Debbie Wei

Debbie Wei

Debbie Wei is a Philadelphia activist. Principal (school) at American Embassy School. Debbie Wei is a "Teach Truth Campaign Organizer" at the Zinn Education Project.

Asian Americans United

Ed Nakawatase‎, Debbie Wei, Ellen Somekawa

Asian Americans United founders were Debbie Wei and Ellen Somekawa.

Forward Motion

In 1992 Debbie Wei , a Philadelphia school teacher, contributed an article "Dang's story" to the July 1992 of Freedom Road Socialist Organization's Forward Motion issue.

She quotes Mao, :"You cannot fully serve the people, unless you are of the people".

Serve the People Conference on Asian American Community Activism

The 1998 Serve the People Conference on Asian American Community Activism featured a mix of roundtable discussions, designed to provoke thought and debate on "large" questions facing all activists, and workshops and panels designed for activists in similar areas of work to open lines of communication with one another and to share lessons garnered through struggle. The choice of speakers was based primarily on their grassroots community work but also on concerns to have diverse geographic, ethnic, gender, and generational representation. A highlight of the conference was the opening panel on "Interracial Unity and the Struggle for Liberation," in which longtime, history-making activists Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama espoused upon why they have remained committed to revolutionary politics for decades.

With years of dedication to the Black Freedom Movement, both Boggs and Kochiyama served as living examples of the importance of unity among people of color. Boggs shared theoretical and practical insights from her highly praised autobiography Living for Change, which was a popular seller at the conference. Kochiyama brought the capacity crowd to its feet with her impassioned call to "Serve the people at the bottom... the people at the top don’t need your help!" They were joined by local activists Leon Watson and Bill Gallegos, veterans of the African American and Chicano movements, respectively. This inspirational opening plenary served to impart a radical tone to the proceedings and to bring out the best in participants, allowing the conference to maintain a pleasantly non-sectarian atmosphere throughout. The next morning, veteran activists of numerous since-dissolved cadre organizations engaged in a friendly yet critical conversation on the legacy of the Asian American Movement with some admittedly having not made contact with one another for upwards of 25 years. Overall, "Serve the People" provided an opportunity to interact with some of the most prominet community activists from around the country including Anannya Bhattacharjee of New York’s Workers Awaaz, Debbie Wei of Philadelphia’s Asian Americans United, Eric Mar of the Bay Area’s Asian Pacific Islanders for Community Empowerment, Jane Bai of New York’s Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence, Joe Navidad of BAYAN-International, Kent Wong of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, Meizhu Lui of Boston’s Health Care for All, Miriam Ching Louie of Berkeley’s Women of Color Resource Center.

"Challenging Anti-Asian Harassment"

"We Have the Power to Make Change: The Role of Community Lawyering in Challenging Anti-Asian Harassment at South Philadelphia High School" by Cecilia Chen and Andrew Leong. The authors thankedd Ellen Somekawa, Helen Gym, and Xu Lin from Asian Americans United; Nancy Nguyen and Michelle Nguyen from Boat People SOS; Tram Nguyen and Alison Sprague from Victim/Witness Services of South Philadelphia; Mia-Lia Kiernan, Debbie Wei and the Asian Student Association of Philadelphia for their courageous efforts to address bias-based harassment at SPHS.

2011 MidAutumn Festival

Asian Americans United September 5, 2011:

AAU artist Kathy Shimizu is back to work on MidAutumn Festival :-) Cheers to all our friends! Please share this flyer & the FB event page! — with Lai Har Cheung, Maitrivia Liem, Hon Lui, Chi-Ser Tran, Matt Tae, Srey Boss, Tai Joselyn, Alia Nakashima, Renyu Wu, Ling Lin, Debbie Wei, Duong Nghe Ly, Brandon Huynh, Debora Kodish, Doua Xiong, Lizzy Lee, Wei Chen, Karen Worley and Oh Peou.

Founders

Folk Arts-Cultural Treasures Charter School founders were;

• Alex Wong
• Betty Lui
• Debora Kodish
• Debbie Wei
• Doua Xiong
• Ellen Somekawa
• Hao-Li Tai Loh
• Helen Gym
• Neeta Patel
• Toni Shapiro-Phim
• Tze Ming Chau

FRSO connection

In 2001 Debbie Wei worked with Ellen Somekawa to stop a stadium being built, near Philadelphia;s Chinatown.

Ellen Somekawa is a community activist in Philadelphia. She has been involved with Asian Americans United for the past twelve years.

As a child growing up on the fringes of urban Philadelphia, Debbie Wei remembers heading to Chinatown every weekend to buy the food staples which nourished the spirits and bodies of her immigrant parents and three siblings. Now her own children find the same sustenance in the same place, and her hope remains for the community to carry on maintaining hearts and souls for generations to come.

In the spring of 2000, a shock hit residents of Philadelphia's Chinatown. Out of the blue, the City pegged our neighborhood as their intended site for a new baseball stadium. In response, the Chinatown community came together to fight the project like we haven't seen since the mid-'70s. Youth and elders, conservatives and progressives, immigrant and U.S.-born organized and fought using tactics ranging all the way up to a Chinatown-wide general strike. Our group, Asian Americans United, joined this broad array of forces in the struggle.

Notebook founders

Helen Gym June 10, 2014.

Wow. What a crew. Seven of the original founding members of the Philadelphia Public School Notebook. Thanks for 20 years of passion, hard work, and a fierce commitment to education justice amid the insanity! (Photo: the incomparable Harvey Finkle) — with Len Rieser, Debbie Wei, Rochelle Nichols Solomon, Cindy Farlino, Wilfredo Rojas and Eric Joselyn at University of the Arts.

AAU 2008 Mid-Autumn Festival Organizing Committee

Thanks to Mid-Autumn Festival Organizing Committee members: Alex Buligon, David Chan, Ming Chau, Jenny Chen, Maxine Cheng, Michael Chow, Joan May T. Cordova, Jennifer Huh, Ken Hung, Willy Ip, Debora Kodish, Xin Shen Liu, Betty Lui, Hon Fung Lui, Jian Yong Mai, Dun Mark, Neeta Patel, Kathy Shimizu, Ellen Somekawa, Jack Tam, Wing Tang, Kevin Vo, Ally Vuong, Debbie Wei, Allan K. Wong, and Lisa Yau, who worked for months to organize the Festival.

AAU 2007 Bowlathon

Thank you to our Bowl-A-Thon bowlers who raised the money we needed to pilot our 2007 Paths to Leadership Project. We couldn’t have done our project without your support.

Thanks to: Doua Xiong, Leng Song, Ka Xiong, Dee Song, Daou Hiecke, Xue Song Jin, Steve Ngo, James Li, Andy Cao, James Au-Yeung, Devin Liang, Alex Buligon, the brothers of Delta Chi Psi, Neeta Patel, Ahn Ha, Adrienne Poon, Nicholas Loh and Evan Loh, Olivia Sun and Mae Jane Sun, Helen Gym, Bret Flaherty, Aimon Flaherty, Karina Flaherty, Taryn Flaherty, Linda Chung, Joan May T. Cordova, Gregor Reid, Betty Lui, Kathy Shimizu, Marshall Lee, Suzanne Lee, Kelsey McGowan-Heilman, Eric Joselyn, Tai Joselyn and Chi Joselyn, Ellen Somekawa, Max Klink, Bill Davidson, Suzanne, Michelle Myers and Myong Pok McCloud, Ed Nakawatase and Kenzo Nakawatase, Jean Hunt, and Alice Bailey.