The Basement Workshop: Examining Asian American Movement Ideology Through Black Internationalist Frameworks

• In Event: 1552 - Section on Asia and Asian America Roundtable Session
  In Refereed Roundtable (60 min): Table 8: Movements and Inequalities: Asian American Perspectives

Abstract

This paper considers the interconnected nature of the activism and radical ideology of people of color throughout the 1970s. In particular, I explore the analytic similarities between Black internationalism and Asian American movement ideology through an examination of the activism and cultural productions of the Basement Workshop, the first pan-Asian political and arts organization on the East Coast. I utilize what I deem as Asian American Movement Ideology to theoretically connect Asian American activisms with the activism of Black radicals engaged in Black internationalist modes of thinking throughout the 1970s. This paper reveals how movement ideology between Asian Americans and Black radicals have been co-constitutive.

Author

• Christina Ong, University of Pittsburgh