Kristina Bartolome

Kristina Bartolome's project titled, Panther in the Ping, will be a short creative non-fiction book based on the life of Kiilu Nyasha, former member of the Black Panther Party (BPP), visual artist, and independent journalist. Kiilu lived in Fillmore and Bayview Hunter’s Point districts until she and her two children were placed in Ping Yuen North, Chinatown’s largest housing project, after a chronic muscle disease left her permanently disabled in 1980. Despite being physically separated from Black community and wheelchair-bound, she continued full time activism while living in the Ping until her passing in 2018, including fighting for better housing conditions and ADA compliance in the building. Our relationship, which spanned twenty years as one of her home care workers and close friends, has had a lasting impact on my creative voice, activism, and worldview. Her story and contributions are largely unknown.

Panther in the Ping will honor Kiilu’s life and legacy as a valued part of San Francisco’s history and the Chinatown community. I will approach the writing as an intimate conversation with a movement ancestor, through a layering of her own words and images with my personal reflections and memories in poetry and prose. Drawing upon our shared lifelong commitment to social change through art, education and organizing, this book will offer enduring lessons in survival, cross-racial solidarity, and disability justice for today and generations to come.

Panther in the Ping has three main components. I will work as writer and producer to: 1) include Kiilu Nyasha’s work as part of the San Francisco permanent historical public archive, 2) research and write a short creative non-fiction book for publication, and 3) produce a public reading with an exhibition of selected writing and artwork by Kiilu that promotes dialogue within Chinatown and young activist communities.