I didn’t go to the APA heritage month commemoration at work, today.
I looked at the flyer and decided that it didn’t appeal to me.
The speaker was a Korean American chaplain and the theme was “Liberty and freedom for all.” Also on the agenda were cultural presentations of martial arts and a wellness center. Plus food for sampling by attendees..
Not a bad program, as these things go, but the main motivators for my attendance would be to meet folks (particularly other APIs) and to learn something from the speaker.
Unfortunately, I’ve found that most speeches at these events have been rather predictable as have been the programs (usually traditional dance, martial arts, maybe traditional music, and food).
Nothing wrong with this kind of content, but after a while, I tend to find this material to be repetitive and somewhat exoticising. And to the extent that this becomes a recurring tone, over the years, it borders on feeling kitschy and corny to me.
What I would like to see at future events would be displays and discussion of American heritage (and current API issues), as opposed to homeland heritage.
Meanwhile, I figure I get my quota of API mingling and learning about phenomena from attending the Asian American studies conference, each year. (I was in L.A., last month, for that.)