hoisanpoet – Nellie Wong

Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian American Poets (1981)

By hoisanpoet | December 16, 2025December 16, 2025 by hoisanpoet

One of the earliest documentaries to broach the topic of Japanese American wartime incarceration, Mitsuye and Nellie profiles Asian American poets Mitsuye Yamada and Nellie Wong, showing them reading their poetry, meeting their family and visiting the Minidoka and Angel Island sites. See this item in the Densho Resource Guide at Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian American Poets. See this item in the Densho Digital Repository at: https://ddr.densho.org/ddr-densho-1024-37/. IMBD: Mitsuye and Nellie: Asian American Poets Movie Review: “Up from Invisibility” FREEDOM SOCIALIST…

Do It Every Morning

By hoisanpoet | November 21, 2025November 22, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem nine / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Nellie reads “Do It Every Morning,” from…

Poetry Work

Nellie at Ninety-One

By hoisanpoet | September 12, 2025December 11, 2025 by hoisanpoet

a poem by Robert Rubino and Terry Jacobs celebrating Nellie Wong’s 91st Birthday Nellie at Ninety-One Four years ago we didn’t knowNellie Wong. Didn’t know this writerof poetry lyrical and historicalgastronomical and familialwaterfalls of images falling upon the pageor pin-ball caroming in a voice steady strong. Didn’t know this fighterfor social justice — for workers and immigrantsfor feminism and for peacethis fighter against racism ageism capitalism. Didn’t know this connoisseurof food and music and movies.…

Poetry Work

Nellie’s 91st Birthday

By hoisanpoet | September 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

Celebrating Nellie’s 91st birthday! #poetryblooms Ode to the big knife Ai aw in Hoisan-waBig blue scheme the slant and the sheenChopping in rhythm’s precisionDelivering lobster by hand shaped as its original formEloquent in chef’s handFeast for eyes and soulGargantuan yet minusculeHigh how high the culinary artsJust practice more practice, noKneeling but kowtowing of sortsLove for beauty of cadence’s song itsMarinade and dance andNo nullification becauseOperatives of beauteous realmPurity of practice thrums and humsQuintuplet of spirit…

Poetry Work

National Poetry Month at SFPL: ”When Cherry Blossoms Fall”

By hoisanpoet | April 19, 2025May 5, 2025 by hoisanpoet

Reading by Genny Lim & Nellie Wong, with Hyeyung Sol Yoon Weds., April 19, 2025, 2pm – 3:30pmLatino/Hispanic Meeting RoomMain Library, 100 Larkin Street San Francisco, CA 94102 SFPL’s Humanities Center celebrates National Poetry Month with a reading by Genny Lim, San Francisco’s 9th Poet Laureate. Cherry blossoms have long been a symbol of life’s brevity. Lim, together with poet Nellie Wong, will address themes of life, death and renewal in the historical and personal…

Activism Poetry Work

Fourteen-Line Poem on The World

By hoisanpoet | March 30, 2025January 3, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem eight / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life.

Activism Feminism Poetry Work

America in the Fillmore

By hoisanpoet | March 12, 2025November 8, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem seven / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. In the late 1970s, Chinese American women…

Poetry Work

Farewell My Dragonfly

By hoisanpoet | February 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem six / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. Nellie’s poem, Oh Worrywort, published in IKON…

Activism Feminism

“We Fight Back” with Nellie Wong

By hoisanpoet | January 19, 2025May 16, 2025 by hoisanpoet

Nellie Wong holds a protest sign high at the FSP literature table with Sam Rubin, at the “We Fight Back” rally and march at San Francisco’s Civic Center Plaza, held in protest against the Trump administration on Sunday, January 19, 2025. Web Gallery “We Fight Back” with Nellie Wong (2025)

Activism Poetry Work

Art

By hoisanpoet | January 12, 2025September 12, 2025 by hoisanpoet

poem five / Nellie Wong at Ninety NELLIE WONG celebrates her ninetieth birthday with the publication of Nothing Like Freedom, her fifth collection, after Dreams of Harrison Railroad Park (1977), Death of Long Steam Lady (1986), Stolen Moments (1997), and Breakfast Lunch Dinner (2012). “Nellie Wong at Ninety” is a digital companion project centered around nine poems, chosen by Nellie to represent each decade of her storied life. After Del Sol Quartet’s Angel Island concert…