Basement Workshop
Founded in 1970 by Danny Yung, New York, NY
Yellow Pearl, 1972
57 pages: illustrations, music
Basement Workshop, New York
Courtesy Wing Lee

From top (left to right)

Fay Chiang
eggrolls and wonton soup, 1972

Henry Chang
John Yue
mott street canticle or saturday night chinatown blues, 1972

Larry Hama
wall, 1972

Nobuko Miyamoto and Chris Iijima
we are the children, 1972

Larry Hama
i am an ono, 1972

Chris Iijima
when i was young, 1972

Wally Lim
firestorms, 1972

Yellow Pearl was a premier arts anthology reflecting the creativity of Asian Americans and portraying an intimate, comprehensive picture of what being Asian in America meant. Published by the Basement Workshop in 1971, the anthology centered around the music and lyrics of A Grain of Sand. Featuring musicians, William “Charlie” Chin, Chris Iijima, and Joanne Nobuko Miyamoto, A Grain of Sand was the first album of Asian American folk music distributed in the U.S. Featuring original illustrations, music, poetry, photography, and comics, Yellow Pearl was sent to universities and independent bookstores across the country with young Asian American students and educators eager to use it in their classrooms. Co-edited by Arlan Huang and Robert Takashi Yanagida, the anthology was purposely left unbound so that individual sheets could be used as posters in demonstrations. Some of the illustrations remain unsigned, a result of heavy debate over whether political art should be credited or left to the collective.