The past two years have been watershed moments for Asian Pacific American artists in the entertainment industry. “Crazy Rich Asians” became the highest-grossing romantic comedy in the past decade, and this year’s “The Farewell” dazzled viewers at the Sundance Film Festival and attracted broader U.S. audiences.

But while these glossy Hollywood productions have made recent leaps in Asian representation, thriving grassroots organizations have been putting a spotlight on their own communities for far longer — advocating for their members, building a pipeline and ultimately reclaiming the narrative of what it means to be Asian American.

The Bay Area’s own Kearny Street Workshop has been the cornerstone of local and national activism for nearly 50 years. Started in 1972 as an artist collective based in San Francisco’s International Hotel, it is the oldest Asian American multidisciplinary arts organization in the U.S. Emerging from the Asian American cultural movement in the 1960s and ’70s, when members organized rallies to protest eviction and labor abuses, Kearny Street Workshop now focuses more actively on offering support and development in the arts, with the understanding that art gives Asian Americans the opportunity to tell their own stories.

“Art made by people of color is inherently political,” said Jason Bayani, Kearny Street Workshop’s artistic director. “Art gives us agency over our narratives; it opens up to people the weight and power of our stories.”

In order to amplify Asian American stories, Kearny Street Workshop provides a platform through its APAture program, a multidisciplinary arts festival that includes showcases and performances from emerging Asian Pacific American artists in a range of media, from comedy and film to comic books and sculpture. It was designed with the explicit intention of artists eventually “graduating,” Bayani said. Performers might find full-fledged arts and entertainment careers, or they might change careers but retain a lifelong passion for the arts. The organization is less focused on the achievement of any artist, and more on creating the optimal conditions for Asian American artistic achievement in general.

APAture 2019’s theme, Declare, is centered on “claiming your space, claiming your voice.” It’s particularly relevant for an organization that has spent so many years fighting displacement — and this year, on APAture’s 20th anniversary, the program remains as relevant as ever.

“As the first generation of Asian American artists coming out of the movement of the 1960s and ’70s were in the midst of their careers, we didn’t know if there was still a need for an organization like KSW,” said Robynn Takayama, the board’s vice president and APAture co-founder. “Clearly there was — and still is, as you see — a huge lack of diversity on the silver screen and of theaters still doing yellow face. KSW and APAture have created a self-determined space where Asian Pacific American curators create a space for Asian Pacific American artists to express their creativity.”

For two decades, rising local artists have used APAture as a springboard. In 2005, Hellen Jo, who grew up in San Jose, showed off her comics. Since then, Jo has worked as a storyboard artist on the Emmy-winning Cartoon Network show “Steven Universe” and has presented her independent work in a number of exhibitions. That same year, San Francisco native Ali Wong performed her “very first real show” at APAture’s stand-up comedy night.

“I’m so grateful to Kearny Street Workshop for providing me with the opportunity to get up onstage,” Wong said in a statement accepting the Kearny Street Workshop Focus Award in 2017. “The experience was electric, and motivated me to do stand-up again and again and again.”

In 2008, Hasan Minhaj, who grew up in Davis, also honed his stand-up comedy through APAture’s Online Media Showcase and has since risen in stardom, this year hosting his own Netflix show, “Patriot Act.”

But APAture’s greatest success stories extend beyond celebrity names. Kearny Street Workshop has effectively created a network of talented artists in the community, many of whom return to take on mentorship or leadership roles in the organization. Bayani himself is an example of Kearny Street Workshop in action.

Bayani initially became interested in the organization in 1996, while getting his creative writing degree at San Francisco State University. There he met mentor and creative writing Professor Jaime Jacinto, a Filipino poet published through Kearny Street Workshop Press. This marked “the beginning of my writing journey,” Bayani said. He has since published two volumes of poetry, been a National Poetry Slam finalist and a Kundiman fellow, and performed a solo theater show in San Francisco, New York and Austin, Texas.

Bayani accepted the job with Kearny Street Workshop in 2013 after seeing the organization’s impact firsthand.

“When I first started, I could count the number of Filipino authors on one hand,” Bayani said. “Now there’s an abundance.”

Though they’ve evolved over the years, Kearny Street Workshop’s programs ultimately continue the organization’s legacy of fighting for Asian Americans’ rights. Old posters offer a glimpse into the Kearny Street Workshop’s early history and prolific body of work: A Community Forum meeting was called in June 1975 to oppose the “destruction of Nihonmachi” (Japantown), and the displacement of residents for the construction of what is now a series of storefronts. International Hotel actions protested the eviction of low-income Asian Americans, mostly elderly Filipino men, by real estate interests. A series of “Summer Happenings” posters from 1973 (co-sponsored with Chinatown-North Beach Area Youth Council) promoted arts classes for at-risk youth. During the 1970s and ’80s, Kearny Street Workshop hosted annual Japanese Oshogatsu celebrations, the Ap-Apong-A-Baak Filipino culture fair and the Chinese Hop Jok Fair.

Art has always tied together Kearny Street Workshop’s efforts and mission. As it continues to actively serve its community, Bayani said he is working to ensure the organization makes space for its most marginalized members. He hopes to spotlight more “queer, transgender and non-binary voices, as well as voices of disabled members of the community.”

As founding APAture Planning Committee member Jean Chen put it: “We are artists, we are AAPI, and we belong here.”

APAture 2019: Declare: Through Sunday, Oct. 27. For event details and ticket information, go to www.kearnystreet.org/apature.