We are celebrating #AAPIpower - from community organizing to raising a family to surviving war/colonization, our people possess and manifest power in many ways. This project aims to share and honor your story.
We are celebrating #AAPIpower - from community organizing to raising a family to surviving war/colonization, our people possess and manifest power in many ways. This project aims to share and honor your story.
May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. This month, we honor our heritage, which is rooted in #AAPIpower. AAPI power looks like:
Celebrate #AAPIpower with us by sharing your story.
What is the #AAPIpower Storytelling project?
This story collection project is led by AAPI FORCE-EF and centers narratives of #AAPIpower in light of APA Heritage Month. Due to the increase in physical violence against Asians, social media newsfeeds have been saturated with narratives of Asian American victimization. To counter these narratives and empower the community, this project will celebrate narratives of #AAPIpower – from community organizing to raising a family to surviving war/colonization, our people possess and manifest power in many ways. This project aims to share and honor your story.
Who is AAPI FORCE-EF?
AAPI FORCE-EF (AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund) is an alliance of community organizations serving Asian American and Pacific Islanders across the state of California. We work on campaigns that center the needs of working-class Asian immigrant, refugee, and Pacific Islander families. We work together with organizations across the state to build the power necessary for positive change in our communities.
Who is eligible to participate in this storytelling project?
We welcome people who identify as Asian American and/or Pacific Islander to submit your story of #AAPIpower! Stories should center someone who identifies as Asian American or Pacific Islander. Your story can be about yourself, someone in your life, or a historical figure who inspires you! We welcome participants and stories of people from all ages and locations! If you have any questions about eligibility, feel free to contact Rozlind@aapiforce.org!
How does the process work?
Fill out this google form with a 50-200 word story about someone who demonstrates #AAPIpower (it can be yourself!). Share photos and visuals to accompany your story, and we will share your story on social media to celebrate #AAPIpower! While we are thankful for all the stories submitted, we may not be able to share all the stories we receive due to volume. We encourage everyone to self publish your story and use #AAPIpower to celebrate your story!
What visuals should I include alongside my written story?
You can upload up to 5 images to accompany your story! Visuals can be a photo of the person you wrote about, a photo of yourself, a photo of an object that symbolizes what you talked about, or an illustration.
What is #AAPIpower?
AAPI power encompasses a variety of things – joy, resilience, culture, resistance. From a community organizer who fought against voter suppression or a parent/guardian who works tirelessly to care for their child, #AAPIpower is demonstrated in different ways.
We encourage you to celebrate everyday acts of #AAPIpower, such as an immigrant daring to dream and envision a world beyond which they know, or an elder passing down their language and traditions.
Tips for storytelling:
Brainstorming:
#AAPIpower is my Vietnamese refugee parents working alongside their neighbors to keep each other fed and safe. While my parents and their neighbors have never heard of the term “mutual aid” or attended any webinars about building pods, they live and breathe the values of mutual aid and community care. My parents grow Vietnamese fruits in their garden, which they trade with a neighbor who grows vegetables. With this communal trading, my parents could go weeks without risking a trip to the grocery store. One of my parents’ neighbors is a young family who lives in the apartment complex behind my parents’ house. They often share meals and treats with each other. They exchange things so often that my parents built a pulley system with a basket attached to the fence behind their house so that the two families could exchange gifts without having to walk around the block. My parents and their neighbors’ love and care for each other is #AAPIpower.
Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! This APAHM, we are hosting a virtual celebration uplifting AAPI organizing and movement builders. On May 14th @ 5PM, AAPI FORCE-EF member and partner organizations will share their victories from political and community campaigns. We will also uplift community artists and cultural workers who breathe life into our movements
The first few months of 2021 brought us new yet familiar hardships. We’ve struggled through anti-Asian violence manifesting in both interpersonal and systemic forms; however, when we look at our AAPI history and heritage, we understand without a doubt that our people are resilient survivors, and continue to fight fearlessly for justice and equity every day!
South Bay Youth Changemakers
Chinese Progressive Association
Filipino Advocates for Justice
Pilipino Workers Center
Empowering Pacific Islander Communities
Khmer Girls in Action
DJ Rodel
TBD
We hope to explore some of the amazing on the ground work by AAPI organizers and artists to carry on our legacy of resistance, and center the fact that we have always been so much more than victims. We are fighters. We are empowered leaders. We are students, parents, grandparents, artists, activists, and we will continue to carry the torch forward in our struggle towards justice!
Journeys to Victory is a virtual celebration that will be hosted on Zoom, on May 14th from 5PM-7PM PST. Join us as we recenter ourselves in our AAPI identities and our powerful history, and continue our long journey towards victory. See you there!
Climate crisis is happening now. The recent extreme winter storm ravaged Texas, the Midwest, and Southeast, leaving hundreds of thousands of families without power, water, and heat for weeks. In California, we continue to face extreme heat waves, wildfires, and power outages year after year. None of these are “natural disasters” when we know climate change is a product of people’s actions driven by capitalism.
From Wallstreet to Big Oil to corporations that privatize public resources, pollute our air and land, and develop unsustainable models of business, low-income communities, communities of color, and indigenous peoples continue to bear the brunt of harm most intensely. Many Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have historically faced environmental destructions and injustices, struggled living near toxic sites and polluting power plants, and organized at the intersections of land, housing, workplace safety, etc.
Now more than ever, we feel the urgency to build towards an alternative and protect our future. What work can we do to promote environmental justice in our local communities? How do we hold corporations accountable in the larger fight against rapid climate change?
The panel will be hosted as a webinar on Zoom and broadcasted on Facebook live on April 13th at 5:30PM PT. We will also be hosting a 15 minute Q&A with the panelists that you won’t want to miss!
Co-sponsor: Project by Project San Francisco
My name is Ashley Phuthama, I am a youth leader at Asian Pacific Environmental Network. I’m in 10th grade, and was born and raised in Hercules, CA. My history with APEN started in 2019 when I attended their Youth Academy program. I come from a Laotian family, and I appreciate APEN’s background in Laotian immigrant and refugee organizing, this is why I’m excited to be a part of APEN’s youth leadership and give back to my community.
Mabel Tsang – As Civic Engagement Program Manager for CEJA and CEJA Action, I work to build the political power, self-governance and self-determination of EJ communities and communities of color burdened by health, economic and environmental impacts. I build the bridges of accountability between California’s elected leaders and voters, manage ballot measure campaigns, and expand democratic participation for environmental, racial and social justice by centering and including members of our community who have been historically barred from voting. I’ve successfully led the campaign to beat down Proposition 70 which preserved critical public funds to fight climate change.
Michael Lujan Bevacqua, Ph.D. (Familian Kabesa yan Bittot) is the co-chair for the organization Independent Guåhan, which is dedicated to educating the Guam community about the need for decolonization and joining the world as an independent country. He hosts a weekly podcast on Facebook for the group called Fanachu! With his brother Jack, they run a creative collection called The Guam Bus that publishes Chamoru language books, comics and learning materials (www.theguambus.com).
Kevin Lionga Aipopo (all pronouns, Pacific Climate Warriors) is a community advocate, storyteller, and student leader based in traditional Kalupuya, Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, and Atfalati lands (Beaverton, Oregon). Their work centers around the intersections between their ethnic identity as a Black American and Samoan person and their gender fluidity. Kevin uses their platforms to interrogate systems of power, challenge normalcy, and uplift voices within their communities. Through interpersonal connection, community organizing, poetry, and education, they have found space as an emerging voice for Black, Indigenous, Queer, Trans, and Climate liberation
