News

APIA month celebrates heritage

In print | April 2, 2009

Swarthmore’s Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) Heritage Month kicked off Friday, March 20 with the Traffic Light Party hosted by the Swarthmore Asian Organization. Over the next few weeks, SAO and other Asian student groups such as Friends of Taiwan, Deshi, Han and PersuAsian will host a wide variety of performances, lectures and social events designed to foster awareness, appreciation and understanding of APIA cultures, issues and communities. Although other institutions nationwide celebrate their APIA communities in April and May, Swarthmore’s month is somewhat earlier due to scheduling difficulties with final exams.

Upcoming speaker and performer events include a panel on “APIAs in Academia” featuring five Tri-Co professors of Asian or Pacific Islander descent, a lecture by author and New York Times journalist Jennifer 8. Lee, spoken word performances by female artists Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha, Sham-e-Ali Al-Jamil and Heesun Lee, and an urban hip-hop music performance by the Stone Forest Ensemble in Olde Club.

In an event sponsored by the Friends of Taiwan Swarthmore (FOTS), Jennifer 8. Lee will describe the history of Chinese food in America as explained in her book “The Fortune Cookie Chronicles.” According to Karen Shen ’11, FOTS’ intercollegiate liaison, Lee will be the first speaker the group is bringing in for APIA month. “We heard her speak last year at the Taiwanese Student Association National Conference,” said Annie Ning, president of FOTS. “She was really funny, worth listening to.”

A hot-button issue incorporated into this year’s heritage month is Foxwoods Development Company’s plan to build a casino in The Gallery at Market East, less than a block away from Chinatown. “Asian American United Anti-Casino Petitioning in Chinatown” is listed as an official APIA event, and took place on the Saturday after the Traffic Light Party. “Gambling is a big problem for Asian communities, and hopefully we can be a part of the effort to prevent this from happening in our community in the same way that other communities have prevented Foxwoods from building in theirs,” said Ivana Ng ’12, SAO’s First-Year Intern.

Although this is an APIA heritage month, SAO co-president Vivienne Layne ’11 hopes that, despite the fact that the events “are specifically advertised as cultural,” they will reach students of all backgrounds. “I always really appreciate different events hosted by different cultural groups that I may not necessarily be a part of,” said fellow co-president Cathy Ng ’10.

In addition to satisfying the non-APIA community’s interest in a culture not necessarily their own, SAO is also making sure to provide APIA students and other students of multicultural backgrounds with closed events to discuss issues unique to their community. On April 14, there will be a discussion on exotification open only to members of the IC and BCC communities. “We don’t want people to be uncomfortable during the discussion when we’re talking about exotification, because it’s a sensitive issue and making it semi-exclusive will hopefully prevent discussion from being anything less than it could be,” Ivana Ng said.

“Hopefully, these events will let them know that SAO is here for them whenever they want to use our resources,” Ivana Ng said regarding Swarthmore’s APIA community.