As the war in Vietnam and Southeast Asia raged on, campus strikes surged throughout the U.S, joined by politicized Asian American students who were organizing networks of high school and college students, many joining community social service groups while others formed revolutionary organizations (some modeled after the Black Panther Party).

Most of the posters in this exhibit document the campaigns and national coalitions of more than twenty years of organizing. Movement tabloids regularly printed words and images reporting on the seemingly endless era of rebellion while some independent photographers such as Ric Rocamora, Corky Lee, Bob Hsiang, Isao Tanaka, Nikki Arai and several others, documented the times, some of whose images are included in this exhibit.

Art collectives appeared on the west coast, like Kearny Street Workshop and Japantown Art & Media Workshop (JAM), and Basement Workshop on the east coast, who created countless screen prints for cultural and political causes.   Media groups were formed — Visual Communications in Los Angeles and Asian Cine Vision in New York City, and later the National Asian American Telecommunications Association (NAATA) in the Bay Area — each producing and presenting films, while vigilantly leading a critical watch over mass media representations.

A centerpiece series of four banners (a quadtych), hanging in the lobby of Yoshi’s SF, by graphic designers Tommy Wong and Joy Liu was created especially for this exhibit. The juxtaposition of images depict the expansiveness and militancy of the Asian American Movement past and present, while reminding us of how our history has been at best footnoted in the history books and neglected by mainstream media.

The Asian American Movement identified itself as part of the Third World and it was heavily influenced by the graphics from China, Cuba and Vietnam. The reach for Third World unity is most evident in the posters by Malaquias Montoya (Vietnam/ Aztlan; Philippine National Day) and by Panther artist Emory Douglas (Solidarity with the African American People, produced by OSPAAAL- Organization for Solidarity with the Peoples of Asia, Africa and Latin America in Cuba.)

One Struggle, Many Fronts- covering the movement from the 1960′s through current years –is only a glimpse of the largely ignored contributions and importance of the Asian American struggle. It is by no means a comprehensive documentation, and could be greatly expanded and detailed as many elements were edited out due to space limitations.

The exhibit references the continuum of Asian American Movement organizing with reproduced photos of current Bay Area groups such as Chinese Progressive Association (CPA), BAYAN, Asian/Pacific Environmental Network (APEN), Asian Immigrant Women Advocates (AIWA), Viet Unity, Alliance of South Asians Taking Action (ASATA), and Gabriella (Babae). There are many others in different cities and states who are regenerating the Movement.

Greg Morozumi, Curator of One Struggle, Many Fronts