Special tributes, appreciations and memories from family & friends.
To share a remembrance of Nellie, please use the contact form.
I’m already missing Nellie’s smile and laughter, her love of food, especially Cantonese dishes from childhood, her love of poetry in the musical cadences of her poems and in the way she inhabited them, making her stories, characters and dreams come alive as she spoke. She inspired me to love Hoisan-wah—when as a child, I was embarrassed by my working class dialect, and so it was that Nellie, her sister Flo, and I, peppered our poems with Hoisan-wah as The Last Hoisan Poets, with confidence and joy!
Nellie, Flo and I, The Last Hoisan Poets, were committed to preserving our Hoisan culture and language through our poems and stories, which we recited on Angel Island, in museums, schools and many public venues. Nellie leaves a hole in our hearts, yet her spirit of solidarity in sisterhood with all women, workers and oppressed peoples, will continue to shine and inspire those of us who had the honor of collaborating and working alongside her and those who will discover the beauty, strength and joy of her poetry, which she crafted with love till the very end. Thank you, Nellie, for being a sister and friend to me and so many countless others!
Rest in peace, Dei-Dei! ❤️ GENNY LIM
For Nellie, her powerful Spirit
that continues to soar.
HYEYUNG SOL YOON
PRESENTE! PRESENTE NELLIE WONG 9/12/1934-1/2/2026 Revolutionary Trotskyist Feminist Asian-American, Toisan Oakland Born and Raised, International working class Poet and Activist, Comrade/Friend/Teacher/Trainer/Mentor/Educator/Chef/Sister/Tia/Cousin/Housemate/Neighbor/Legend/Icon/Fighter/Warrior/Her name is on a high school in Oakland/ This Bridge Called My Back she’s in it and so many more anthologies/The Death of a Long Steam Lady/ she defended her politics in all circles because she worked since she was young in her family’s restaurant to being a secretary working 9to5. While it was tough to wake up today, I did it knowing she wanted me up and at the protest of the U.S. bombing of Venezuela. Nellie was the first comrade of color to train me against asian bigotry, because it’s not just hate it is bigotry and it must be squelched. Nellie’s 91years of life was a triumph against the capitalist class and system and for a socialist feminist revolution. May the cosmos embrace her and let me call upon her as an ancestor for a better world! NELLIE WONG, PRESENTE! ❤️ NORMA GALLEGOS