As a UCLA art major and activist working to establish the UCLA Asian American Studies Center, Mary Uyematsu, set out to document the Asian American Movement happening in Los Angeles in the early 1970s. This Movement found its roots in the Civil Rights and Black Power Movement, and the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and was sparked by the struggles for ethnic studies and the protests against the Vietnam War, and the recognition of the People’s Republic of China.
Mary published her photography collection from this Movement in 2020, to document the anti-imperialist issues that politicized our generation.
Mary will present a slide show from her collection and discuss the contributions and limitations of this national movement to the overall revolutionary working class struggle.
BIO:
Mary Uyematsu Kao worked as the UCLA Asian American Studies Center Publications Coordinator for 30 years. She received her MA in Asian American Studies in 2007. She has been a contributing writer since 2016 for the Rafu Shimpo, the last in-print Japanese American newspaper.
She just finished printing the 2nd edition of Rockin’ the Boat: Flashbacks of the 1970s Asian Movement, featuring more than 400 photographs of the Asian American Movement from 1969-1974. Some of the events include New York Chinatown’s Confucius Plaza struggle, a pilgrimage to Manzanar, the Van Troi Anti-imperialist Youth Brigade at L.A.’s Nisei Week Parade, and a cultural night educational on Marcos martial law in the Philippines.
