Building Tradition

Author has a waiting support network of local organizations (including InterIm Community Development Association, Hokubei Hochi, Historic Seattle, and the Kong Yick Investment Company) that she has become prominently involved with over the course of this book's research. Author is a dynamic speaker who will be steadily building buzz up to the book's release. She has presented her findings at several conferences, and will be doing more presentations in 2017: one in July at the International Conference on Diversity Organizations, Communities and Nations; and others in October with Historic Seattle. We will be pitching Wong as a reader and panelist for conferences on urbanism and Asian American studies, including Powell Street Festival, Asian American Writers' Workshop, Association of Asian American Studies Conference, and the Association of American Geographers Annual Meeting. We'll be pitching excerpts and articles on similar topics to publications with a broader, more general reach, including the New York Times, CityLab (from The Atlantic), and Atlas Obscura. Approaching Karen Tei Yamashita, Jamie Ford, and Sharon Zukin for blurbs.

How did discriminatory policies shape a uniquely pan-Asian neighborhood? Multiple disciplines and immigrant histories merge in this timely urban exegesis.Marie Rose Wong peers through the lens of single-room occupancy (SRO) hotels to capture the 157-year origin story of Seattle's pan-Asian International District. This gorgeous, meticulous book layers together interviews, maps, and insights from over a decade of primary research to provide an urgent history for Asian American activists and urban planners.