Happy Birthday, YK Lounge!
Posted Aug 13 2007
I (as in Daniel Zarazua) just wanted to add a few comments to fill in some details for posterity that didn't make the article as Denny was limited by space. Although I appreciate being named in this article, there were many people involved with the process. Three who come to mind are Tait Sye, Marie Ting, and Ann Pham, who've all moved on to accomplish big things. Although his name escapes me, there was a gentleman from housing involved with the design of the lounge and a sculpture.
I feel glad to have been part of something that has had a lasting impact on the university, but I honestly had no idea what was going to happen. Basically, I remember having conversations with people about the lack of permanent spaces at U of M honoring Native Americans, Asian Americans, and others. There were several places with generic names, such as the aforementioned "West Lounge" so I figured why not see about making a change. I approached. the building director and while she supported the idea, she said it wasn't her call. I had to write a proposal to the house council of South Quad. After some discussion with Tait and Marie in particular, I prepared a proposal for the council and plead my case. It was a lesson in politics for me. What I mean is that I only had to convice a handful of undergrads (four I believe). Politically speaking, I had a number of friends who were quite active with direct student activism while I tended to work behind the scenes. I feel that both play their role and in this case change was able to happen with minimal noise, which surprised even me. Someone asked me about Yuri's controversial background and my response was that anyone who's made change in society is controversial to somebody, citing people such as JFK as examples. That was it. With the exception of one person, they all voted in favor of the renaming. The one person of color at the meeting, who was Asian American, actually abstained. I returned to U of M for grad school and thought about trying to change the name of one of the lounges in another residence hall but others were already working on it so I didn't pursue that.
A personal highlight was getting to meet Yuri herself. Outside of the actual reception itself, there was a small dinner and I walked with her to her room. It was very humbling being in her presence, yet comfortable. I was driving a black min-van with wood paneling at the time (I know, real cool-I don't even think it had a tape player) and drove Yuri, Wilfred Little (Malcolm X's brother), activist Grace Lee Boggs, and historian Paul Lee to the dinner. I remember thinking 1)how ridiculous that these people were in this bucket of a van (the clothe on the ceiling was sagging and brushing Wilfred on his head), and 2)that if we got into an accident, I'd single-handedly be responsible for a tragedy of untold proportions. Obviously we made it to dinner with no problems. In spite of my self-consciousness about the ride, they were too busy chatting it up to care. Now that I live in the Bay, I've run into Yuri a few times, which is always cool. I try not to take up too much of her time, but I'd love to have a proper conversation with her again one of these days.
For the record, I always wish that I had done something for Grace Lee Boggs, who is Michigan based. I think that Yuri was an excellent choice, and I'm glad that were able to do something for her. However, as I learned more about Grace, after the fact, it's unfortunate that more hasn't been done to recognize her. One of these times when I'm back in Detroit I need to track her down and apologize in person.
Ha! You could say you were involved in the birth of as movement. I imagine that, at the beginning, most people don't plan on making a difference. I think the way it happen is a pretty interesting story, although the article did have limited space, I must give my sincerest kudos to the writer of the article for painting a picture that could match that of a Ms Hsu student (and that's pretty high up there). I would like to have more descriptive writers like him in the Tribune (especially for that hip hop chess article I think I made less mistakes than that in ninth grade). Thanks for writing about this, it makes me feel as if I will make a change at UCSB as well.