Grace Lee and Grace Boggs

I saw a great film over the weekend called The Grace Lee Project. It’s a very funny piece about stereotypes of Asian-American women. The filmmaker, Grace Lee, discovers that everyone knows “another Grace Lee”, and all of them are described as “quiet,” “nice”, “very smart” . . . She sets out to find some Grace Lee’s who break the mold.

Several of the interviews are very moving. My favorite part is the section on Grace Lee Boggs, the Chinese-American author, anti-racist activist and feminist, who is still going strong at age 94. I had known about Boggs’ work with Detroit Summer, a community movement bringing people of all races, cultures, and ages together to rebuild Detroit, but I did not realize the full range of her work.

The Grace Lee Project is available on DVD and Netflix. Visit http://www.gracelee.net/ for more information.