Celebrating Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2022
Please join the Graduate Division and the UCSF community in celebrating AAPI Heritage Month this May! Find opportunities to participate and to learn more below.
Participate
All month long
AAPI Heritage Month Virtual Backgrounds
Provided by the Multicultural Resource Center.
May 3, Noon – 1 p.m.
Asian Americans Building Anti-Racism
The UCSF Asian Pacific American Systemwide Aliance (APASA) presents a webinar by Dr. Kim Tran on conversations about race, internalized racism, and allyship. Registration in advance required.
May 11, 5:30 – 7:30 p.m.
"Out of State" Documentary Film Screening for API Heritage Month
This film follows two Native Hawaiian men who are impacted by the carceral system and learn their indigenous traditions and cultural practices while grappling with their understanding of 'home'. Sponsored by the Benioff Center for Microbiome Medicine (BCMM) and the UCSF Multicultural Resource Center (MRC).
May 23, 1:10 – 2 p.m.
Status of Asian Pacific Americans at UCSF
Join different API groups at UCSF to discuss the status of Asian Pacific Islanders from a global to national perspectives and also within our Bay Area and USSF community. Sponsored by the newly formed UCSF Asian American Pacific Islanders Coalition (AAPIC).
May 31, 5:30 – 7 p.m. & throughout May
Know My Name Book Reading and Discussion Event
The Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month Planning Committee at UCSF invites you to read Know My Name by Chanel Miller with us during the month of May and to convene at the end of the month to discuss your thoughts. Sign up on the Google Form. Some hard copies and Ebooks have been generously sponsored by UCSF ASSM, MRC, CARE, and the UCSF Library. Copies are limited and we will contact you if you sign up and copies are no longer available.
► Find a full list of AAPI Heritage Month events on the Multicultural Resource Center website.
Learn
Each month, the JEDI team makes content recommendations to create dialogue with those interested in following along. Here's what they have on their minds and in their hearts this May for AAPI Heritage Month:
"For Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, there are two folks/ideologies that I wanted to uplift. First, Grace Lee Boggs in the book The Next American Revolution wrote a chapter titled “A Paradigm Shift in Our Concept of Education” which has been helpful for me to think through what type of education I aspire to create. Boggs articulates an education that “transforms human relations” by eliminating the hierarchal model of producing “morally sterile technicians” and building a space of creativity, horizontal learning, and community building.
"Secondly, I would like to highlight the work of Haunani-Kay Trask who helped me understand some of the history of Hawai’i in the book From a Native Daughter: Colonialism and Sovereignty in Hawai’i. Generally, my belief is that the great majority of people in the United States are unaware of the history of Hawai’i and what has now led to the exploitative industry that is tourism on this land. After visiting Hawai’i and seeing its beauty, Haunani-Kay Trask has challenged me to rethink if I could ever again in good faith visit Hawai’i given the historical background of how this came to be and the current demands by native Hawaiian people."
– Zachary Smith, Diversity and Outreach Program Manager
From Blossoms
by Li-Young Lee
“A college friend introduced me to Li-Young Lee’s poem From Blossoms on a dorm room floor a long time ago. I loved it then, and I love it now. This poem has stuck with me and become something that I reach for when I need to remember my hope and humanity. It reminds me to embrace my mortality, the wholeness of life, and the sense of community that can be found in recognizing that you are small—just one tiny part of a wide, complex wide world.
"If you prefer an audio version of this poem, the podcast Poetry Unbound has a lovely, short episode on it.”
– Rebecca Wolfe, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022
"For Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month, I would like to feature the book Disability Visibility: First-Person Stories from the Twenty-First Century, edited by San Francisco Bay Area activist Alice Wong. This book is currently on my bookshelf, and I intend to read it to celebrate and honor the many contributions of Asian American Pacific Islander members of society."
– Dr. D'Anne Duncan, Assistant Dean for Diversity and Learner Success
"For AAPI Heritage Month, I want to amplify Grace Lee Boggs and Yuri Kochiyama. Both women have been strong advocates and contributors to the Black freedom movement from the 1960s until their transition. Boggs was particularly influential in labor organizing during the Black Power Movements of the 1960s and 1970s. Both her and her husband, the radical theorist James Boggs, helped Detroit workers unionize and contextualize their labor as part of the Black freedom struggle. The Boggs’s also held reading groups in the living room of their home. The actor and activist Danny Glover used to call it “Boggs University.
"Yuri Kochiyama was a great friend of Malcolm X/el-Hajj Malik el-Shabazz. She served as a member of his group the Organization of Afro-American Unity and was present on stage the day of his assassination. With the waves of anti-Black racism and anti-Asian racism since the murder of George Floyd, it is appropriate to highlight historical examples of Black-Asian solidarity."
– Antoine S. Johnson, Rosenberg-Hill Graduate Research Fellow, 2021-2022
► Learn more: Check out asianpacificheritage.gov. Brought to you by The Library of Congress, National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, as they pay tribute to the generations of Asian and Pacific Islanders who have enriched America's history and are instrumental in its future success.
Get Involved
At UCSF
Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance (APASA)
The Asian Pacific American Systemwide Alliance (APASA) at UCSF was formed in 1988 to address issues impacting the Asian Pacific community and continues to promote professional and social relations within UCSF, as well as the rich and diverse cultural heritage of all Asian communities. APASA works with other minority organizations to address issues of equality, fair labor practices and diversity at UCSF. Learn more about APASA.
United Filipinx Association (UFA)
United Filipinx Association (UFA) is an organization that is grounded in the value of ‘kapwa’ - “interconnectedness” – a core Filipinx value. UFA serves as a reference to all Filipinx at UCSF, forming a community where no one is left behind. UFA commits itself to be a stakeholder inrepresenting the Filipinx voice and in shaping the culture of belonging, equity, and diversity at our institution. This aim is realized through open sharing of resources, social gatherings, and various workshops to foster personal and professional development. Learn more at filipinx.ucsf.edu.
Yvonne Garcia, MS
