STANDING STRONG: FILLMORE & JAPANTOWN
WRITERS & EXCERPTS
Sandra Bass • Joyce Brady • Anthony Brown • Ravi Chandra • Machiko M. Conway
Alex Damron • Shari DeBoer • Charles Dixon • Lyndsey Ellis • Rodney Ewing • Jennifer Hasegawa
Mary Ann Hori • Susan Kitazawa • Xiomara Larkin • Aqueila M. Lewis • Juanita Tamayo Lott
Grace Morizawa • Roji Oyama • J. Lisa Oyama • Ernestine Patterson • Shizue Seigel • Malik Seneferu
Juanda Stewart • Kimi Sugioka • Kenji Taguma • Sheridan Tatsuno • Landa Williams • Tamiko Wong •
Queennandi X Shabazz • Michiko Yamada • Sandra Yamakishi
FROM THE INTRODUCTION
Shizue Seigel
Before redevelopment, the Fillmore & Japantown commingled and overlapped. We shared many values, though expressed differently—hard work and a reverence for education, spirituality, the arts, and above all family and community. We also shared a common struggle against discrimination....
TO SEE OR NOT TO SEE
Xiomara Larkin
It’s Christmas. A girl in a beautiful golden dress is dancing as the bright light shines on her. This girl is from the suburbs. Nothing to worry about, no problems on her hands. But inside, she feels no emotion. She feels she threw herself into a hole and doesn’t want to come out....
RUSTY RUF
Charles Dixon
My Scoutmaster Rufus H. Cox was a machinist by profession, but my father anointed him “the smartest man in Nicetown.” It was a big ticket to fill, based upon the ministers, doctors, lawyers, number runners and politicians that claimed the title in our Philadelphia neighborhood....
DAILY • WEEKLY • MONTHLY
Shizue Seigel