Third World Liberation Front for the Future: Revisiting Student Activism in the ‘60s Bay Area 

Third World Liberation Front for the Future: Revisiting Student Activism in the ‘60s Bay Area 
Panel Discussion 
Thursday, October 24, 2024 | 6:00 p.m. (Doors at 5:30 p.m.) 
San Francisco Public Library, Koret Auditorium, 100 Larkin St, San Francisco, CA 94102 
Free and open to the public 

Join the San Francisco Arts Commission (SFAC) and the San Francisco Public Library (SFPL) for a panel discussion organized and moderated by 2023 artist-in-residence, writer, and filmmaker Celeste Chan. Third World Liberation Front for the Future explores the history of Bay Area student-led movements of the late 1960s. 

In 2023, Chan was one of four artists-in-residence selected to participate in the San Francisco Arts Commission's Artist-in-Residence program at the San Francisco Public Library. Launched in 2015, this program aims to foster partnerships with City departments, enabling artists to contribute to civic dialogue. During her ten-week residency at SFPL, Chan researched student activism in the ‘60s Bay Area and specifically the Third World Liberation Front (TWLF). Chan reviewed a mixture of primary and secondary sources, ranging from online photos and videos to in-person archival flyers, posters, pamphlets, newspaper clippings, and individual writings. She notes, “As a student movement, they (TWLF) built a coalition between communities of color, ran the nation’s longest student strike (five months) and created the discipline of Ethnic Studies. We can use TWLF’s lessons for the future, highlighting greater solidarity among activists of color today.” 

This program shines a light on TWLF’s tactics, conversations, and conflicts and also what their legacy looks like today and for the future. Panelists include original student strikers and subject matter experts from Dr. James Garrett and other guests. Chan will open the program with new writing and research from the SFPL History Center and the SFSU Library Archives alongside archival images and media clips from the student strike archives. 

About the Artist 

Celeste Chan is a writer, filmmaker, and teaching artist, schooled by Do-It-Yourself culture and immigrant parents from Malaysia and the Bronx, NY. She creates, collaborates, and curates to amplify voices within marginalized communities. For ten years, she co-directed Queer Rebels, a queer and trans people of color arts project. Chan has received residencies and fellowships from Hedgebrook, Hugo House, Lambda Literary, Mesa Refuge, Ragdale, SAFEHouse, Soaring Gardens, and VONA. Her writing can be found in several journals, including Ada, Alta, AWAY, Citron Review, cream city review’s genrequeer folio, Feminist Wire, Hyphen, Mixed Race/Queer and Feminist, The Seventh Wave, and The Rumpus. Chan is currently researching and writing two books: one about queer lineages, and the other about how her father survived the WWII Japanese occupation of Malaya. www.celestechan.com  

Program Partner