CANE Archive Project

APICC is proud to fiscally sponsor the CANE 50th Anniversary event and Archive Project aka the CANE Archive Project.

Donations to the CANE Archive Project can be made on this page through APICC as a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization. 

The Committee Against Nihonmachi Eviction (CANE) formed in 1973 to fight the San  Francisco Redevelopment Agency’s (RDA) plan to  transform Japantown into a tourist trap by destroying the historic community, evicting its residents and shutting down small businesses.  

A grassroots uprising arose in opposition to RDA’s plans, fueled by the Japantown residents and small businesses' stand of “We Won’t Move!”  This stand and determination to fight inspired students and the broader Japanese American community to join CANE and engendered broad City-wide support. CANE was a multi-generational, multi-racial organization composed of Japantown residents and small businesses and the broader Japanese American community.

The CANE 50th Anniversary Planning Committee formed in January 2021, to organize the 50th Anniversary event in 2023; publish the CANE Story from the perspective of those involved; and to collect and archive CANE documents and memorabilia.

Your donation will support the CANE 50th Anniversary Planning Committee to fulfill these goals.

*For check donations, please write checks to 'Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center' with 'CANE Archive Project' in the memo. Please include a return mailing address or email address to send the donation acknowledgement to.

Send checks to the address below:

APICC
934 Brannan Street
San Francisco, CA 94103

for more information about CANE's events please visit: https://cane50.org/

About Francis Wong

Few musicians are as accomplished as Francis Wong, considered one of "the great saxophonists of his generation" by the late jazz critic Phil Elwood. A prolific recording artist, Wong is featured on more than forty titles as a leader and sideman. For over two decades he has performed his innovative brand of jazz and creative music for audiences in North America, Asia, and Europe with such with such luminaries as Jon Jang, Tatsu Aoki, Genny Lim,William Roper, Bobby Bradford, John Tchicai, James Newton, Joseph Jarman, Don Moye and the late Glenn Horiuchi.

But to simply call the Bay Area native a musician would be to ignore his pioneering leadership in communities throughout Northern California. Wong's imaginative career straddles roles as varied as performing artist, youth mentor, composer, artistic director, community activist, non-profit organization manager, consultant, music producer, and academic lecturer. Key vehicles for his work are Asian Improv aRts, the company he co-founded with Jon Jang and as a Senior Fellow at the Wildflowers Institute. In addition, Wong was a California Arts Council Artist in Residence from 1992 through 1998, and a Meet The Composer New Resident in 2000-2003. In 2000-2001 he was a Rockefeller Next Generation Leadership Fellow. He has also been a guest member of the faculty at San Francisco State University (1996-98) and at University of California at Santa Cruz (1996-2001).

”I choose for my work to build community and to seek out how I, as an artist can meet the challenges that our community faces. In the Asian American community, the biggest challenge is continuity of culture and the impact of assimilation. Through music, I envision a way to create continuity through the integration of tradition and innovation.

Francis Current project you can support!:

Remembrance Rising: In Tribute to the World War II Comfort Women is an interdisciplinary work featuring poetry, dance, and music in dialogue with the public art piece Comfort Women Column of Strength Memorial in St. Mary’s Square in San Francisco Chinatown.

Featuring composer/saxophonist Francis Wong, dancer and poet Lynn Huang, dancer Flora Hyoin Kim Han, tuba performer William Roper, violinist Sandy Poindexter, and multi-percussionist Karen Stackpole. Parallel to the performing arts work is a companion zine set, created and illustrated by Katie Quan, focusing on the experiences of comfort women, Jan Ruff-O’Herne and Maria Rosa Henson.

Both projects are made possible through the inaugural Comfort Women Research and Creative Scholarship Small Grant Awards program. Presented by Asian Improv aRts, API Cultural Center, and Lenora Lee Dance.

There will be one indoor performance at the Manilatown Heritage Center on Friday 7-8pm 5/19 and one outdoor performance at the site of the Comfort Women Memorial in St. Mary’s that will be video recorded at 2pm-3pm on Saturday 5/20.

Admission free!
Please register here on Eventbrite

Friday, May 19, 7-8pm, at Manilatown Heritage Foundation (868 Kearny St., SF)
Saturday, May 20, 2-3pm, at St. Mary’s Square

*Please note: If you would like to make a donation specifically towards an APICC fiscally-sponsored project such as Jon Jang, Unity Archive Project, East Wind ezine, Lenora Lee Dance or Trashed: The Lost World of May's Photo Studio, Oral Histories of the International Hotel Human Barricade, please donate through their specific pages here.

Donate to Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center (APICC) to directly invest in cultural institutions that present and empower diverse voices in arts and culture. 

Your tax-deductible contribution is a meaningful statement in our community's value and need for organizations like APICC that present premier Asian Pacific Islander works of art in the San Francisco-Bay Area. 

If you have any questions about your donation, please contact us at [email protected].