In the first week of June, SJF’s Asian staff caucus organized and led an all-staff outing in Seattle’s Chinatown-International District (CID) to honor Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, starting with lunch at Honey Court Seafood which is a staff favorite (honey walnut shrimp, anyone?). We also put together a scavenger hunt to get staff exploring and learning about the neighborhood’s histories and contexts that have led to our present moment. After lunch, we read the following framing statement:
“We’re so happy to see everyone who’s here in person to celebrate and honor Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month which just ended. We wanted to acknowledge the ways in which this month names Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander folks but often renders them invisible in programming which often tends to center East Asians, and we are really grateful for the work of SJF grantees to uplift the amazing work being done to support and build among Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders in particular.
In addition, in our celebration of the resilience and power of this neighborhood we’re in right now, we would be remiss if we didn’t also remember that the land this community made its home on was stolen from the Duwamish people and permanently altered by white settlers who filled in the lagoon with sawdust from the lumber mill that operated here in the 19th century. Washington Street which runs right by our future office building in Pioneer Square was the site of the first Chinese neighborhood in Seattle which also was home to a diasporic Indigenous community. Yesler Way was used to divide Seattle into north and south racially segregated districts which exist to this day.
As a result, this part of Seattle has always been a complicated and rich multicultural and multiracial neighborhood and has also been—and still is—the site of powerful community organizing work. While we are a hugely diverse population with many different cultures, languages, and values, AANHPI freedoms are fundamentally inextricable from the struggles against colonialism, imperialism, and white supremacy. We hope the scavenger hunt will be a way for you to get to know this neighborhood and its residents in the historical context and hopeful, hard fought futurities that they exist in.”
C-ID Scavenger Hunt
If you would like to try the scavenger hunt yourself, the clues are below!
- Founded in 1917, this company makes fortune cookies and what they call unfortunate cookies (as well as noodles!). Note: The huge bags of unfortunate cookies are a delicious great deal…!
- This vegan Vietnamese restaurant is owned by Thanh-Nga “Tanya” Nguyễn and has served free meals alongside mutual aid support to community members every Sunday since 2018.
- Completed in 1910 and opened as a hotel for single Japanese men coming to Seattle for work, this hotel is the site of the last intact Japanese-style public bathhouse in North America. During the incarceration of Japanese and Japanese Americans, many families stored their belongings in the basement, many of which were left unclaimed as people scattered across the country post-internment. The hotel has preserved these belongings which are viewable as a part of a museum in the tea shop on the ground floor.
- This community garden was created in 1975 with the leadership of Uncle Bob Santos, containing approximately 100 plots that are cared for by neighborhood elders at no cost to the gardeners.
- Opened in 1935, this restaurant is the oldest Chinese restaurant in the neighborhood and was a favorite of Bruce Lee’s.
- This park hosts ping pong and chess games as well as outdoor movie nights and fairs. If you’re a long-time Seattle resident, you may remember that a post office used to be here before the recent renovation and expansion of the park, finished in 2018.
- This shop in Japantown occupies a space previously known as Higo Variety Store which was run by the Murakami family for 75 years. Higo was originally on Weller St. when it first opened in 1909 and moved to S. Jackson St. in 1932, one of the few Japanese-owned stores to reopen after the end of Japanese incarceration during WWII.
- This children’s park honors Donnie Chin, a pivotal figure in the C-ID, who embodied community safety in and for the neighborhood, building on the Black Panthers’ legacy in his work as the director of the International District Emergency Center which organized neighbors and community members to keep each other safe.
- This sign aims to commemorate the existence of Manilatown/Filipino Town in the C-ID and the importance of Filipinx Americans in Seattle which has the 9th largest population of Filipinx folks in the U.S.
- A 2 part question!
- PART 1: This Seattle restaurant was the first karaoke bar in the U.S.
- Bonus question (send via text): Which Gang of Four person was a frequent singer here?
- PART 2: It plans to reopen in this affordable housing complex named after one of the Gang of Four (Larry Gossett, Bob Santos, Bernie Whitebear, and Roberto Maestas) who organized together across racial and ethnic differences to create lasting change in the Seattle area.
- Note: Maestas helped organize the occupation of the abandoned Beacon Hill Elementary School which eventually became El Centro de la Raza where we will be holding our upcoming grantee summit. Whitebear helped organize the occupation of what is now known as Discovery Park and fundraised for the construction of the Daybreak Star Cultural Center. Gossett was a Black Panther and served for a long time on the King County Council. Santos was an anti-gentrification activist in the C-ID.
- PART 1: This Seattle restaurant was the first karaoke bar in the U.S.
- Established in 1904, this restaurant is the oldest Japanese restaurant in the neighborhood and one of the oldest Japanese restaurants in the U.S.
AANHPI Led SJF Grantes
We’ve also put together a list of some of SJF’s AANHPI-led grantees! We highly recommend checking them out and supporting them with your time, donations, and solidarity.
