Fay Chiang Papers

Fay Chiang (1952-2017) was an Asian American poet, visual artist, and community leader from New York City. Raised in Queens and educated at Hunter College and the School of Visual Arts, she became active in the anti-war and Asian American movements in the late 1960s and early 1970s. Chiang dedicated her professional life to community organizations in Lower Manhattan, including Basement Workshop (of which she was executive director from 1975-86), Henry Street Settlement, and Project Reach/Chinese-American Planning Council. She was the author of several volumes of poetry, including 7 Continents 9 Lives (YBK Publishers, 2010). She died in 2017 in the Bronx after a decades-long battle with breast cancer.

The Fay Chiang Papers consist of book manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, journals, project files on arts and community activism, administrative documents, and original drawings and writings in various formats and stages of completion. The collection also includes a small number of objects and video recordings.

To learn more about the contents of the Fay Chiang Papers, located at the NYU Tamiment Library & Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, view the collection’s finding aid.

Image: Photographic self-portrait of Fay Chiang, 1972-1982, undated; Fay Chiang Papers; TAM 748; Box: 14; Folder: 5; Tamiment Library/Robert F. Wagner Labor Archives, New York University.