#labor-activism

#labor-activism

Nellie attended Oakland High School when her family moved to a neighborhood outside of Chinatown after World War II, the beginnings of integration for ethnic Chinese residents who'd lived under the Chinese Exclusion Act (1882-1943). Her early life, into her late 20s, was rooted in the patriarchal culture in Chinatown and the white American mainstream. That oppression did not sustain her. Nellie's intelligence, creativity, and compassion yearned to break free.

Benavides' stylistically polyglot score draws on his full spectrum of influences, with electric guitar and saxophone included in the chamber ensemble "to give it some edge."