A Critical Mass: Hope @ St. Hope
- Flo Oy Wong

Rice Sacks for the People
- Barbara Hatchett

Angel Island History
- William Wong

Flo Oy Wong: Storyteller and Cultural Worker
- B. Stephen Carpenter, II

Flo Oy Wong: Honoring
- Jan Rindfleisch

Art AsiaPacific Review
- Collette Chattopadhyay

Baby Jack Rice Story
- Terri Cohn

Flo Oy Wong Saves Lives
- Joy Ritchie

Bill Whisp Essay
- Bill Whisp

A Chinese Griot
- Kim Curry-Evans

Bill Whisp Essay

(In February of 2007, I received this email from my brother, Bill, a freelance writer and author of Yellow Journalist and other books,, following the opening of Whispers of the Past at the 40 Acres Gallery in Sacramento, CA)

Hello, Family,

Joyce and I were privileged to attend Flo's big Sacramento show opening this weekend, and it was an amazingly successful event -- the opening reception Saturday during a rainstorm, and today's symposium that I had been invited (by Flo and the Sacramento event organizers) to moderate. Lai and Ed (of course) were there for both events, and Ilene and Vickie came for Saturday night's reception. Ed's nieces and nephews showed up en masse too, as did his sister Ginger, brother-in-law Albie and nephew Greg.

More than 500 people crowded into the 40 Acres Gallery in the Oak Park neighborhood, despite the rain. The gallery did a wonderful job of displaying Flo's diverse art work from over the years -- the Baby Jack display, the angel island: Shhh rice sacks, the kente cloth, the huge rice-sack display of our father's shooting some 67 years ago, the suitcases dedicated to mom (grandma or great grandma to some of you), and her Sacramento specific installation pieces of four prominent members of that city's Chinese American community.

There was a constant buzz in the air as folks milled around, chatted with one another, got to know one another better, reintroduced themselves to people they hadn't seen in a while, and went from display to display in appreciation of what Flo has done over the past 27 years.

This was a diverse crowd, with many Chinese Americans from Sacramento and some from the Bay Area too. There were a number of African Americans and whites too of diverse backgrounds. An impressive group was Sacramento High School students, mostly black and white, who volunteered at both the reception and today's symposium.

Today's symposium had about 75 people, again a diverse crowd ranging in age and ethnic background. Along with Flo, panelists were two prominent Chinese American musicians and composers (Jon Jang and Gang Situ), an Asian American Studies professor from Cal State Sacramento (Tim Fong), and Jerry Fat, one of the legendary Frank Fat's sons. Flo did one of her pieces on Frank Fat, who started a restaurant near the State Capitol that became a gathering place for legislators, lobbyists, and other Sacramento power brokers. The patriarch is gone but his family, Jerry included, has carried on and gone beyond his entrepreneurial success. The two composers are also artist-participants in the Gold Mountain project; Gang Situ's concerto has been performed by the Sacramento Philharmonic and Jon Jang's Chinese American Symphony will debut in April.

We had a good discussion on the confluence of Chinese American history, arts, and community in a broader American context, specifically in our positive relationships with African Americans. Remember that the Baby Jack exhibit is about Ed's August, Georgia, childhood and youth in which he was befriended by two African American boys (teenagers).

This black-Chinese story was a perfect symbol of Flo's Sacramento project called Gold Mountain: A tribute to the Chinese of California. She was recruited by Kim Curry-Evans, director of the 40 Acres Gallery and Cultural Center, a dynamic African American woman who has had the courage to rename Black History Month American History Month and who was attracted to Flo's work because of the Baby Jack piece. Kim learned of Flo through Jane Hill, a white woman affiliated with the Sacramento Philharmonic. What an almost perfect symbol of California (and U.S.?) multiculturalism -- white, black, yellow! Indeed, Kim's reaching to show Flo's work has been widely praised but also criticized by some African Americans, who can't understand why an African American gallery is showing a Chinese American artist during Black History Month.

One more "big picture" point to be applauded: the 40 Acres Gallery and Cultural Center is part of Kevin Johnson's vision and herculean efforts to improve the Oak Park neighborhood, which used to be seedy and rundown. It also happened to be where Johnson grew up and has largely been a struggling African American neighborhood.

Who is Kevin Johnson? He's a former Cal basketball star who went on to NBA fame, fortune and stardom with the Phoenix Suns. He's a rarity among star athletes. He has used his athletic wealth to contribute in substantial and profound ways to making his old rundown neighborhood better. Greg, Flo and Ed's Sacramento nephew, told us that Oak Park used to be a dangerous place to visit. While it's not perfect yet, it's greatly improved with what Kevin Johnson has sparked, and that includes the 40 Acres Gallery and Cultural Center, a Starbucks, a bookstore (that features Li Keng's book!!!), and a restored 200-seat theater (where the symposium was held).

Aside from Flo's impressive work in capturing the stories of 4 Sacramento Chinese Americans and her ancillary educational efforts in working with Sacramento High students (most of whom are not of Asian descent), it is this broader involvement and multicultural collaboration that so impressed me and many others. Our society, while greatly improved in terms of racial and ethnic relations, is still wrought with separatism and stereotypes and fears and ignorance.

Flo's Sacramento work is helping bust stereotypes and breaking down racial and ethnic barriers, facilitated by visionary and courageous Sacramento arts managers and patrons, both black and white. This is wholly one of those "good stories" that we hope can counter all the negative and distressingly divisive stories we hear too often.

During the panel discussion, Flo told of her youth in Oakland's Chinatown when she and Mom went to Swan's Market, needing to cross Franklin Street (and Broadway too). She said she had always been told not to cross Franklin because the black and Latino kids would beat her up. She'd wait at Franklin as Mom went on to Swan's across Broadway. She didn't "cross the street." Now, with her Sacramento work spurred by the Baby Jack piece of 1993, she is "crossing the street." I think that is such an apt and compelling metaphor for her affirmative cross-cultural artistic endeavors and for the need for all of us to get out of our cultural comfort zones and get to know people and history and cultures of America's many other ethnic groups.

In truth, Flo maintains such a breakneck arts schedule that I, for one, have found it difficult to keep up. But this time, I am glad (and I know Joyce is too) that we had a chance to witness Flo and her work being fully appreciated by Sacramento's Chinese Americans as well as African Americans and whites of many generations.

Kudos to Flo!

Bill