Nobuko Miyamoto, Chris Iijima, Charlie Chin
A Grain of Sand: Music for the Struggle of Asians in America, 1973
Vinyl phonograph record
Cover art by Arlan Huang
Paredon Records, Brooklyn, NY

A Grain of Sand, produced in 1973 by Paredon Records, is known as the first record of Asian American music. Folk trio, Chris Kando Iijima, Nobuko Joanne Miyamoto, and William “Charlie” Chin were frequent collaborators, touring the U.S. throughout the nascent Asian American movement to meet with students and activists across the country. The group’s lyrics addressed a myriad of political issues, also relating the struggles of Asian Americans to those of Black, Puerto Rican, and Native American communities. Included in the original record release is a printed political statement indicating these political commitments. The album’s cover art was designed by Arlan Huang and Karl Matsuda, both members of the Basement Workshop. The woman illustrated on the left side of the record is Huang’s grandmother, while the woman and man in the center are Audee and Tommy Kochiyama, the children of influential activist, Yuri Kochiyama.

Though the group never released another album together, their music, a combination of folk, jazz, and blues, became a soundtrack for a generation of young Asian Americans intent on fighting for a more just society. In 1997, a CD version of the album was released by Bindu Records.