In 2010, former president Barack Obama proclaimed January 21 as National Angel Island Day, calling upon the people of the United States to “learn more about the history of Angel Island and to observe this anniversary with appropriate ceremonies and activities.”
In San Francisco, celebrate National Angel Island Day with Del Sol members and poets Genny Lim and Nellie Wong at an outdoor pop-up on Tuesday, January 21, 2025, 4pm - 5pm, China Basin Park – 92 Terry A Francois Blvd, San Francisco.
We invite you to enjoy a special virtual screening of Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian American Poets, in observance of National Angel Island Day 2025.
Available for online viewing from January 21–27, 2025
The poetry, ideas and memories of Mitsuye Yamada, Japanese American, and Nellie Wong, Chinese American, are juxtaposed with rare newsreels and photos of seldom glimpsed areas of U.S. history. “Mitsuye and Nellie” creates a moving and challenging double portrait of two women whose poetry expresses, with dramatic clarity, the immigrant experience of Asian American women in a society contemptuous and suspicious of “Orientals.”
In this film, poetry does more than comment on history — it presents the historical fact blindingly and without compromise.
This is a film about tenderness and anger between mothers and daughters, generational conflicts, and the breaking of stereotyped images of Asian American women.
— film description from LIGHT-SARAF FILMS
“And what are the two poets’ dream? The two dream that by speaking out against sexism and racism in our society, the American public will be enlightened.
The test of their dreams will come. The two say that when they meet “strangers” who have been exposed to their work, the acid test is: will they link hands with us? Will they also see us safely home?”
“New Film Portrays Dreams of Two Asian American Poets.”
East/West San Francisco, Calif. – September 8, 1981.
A scene from “Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian American Poets.“ Poets Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong at Minidoka concentration camp in Idaho, where Yamada was incarcerated as a teen with her family during WWII.
RESOURCE LINKS:
IMDb Listing: Mitsuye and Nellie (1981)
Movie Review: Up from Invisibility by Nancy Reiko Kato, Freedom Socialist Party, Fall 1982.
Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation, https://www.aiisf.org/
Angel Island: The Roots and Branches of Asian American Poetry, by Kimiko Hahn, Poetry Magazine, August 29, 2017
Minidoka: An American Concentration Camp.
The official park film for Minidoka National Historic Site, narrated by actor and activist George Takei. Learn about the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, the experiences of survivors and their descendants, and the site’s relevance to the complicated issues Americans face today.