Remember
Yik Oi Huang
Welcome
Yik Oi means ABUNDANT LOVE. Before you read further, we invite you to invoke this energy in your heart. Feel the settling back of your body. Bring the ever present peace and stillness into your spirit. We also remind you of the powerful matriarch and empress that was Yik Oi Huang. She is survived by 4 children, 8 grandchildren, and 6 great-grandchildren.
There is deep pain that needs witnessing and many hearts that need mending. When a 17 year old young man takes the life of an 88 year old elderly woman, there is something very wrong. What conditions happened to him? This platform is not only to remember Grandma Huang, but to bring ripples of healing to Visitacion Valley (VV) with events and the "Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park" renaming initiative (SIGN PETITION). It is our mission vision to break the cycle of violence by becoming a trauma-informed neighborhood through this park. Please share your abundant love by DONATING to our work in support of the beautification process and programmatic implementation.
Together, we will create a joyous, inclusive, safe, equitable space for generations to thrive in this diverse and beloved community. This park will be like a kintsugi. "Kintsugi is the ancient Japanese art of fixing broken pottery with gold. Kintsugi reminds us that something can break and yet still be beautiful, and that, once repaired, it is stronger at the broken places. This is an incredible metaphor for healing and recovery from adversity.” - Emma Johnson
(Visitacion Valley racial profile: Asian, Hispanic, Black, White, Pacific Islander).
Upcoming Events
June 15th, 2024 - Name Unveiling Ceremony Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park
DRUM ROLL PLEASE! As we wrap up AAPI Heritage Month, we are excited to announce that a new sign is proudly displaying “Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park” in Visitacion Valley.
Can’t believe this is finally happening after 3 years of organizing and the help of many people. It took a beloved community to make it happen. Thank you! Join us at the Ribbon Cutting Celebration on June 15th so that we can further thank you!
San Francisco will now have a visible tribute to an Asian immigrant working-class woman, whose ordinary yet extraordinary life epitomized good citizenship. This project is also about community safety, solidarity, and justice. We need this now more than ever. What if we remember we are one? What if we lead with love? Our dream is unity in diversity, and that people from different cultural and language backgrounds can peacefully coexist at this park without fear and hatred toward one another. This park renaming has brought us closer to achieving that dream.
The Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park represents so much more than a mere name; it embodies our collective vision of fostering a community free from violence and grounded in healing and compassion. After all, “Yik Oi” means Abundant Love.
With abundant love and gratitude, we invite you to gather at the Park for an unforgettable day! Please RSVP so we have a headcount. https://rb.gy/1wonbp.
Receive a commemorative Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park T-shirt with a $35+ donation (only White tees). Funds will go towards a memorial bench for the late Ronald Colthirst who proposed the park renaming and a memorial plaque for Yik Oi Huang. https://donorbox.org/operation-abundant-love.
(Thank you to the talented Danielle Fernandez @calibird_sf for the beautiful tshirt design!)
We're absolutely thrilled to extend this special invitation to you for June 15th, 2024, from 11am to 2pm, marking the Name Unveiling Celebration of the Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park! 🌳✨
At Noon, we'll be officially opening the park with a ribbon-cutting ceremony—a moment we've eagerly awaited to share with you! 🎀
The Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park represents so much more than a mere name; it embodies our collective vision of fostering a community free from violence and grounded in healing and compassion. After all, “Yik Oi” means Abundant Love. Interactive cross-cultural events allow us to learn and move united as one - if even for a day.
Prepare to indulge in a family fun day filled with art and cultural healing festivities. Learn invigorating Qigong, Hot Siva aerobic, and West African drumming, watch mesmerizing Aztec dance and Lion dance performances, Church of Clowns, bounce house, and much more!
As we gear up for this special day, we're reaching out to our community for tablers, volunteers and healers. DM us! Your involvement will help make this event truly extraordinary! 🤝
A deep bow of gratitude to the Park Renaming committee and to everyone who has been on this healing journey with me and my family. We especially thank and honor the late Ronald Colthirst, a prominent Black community leader in San Francisco, for this idea, this name, his friendship, and his vision of peace.
In this spirit of abundant love, we hope you will join us to celebrate Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park!”
03d_Poster English 8.5x11_Move the Chi_printMove the Chi - Healing after Violence
Sunday, May 2nd, 2021 | 11 AM -12:30 PM PST
Join us in person and masked
at * Visitacion Valley Playground
263 Leland Ave, San Francisco
or join via Facebook Live
at Asians Belong or Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity
*Visitacion Valley Playground is the site where grandmother Yik Oi Huang, age 89, was fatally attacked in 2019. The community is currently petitioning to rename the park
"Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park".
May we gather for this embodied practice of community healing,
collective safety, and multiracial solidarity.
The recent wave of anti-AAPI hate and violence and the relentless police killings of Black folks across the country is impetus for us to respond to Move the Chi for internal, interpersonal and collective change.
We are inviting the community to engage in a practice of the Chinese healing art of qigong/chi gung (mastery of energy). We will use gentle movements to move our breath and qi/chi (energy) through feelings such as rage, fear or shame and to cultivate and harness positive qi/chi to foster unity and collective action against all forms of racism and violence.
Observe COVID protocols, wear comfortable shoes, bring water.
Some chairs will be available for those who wish to to participate sitting down.
All ages and abilities welcome. Event will be in English and Cantonese.
FREE. No experience necessary.
Safety kits for seniors and women are being gifted by Third Culture Bakery and Vibes & Smiles. They collected donations from friends, family, and supporters.
After the practice, a healing space will be available with herbal remedies, acupressure, and other healing modalities. Herbalists/Healers: Amy Hess, Rebekah Sze-Ting Olstad, Herbal medicine donations from Community Care Herbal Response Project.
How beautiful that communities are coming together as one for good?!
Together may we build safe and welcoming communities for all residents
so that everyone can thrive, we are not pitted against one other, but can move together for collective liberation.
Please share event via Facebook!
https://www.facebook.com/events/1363648494003872/
Download Flyer in Chinese
Download Flyer in English
Gratitude for our supporters: Communities As One, Chinese Medicine and Magic, Chinese Progressive Association, Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity, Pitzer College of the Claremont Colleges, Third Culture Bakery, Vibes & Smiles, Amy Hess, Rebekah Sze-Ting Olstad, Community Care Herbal Response Project.
Healing Through Solidarity
January 9th, 2021 10 am – 11:15 am
Greetings! Please join us for our 3rd annual Healing through Solidarity event in honor of Grandmother Yik Oi Huang. This is a continuation of our community efforts to transform the tragedy of her death into positive changes within Visitacion Valley and beyond.
Healing through Solidarity will be hosted on Zoom this year due to Covid. We’ll have a virtual memorial ceremony of global music, speakers and community connections on the theme of healing. Come hear what "healing through solidarity" means and share your thoughts as well. Most of all, we want to come together in unity and inspiration, to share some joy and comfort during a time of crisis when many of us are isolated. We look forward to seeing you virtually in ceremony!
Did you know Grandmother’s name, Yik Oi, translates as “abundant love”? Join the Abundant Love Team to collaborate on community improvements and coalition building. Watch for more notices from us. Learn more at www.rememberyikoihuang.com or email: info@communitiesasone.org.
Sign up for this event: https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_K47Mqhr9SPiUjezbVGepww
You will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar.
Option to type in Webinar ID: 864 6360 1060, Passcode: 397030
Petition to Rename Park
Sign Petition to Rename Visitacion Valley Park to "Yik Oi Huang Peace and Friendship Park."
What is the Significance of "Yik Oi Huang" in the renaming of Visitacion Valley Park?
Visitacion Valley as a working class community has always been a gateway for those migrating and immigrating to San Francisco. Over a hundred years ago Visitacion Valley was heavily populated with immigrants from Europe, especially from Italy and Ireland. During the post-World War II era, Black migrant workers moved here from the segregated southern United States; and during the recent decades immigrants from Asia and the Pacific Islands have settled here.
Grandmother Huang is representative of Visitacion Valley's history and its people. Grandmother Huang was not only a beloved grandmother, but also an immigrant, worker, woman, person of color, and actively involved in serving her community. Interestingly, Yik Oi means Abundant Love!
Thank you, for stopping by. As we remember Grandma Huang, we pray for Peace in the South East corner of SF and in our Visitacion Valley Community.
Recent Community Outreach Events
Saturday, 11/21/2020
Share your thoughts.
We would love to hear from you!
Location: Visitacion Valley Playground Field
Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am
Wear & Mask & Please Stay 6 ft apartment. Hand Sanitizer will be provided.
If it rains, event will go virtual: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/89971498145
Passcode: 758528
Monday, November 9th, 2020
12:30 pm - 2 pm
Petitioned outside of Bank of America on Leland and Bayshore
Special Thanks
Deep gratitude and appreciation for the Communities As One team for their loving and unconditional support.
Thank you,
Ronald Colthirst, Commissioner Marlene Tran, Jeni Webber, Delanie Keating, Nina Banday, Kellie McCord, Josephine Zhao, Russel Morine, Anne Seeman, Neo Ve’ave’a, Opal Bolsega, Rex Tabora, Jack Siu!