Culture Archives - We Are ILI

A man sits with his arm around a women, and there are two children sitting next to her. They are on long red seat in what looks like a Ferris wheel car. They look happy together.

“I Like it Like That”

“I Like It Like That” is a 1994 American comedy-drama film about the trials and tribulations of a young Puerto Rican man and a half Jamaican half Puerto Rican woman living in a poverty-stricken New York City neighborhood in the South Bronx. The film stars Lauren Velez, Jon Seda, Lisa Vidal, Griffin Dunne, Jesse Borrego and Rita Moreno, and was written and directed by Darnell Martin. This film was groundbreaking for a few reasons: 1) It was the first major motion picture to give an accurate, authentic and nuanced depiction of a Puerto Rican diasporic family trying to make it..Read More

Samantha Galarza October 14, 1994

A black and white photograph showing four men sitting at a table in front of microphones, with three men standing behind them.

Rainbow Coalition

“ The First Rainbow Coalition begins in 1969, when the Chicago Black Panther Party, notably led by Fred Hampton, forms alliances across lines of race and ethnicity with other community-based movements in the city, including the Latino group the Young Lords Organization and the working-class young southern whites of the Young Patriots.” More info: https://www.zinnedproject.org/materials/the-first-rainbow-coalition/ https://southsideweekly.com/fifty-years-fred-hampton-rainbow-coalition-young-lords-black-panthers/

Sarah Sao Mai Habib March 1, 1969

American Indian Diversity In Film. An official movie image, with the title "Smoke Signals" and three people with long dark hair, smiling in front of a desert landscape.

Smoke Signals (film)

“Smoke Signals” was marketed as the first feature film written, directed, and produced by Native Americans. It is an important movie for Indian Country and marked a big moment when Native people could see themselves reflected on the big screen. In 2018 it was added to the National Film Registry. The citation reads: “… After the early silent film pioneers James Young Deer and Edwin Carewe, the portrayal of Native Americans in cinema turned dark and stereotypical. These social trends started changing with motion pictures like the groundbreaking “Smoke Signals” … Beneath the highly entertaining façade, the film acquainted non-Native..Read More

Racquel Banaszak January 1, 1998

Everything Everywhere All At Once

Michelle Yeoh stars as a Chinese American mother being audited by the Internal Revenue Services (IRS) for her failing laundry business, only to discover that she must connect with parallel universe versions of herself to prevent a powerful being from destroying the multiverse. It’s a genre-defying film that combines martial arts, science fiction, fantasy, animation, and comedy, and covers themes such as Asian American identity, queerness, intergenerational trauma, family, existentialism, and more. Ke Huey Quan (Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom) returns to acting from stunt coordinating and directing, after almost three decades of lack of acting opportunities, to..Read More

Hoi-Fei Mok June 27, 2022

Grace Lee Boggs Publishes ‘The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the 21st Century’

Movement leader Grace Lee Boggs wrote The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty First Century with Scott Kurashige at the age of 95. In this powerful, deeply humanistic book, Grace Lee Boggs, a legendary figure in the struggle for justice in America, shrewdly assesses the current crisis—political, economical, and environmental—and shows how to create the radical social change we need to confront new realities. A vibrant, inspirational force, Boggs has participated in all of the twentieth century’s major social movements—for civil rights, women’s rights, workers’ rights, and more. She draws from seven decades of activist experience, and a..Read More

Hoi-Fei Mok January 1, 2011

1811 Slave Revolt Louisiana German Coast – Jan 8-10

The 1811 German Coast uprising was a revolt of black slaves in parts of the Territory of Orleans on January 8–10, 1811. The uprising occurred on the east bank of the Mississippi River. Learn more: https://www.zinnedproject.org/news/tdih/louisianas-slave-revolt/

Tufara Waller Muhhamad January 8, 1811

Black History Month, 1976

The precursor to Black History Month was created in 1926 in the United States, when historian Carter G. Woodson and the Association for the Study of Negro Life and History announced the second week of February to be “Negro History Week”.[9] This week was chosen because it coincided with the birthday of Abraham Lincoln on February 12 and of Frederick Douglass on February 20, both of which dates black communities had celebrated together since the late 19th century. Black History Month was first proposed by black educators and the Black United Students at Kent State University in February 1969. The..Read More

Social Impact Studios April 25, 1976

Category: Culture