interiors, and it was also difficult to show the participants’ names or faces. Within these clear constraints, the film moves into more intimate spaces, like the women’s small rooms or hair salons where they can speak more freely.
No, it wasn’t possible to film inside the factory, and this wasn’t new to me. I was never interested in “stealing” images from that space. What mattered was to represent the workers’ point of view—not the perspective controlled by corporations, but the one they try to silence. So the key question became: how can we create a space where workers can express their experience in their own terms? The answer was to focus on their expressive capacity—to give space to the knowledge embodied in their bodies. For years, there has been discussion about “workers’ knowledge,” and here that knowledge is inscribed in their gestures, in their fatigue, in their bodies. This is why the film pays close attention to details—hands, faces, small movements. Through these, the women reveal something deeply human: vulnerability, strength, emotions, even wounds. These elements allow us to connect with them in a concrete way, beyond abstraction. This approach also aligned with the need to protect their anonymity, which pushed the film toward a more abstract and performative language. The choice of the hair salon as a central space emerged progressively during the research. Around industrial areas, beauty salons and small spas are extremely common. They are both a means of livelihood for workers leaving the factory and a space where they can experience a moment of relief and reclaim themselves. Inside the factory, their bodies are strictly regulated: they wear uniforms for long hours and are controlled in every detail, from their hair to their nails. In contrast, the salon becomes a space of care, intimacy, and temporary freedom.

One of the most striking elements in the film is the performance where labor is “re-enacted” in an empty space, rather than inside the factory. Filmed in black and white from three angles, these scenes at times resemble CCTV footage. How did you come to these formal choices, and what do you think they made possible within the film?
This approach did not begin with the idea of re-enactment. It emerged from a more fundamental need: to create a tool that workers could use to express themselves more clearly and freely. I felt that the most appropriate space was a symbolic one—an empty, enclosed, and dark space. Factories are in fact very bright, with artificial neon lights on 24 hours a day. But what the workers described was not brightness—it was pressure, confinement, and control. So the intention was to represent the factory not as it looks, but as it is experienced. We organized a workshop in this space, without a script. The workers did not know each other, and they arrived with their faces covered to protect their identity. In a situation where no one knew what would happen, they performed gestures and routines from their daily work experience. What you see in the black-and-white sequences is the result of that process. A key turning point came with the introduction of what I called the “truth space.” At that moment, I told them: now you are free. You can do whatever you want. You can reflect on what you have just shown, or express any emotion you feel. The line leader, who represents authority inside the factory, was also present. The workers could react in any way—even with violence, if they had wanted to. But what emerged was something very different. Instead of revenge, they expressed a deep need to be recognized as human beings—a demand for dignity and acknowledgment. This became one of the central lessons of the entire process.

It’s interesting that your background is in anthropology. In your documentary practice, how do you experience the differences between fieldwork, building relationships, and translating those experiences into film? Over time, how have you navigated or expanded your interests between academic documentation and cinematic representation?
For me, fieldwork is first of all about building relationships. At a certain point, it becomes more than just a research method—it becomes a way of life. Anthropology taught me something important: the idea of complete objectivity in science is, in many ways, an illusion. What gives ethnographic research its strength is not neutrality, but subjectivity—the ability to create relationships, build trust, and develop connections through lived experience. Over time, this has become a method. It’s something I have tried to share and transmit through the Ethnographic Filmmaking Lab, which I founded in Italy. Each year, we work with young filmmakers, encouraging them to develop their projects through ethnographic research—spending time in the field, engaging with people, and letting stories grow out of experience. Filmmaking came as a natural extension of this process. For me, cinema became a way to go further. It is not just a tool for representing reality, but a catalyst—a catalyst of events, relationships and understanding. It allows me not only to observe the other, but to create a space where they can represent themselves and participate in shaping the narrative. This is something that written or academic language often cannot achieve with the same intensity. Cinema can reach people differently—not only in terms of audience, but in terms of engagement and shared experience. It opens the possibility for people to become active subjects of their own stories through a more immediate and embodied form of self-representation. As Jean Rouch suggested, the camera can become an extension of the body—a kind of prosthetic device that amplifies reality and transforms observation into a process of mutual discovery. In this sense, filmmaking is not separate from fieldwork. It is part of it. It is another way of knowing.

I understand that your next project will also focus on factory workers, forming the final part of a trilogy on labor. Could you share a bit in advance about how it connects to your earlier works, Nimble Fingers and She?
What I can say is that I continue to see wage labor—and the conflict between capital and labor—as one of the most important keys for understanding our time. This body of work has been a journey. Through filmmaking, I have sought to go deeper into the lives of the people I work with, while also exploring the broader structures that shape those lives. More recently, I have become increasingly interested not only in working conditions, but also in the imaginary—in what exists beneath the surface of everyday life. The aim of this project is not only to document, but to offer a way of interpreting reality—and perhaps to provide tools to think about how to transform it. For me, cinema is a way to make visible the structures that usually remain hidden: the social and economic systems that sustain the dominant order. Focusing on the electronics industry means going directly to the core of these dynamics, where many of the contradictions of contemporary capitalism become visible. This is what connects these films. They are not separate works, but different chapters of the same attempt: to understand, and to make visible, the conditions that shape our present. … See MoreSee Less

“Cinema Became a Way to Go Further”

jeonjureview.jeonjufest.kr

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LaborFest

3 weeks ago

Reclaiming AAPI and Agricultural Worker History
www.pwcsc.org/farmworkers-educational-forum-and-media-round-table?fbclid=IwY2xjawR9pFpleHRuA2FlbQ… Organized by the Larry Itliong AAPI Coalition
Media Roundtable & Educational Forum
May 30, 2026 | 10:00 AM – 12:00 PM
Join community leaders, organizers, advocates, and members of the Filipino community for a timely educational forum and media roundtable focused on honoring the legacy and ongoing contributions of farmworkers in California and across the nation.
This gathering will provide background on the growing campaign to rename Cesar Chavez Day as Farmworkers Day — a movement aimed at recognizing the collective power, sacrifice, and leadership of the countless farmworkers who have shaped the farmworker labor movement throughout history.
Attendees will learn about the historical roots of the movement, the contributions of farmworker communities and organizers, and why this campaign matters today. The forum will also help prepare community members, media representatives, and supporters for an upcoming press conference taking place in June.
The event will include:
Educational presentations on farmworker labor history
Discussion on the Farmworkers Day campaign
Community perspectives and storytelling
Media engagement and Q&A
Opportunities to connect with organizers and advocates
This forum is open to community members, students, educators, labor advocates, media professionals, and anyone interested in learning more about the fight for recognition, dignity, and justice for farmworkers.
Together, we honor the people whose labor feeds our communities and whose organizing continues to shape movements for workers’ rights and social justice. … See MoreSee Less

Farmworkers Educational Forum and Media Round Table – Pilipino Workers Center of Southern California

www.pwcsc.org

Join community leaders, organizers, advocates, and members of the Filipino community for a timely educational forum and media roundtable focused on honoring the legacy and ongoing contributions of far…