A League of Their Own: 17.21 Women
“Joan Chen as Josie Packard, Twin Peaks promo” 1990
17.21 is a photo project curated by founder Doris Ho-Kane, an archival gallery of images and the stories of pioneering Asian-Pacific Islander women. As an Asian woman it’s not only nostalgic, but I learn a piece of history from each Instagram post. The name 17.21 comes from the square miles that make up the entire continent of Asia. The feed spotlights Asian activists, scientists, artists, musicians and others from all industries.
What 17.21 provides is a visual history lesson telling the stories of Asian-Pacific Islander women who were trailblazers while being underrepresented and racially discriminated yet charismatic and survivors of the patriarchy during their times. Although women of color still struggle to overcome problems caused by the patriarchy, you can’t help but realize that these women made it possible for us to find our own voices and rise up to today and tomorrow’s challenges.
“Mother with child voting in the first free election in generations post-WWII. After almost 80 years of actively fighting for suffrage, Japanese women were finally granted the right to vote for the first time in 1946” .• Tokyo, April 10, 1946; photo, unknown
“April 12, 1968 | Oakland High School students walk out to attend a memorial rally for Bobby Hutton, the Black Panther who was killed by the Oakland Police in a shoot-out, two days after Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. was assassinated.” Photo by Nikki Arai
“Lily Chow is a taxi driver in New York City. She is a Chinese immigrant and mother of seven.”
〰️ NYC, 1983; photo by Corky Lee
“Tye Leung Schulze (1887–1972), first Chinese American woman to cast a ballot in a US presidential primary election in 1912/interpreter and activist who helped rescue young Chinese women enslaved in San Francisco's Chinatown brothels/first Chinese American woman to pass the civil service examination and receive a federal civil service position as an interpreter at Angel Island in 1910/defied anti-miscegenation laws in CA and travelled to WA to marry Charles Frederick Schulze in 1913, which cost them their jobs at Angel Island (due to the public scandalization of their marriage in newspapers, it was difficult for them to find steady work thereafter)” • Photo, unknown▫️Age 25; photo taken Nov. 29, 1912, unknown
“Calabai (trans women, one of five genders) wedding attendants;” Sulawesi, Indonesia; photo by Sharyn Davies▫️Bissus
“Connie Chung during the Watergate Hearings” 1973; photo courtesy of CBS Photo Archive
“Jayaben Desai (1933–2010), East African Asian/British Indian labor activist and trade unionist/prominent leader of the Grunwick labor strike (1976–1978), which was one of the longest and most significant industrial disputes in British history.” Photo by David Mansell, Oct. 23, 1977▫️Photo by Graham Wood for the Evening Post
“Esther Wong (1917–2005), the “Godmother of Punk”/Chinese American restaurant owner of Madame Wong’s 黃家園 (949 Sun Mun Way) and Madame Wong’s West (2900 Wilshire), clubs that were an integral part of Chinatown’s history of entertainment, arts, and culture/punk and new wave music promoter.”▫️
Photo by Iris Schneider, LA Times
