The Past Catches Up

A week of celebrations starts Thursday in Manilatown for Home: 30th Anniversary of the International Hotel Eviction. Although it's ancient history, the story of a phalanx of cops who climbed over protesters in the San Francisco neighborhood to throw poor elderly people out of their meager homes and into the street still makes people pretty angry. Some of the people who were there that night — and plenty who weren't even born in 1977 — have been working to see some good come out of the incident, and it looks like they're winning. The huge building that finally replaced the "I-Hotel," as it was known, includes dedicated low-income housing for seniors as well as a Manilatown Center to foster the sense of community the area once provided for local Filipinos. The commemorative events are more fun than bitter: stand-up comedy, poetry readings by heavyweights like Janice Mirikitani and Jack Hirschman, and environmental-justice-oriented youth organizing meetings characterize the week. Music fans, you'll want to head straight for one of today's concert offerings: local R&B legend and S.F.'s answer to Ike-era Tina Turner, Sugar Pie DeSanto. Art and history enthusiasts might enjoy the gallery exhibit "A Serving of Love: The Passion of Bill Sorro."