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= Basement Workshop = Basement Workshop was an Asian-American political and arts organization in New York City active from 1970-1986. It was created during the Asian American Movement and acted as an umbrella organization to writers, visual artists, dancers and choreographers, and activists. It published Bridge Magazine and sponsored exhibitions and after school programs. Artists such as Tomie Arai, Fay Chiang, Larry Hama, Jessica Hagedorn, Jason Kao Hwang, Nina Kuo,  and Chris Iijima were involved. Basement Workshop spawned numerous other organizations, including the Asian American Dance Theater, Asian American Arts Centre, Godzilla Asian American Arts Network, and Museum of Chinese in America.

Origin
Basement Workshop grew out of the research of a group of young urban planners at Columbia University on the demographics of Manhattan's Chinatown, namely Danny Ning Tsun Yung. Yung and his colleagues realized the connection between data collected by the census and distribution of government aid. They took it upon themselves to both survey residents and educate them on the importance of the census. Yung surveyed more 565 residents and published his findings in “The Chinatown Report of 1969.” To put his research to work, he established Basement Workshop as a cultural institution to organize activities and programs within Chinatown with the assistance of Basement’s co-founders, Eleanor Yung, Peter Pan, Frank Ching and Rocky Chin. In 1970, the five co-founders rented the 16’ by 16’ basement room of 54 Elizabeth Street and began to meet there. The collective established itself as an official non-profit organization by 1971. The leaky Elizabeth Street basement remained Basement’s headquarters until they moved to 22 Catherine Street. With the success of the organization's publications, Basement began to receive outside funding, leading to its growth into a multidisciplinary community with four different locations and multiple specialized branches.

Over time, these branches grew into their own non-profits. Simultaneously, Chinatown experienced an intense increase of political disunity, partly due to the establishment of the Workers Viewpoint Organization. ,  For these reasons, by 1986, basement collective dissolved.

Programs
Basement operated programs for all members of the community. The Amerasian Arts Program offered art classes in visual arts like silk screening and photography, but also in creative writing, dance, and music. The Asian American Resource Center, which began as an orange crate containing the original surveys distributed by Danny Yung, grew with the addition of oral histories collected from Chinatown residents. On a weekly basis, classes were offered in English and citizenship.

Art and Publications
In 1972, Basement Workshop published the arts book Yellow Pearl. When Basement co-founder Rocky Chin wrote his proposal to the New York State Council for Art to fund the project, he explained it as an attempt to create the Asian American identity. The project was inspired by song lyrics from the album "Grain of Sand" by Chris Iijima and Nobuko Miyamoto. The square format portfolio included poetry, song lyrics, and visual art. Basement Workshop also published “Bridge Magazine”, a nationally circulated monthly political journal.

Additionally, street artists of the collective created public artistic rendering s of the Asian American experience. These works included sculptures and murals. Japanese American artist Tomie Arai, for example, created Wall of Respect, a depiction of the Great Wall of China alongside the people of Chinatown, hard at work.

In addition to these larger projects and installations, members of the collective created agitprop to distribute at protests and demonstrations.

Legacy
Although Basement Workshop officially disbanded in 1986, many Asian American organizations that still exist today were once encompassed under Basement's umbrella.


 * The Asian American Arts Center began as Basement's Asian American Dance Theatre. Today, AAAC makes visual art accessible to broad audiences, and hosts lectures and performances.
 * The Asian American Writer's Workshop grew out of Basement's writers' program.
 * The Museum of Chinese in America grew out of the Chinatown History Project, to whom the Basement's Asian American Resource Center was donated.
 * Asian Cinevision and the Asian American Arts Alliance were both founded by past members of Basement Workshop.