Fay Chiang
b. 1952, New York, NY | d. 2017
Hiroshige's Eagle, 1977
Silkscreen on paper
Courtesy Tamiment Library Collection, New York University

Fay Chiang was the director of the Basement Workshop from 1975 until its closure in 1986. A prolific writer, Chiang published three books of poetry, much of which focused on her experiences as an Asian American woman and daughter of working-class Chinese migrants. Her coalitional politics and service to communities in Manhattan’s Chinatown and the Lower East Side heavily influenced her work and exploration of different mediums. Before her death in 2017, Chiang spent ten years illustrating over 60 portraits of people murdered by the police. Hiroshige’s Eagle is a silkscreen print representation of Utagawa Hiroshige’s woodblock print, Fukagawa Susaki and Jumantsubo, No 107.