#aapi resource

[freddie5romeo2blaine2sidney4]

[coquettesinclair]

Resources for POC

Mental Health:

https://www.callblackline.com — 1 (800) 604-5841

https://wellness.beam.community — helps find black therapists in your area

http://inclusivetherapists.com/

https://www.youarentaloneproject.com/resources/resources-for-poc

https://www.mhacc-usa.org/mhacc-warm-line-program — warmline for chinese-americans. supports mandarin, english, and cantonese

https://www.healthyamericas.org/help-line — bilingual helpline for hispanic and latinos

d-nations

https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAhQwmQ0hMYoj6M3TYA4c0V5isAtjeIJG&si=6IyYIf8rGfL_smja — playlist of videos to donate to BLM

https://marshap.org — organization dedicated to protecting black trans people

https://www.forthegworls.party/home — black trans-led org fundraiser to help black trans people pay rent and GAC

feel free to add to this post

[ukkiko]

[drugsbowsandbandaids]

mini pacific islander flags ! can be used anywhere but were made for simply plural ♡

in order :

guam

norfolk island

American Samoa

Australia

Cocos islands

cook islands

Easter island

Micronesia

fiji

french Polynesia

[calmprogram]

International Bipolar Foundation: Mental Health Resources for Asian American / Pacific Islander Communities

Bipolar Disorders and BIPOC | Participate in Research

Asian American Psychological Association (AAPA): An organization dedicated to advancing the mental health and wellbeing of Asian American communities through research, professional practice, education, and policy.

Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum: Focused on improving the health of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders. Sign up for a weekly digital “community care package” which includes inspirational stories, resources in a variety of languages, tools for adjusting and managing mental health, and a platform to share your story/connect with others.

Asian American Health Initiative: An organization responding to the health needs of Asian Americans. Resources are provided in 5 different languages on a variety of topics.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by NAMI (@namicommunicate)

[burntheedges]

Bystander Intervention Training

so, the US just attacked Iran, and that is fucking terrible. Something we all need to think about right now is how we can stop the harassment and violence against Muslims and Arabs in the US that got so much worse in the early 2000s from happening again to people now.

To that end, I wanted to share some resources on Bystander Intervention. One of the biggest things I learned from training like this is that there are many ways to intervene, and they don't all involve putting yourself in front of the person who may harm you or others. It's ok if you feel intimidated by that because there are more ways to help! And once you do the training, it might not be so scary.

Right to Be has Bystander trainings based on the 5Ds of Bystander Intervention (Distract, Delegate, Document, Delay, and Direct). The trainings are free!! sign up here.

I took one of their trainings a few years ago (when the org was called Hollaback!) and it was really very good, they have trainings at multiple levels and focused on various topics. They also partner with other orgs to focus on specific issues (like anti-AAPI harassment and with CAIR Chicago for anti-Muslim harassment, etc.).

Here are a few more resources:

APA Bystander Intervention Tip Sheet

RAINN Practicing Bystander Intervention

I think I'll sign up for one as a refresher.

[reformingrootstherapy]

Resources

The Resource Series aims to bring support to those from marginalized populations, impacted by oppressive systems, or have ever felt like they just needed help.

This graph shows the prevalence of mental illness within adults in the U.S.

As a Social Worker, I thought it would be fitting to start this series off with mental health and general resources. Every post will highlight a specific need, trend, community, or population.

Since I am based in California I have added California and Bay Area specific resources. If you live outside of California please check your county and/or city website.

Call or Text 1.855.600.4357

California Peer-Run Warmline

State Hotline & Organization Resource List

211 Bay Area Resource Finder

844.844.5544 Contra Costa County Crisis Call Center

Contra Costa County Resource Website

Alameda County Resource Guide

Santa Clara County Behavioral Health Services

988 National Suicide Hotline

1.800.662.4357 SAMHSA’s National Hotline

National Crisis Hotline List

DISCLAIMER: The information in this article is intended for educational use only and is not a substitute for legal, business, or professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your medical, mental health, legal or other qualified professional with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition, business, or legal situation.

[nationwidechildrenshospital]

"My passion has always been toward health equity, diversity and inclusion. Being a member of the Asian Pacific American Network Employee Resource Group provides me with the opportunity to explore and advocate within my work."

Sapna Shetty, Behavioral Health Outpatient Therapist, Child Diagnostic Center

[2mercia2furious]

help stop layoffs of immigration advocates

hi y'all. nonprofits that help immigrant communities are facing layoffs and severe cutbacks in hours-due to unionbusting. 🙃

and who is set to lose their jobs and hours? 👀

immigration advocates. community organizers. frontline workers who do difficult, precarious work. Black, Latine and AAPI people fighting to get immigrant communities across the U.S. the legal, educational and material resources they need to survive.

i don't work for Make the Road New York, but i can vouch that they're some of the most dedicated, thoughtful, tireless community advocates i've ever had the privilege of knowing.

what can you do about it?

if you're in the U.S., please sign to demand MRNY protect their workers.

tell them tumblr says no to unionbusting and yes to the workers fighting for all of our loved ones.

[transfemme-shelterdog]

TW for discussion of suicide

Disclaimer in case it's not obvious, I am American and this is mainly relating to US politics, I can't speak for other countries

I understand if you're not comfortable posting this, but I saw a stat that suicide rates are very high for aapi youth compared to other races and that it's currently the leading cause of death for aapi youth. Trans men also have extremely high rates of suicide. According to The Trevor Project, 40% of aapi lgbtq youth (over 50% for trans aapi) have seriously considered suicide in the past year (2022). The interesting thing here, is that both of these groups are "hyper-invisible"*. Both of these marginalizations have an odd seemingly contradicting habit of being both visible and invisible. As with most poc, I am visibly not white and therefore am subject to racism in both my day-to-day and systemically. But being asian, I am hyper-invisible and constantly having to "prove" to allies that I do in fact face discrimination. Same with being transmasc - trans people are extremely visible right now and most trans people have at least a small space in time where presentation and pronouns don't line up, many of us live in that space. And yet, because I am transmasc, I am often sidelined in order to focus on "the people who really need it/are 'actually' oppressed". I would be extremely interested to see research or theories about the ways hyper-invisibility a dismissal of issues/isolation could all be linked with higher rates of suicidality.

*I don't actually know if a term has been coined for this, but I like to use "hyper-invisible" to mean the way in which certain groups face violence/discrimination, only to have it erased and then be lumped with their oppressors, ie. the way asians are often treated as "basically white" by "allies" or the way trans men are demonized as having male privilege and then denied space to talk and access to resources. This being a particular form of erasure separate from garden variety erasure that most marginalizations face in some way or another (such as book burning) due to it not just being a way to silence or dismiss us, but to further "prove" our privilege over other similarly disadvantaged groups.

There definetly needs to be focus put on the needs of transmasc POC, 100%, and the invisibility of these men and masculine individuals needs to be a topic of discussion in spaces where we talk about transandrophobia.

We can't truly work towards overthrowing the chains of oppression and work towards giving trans men/mascs visibility if we ignore a significant portion of these guys.

[militantinremission]

The Democratic Shills must B getting Nervous:

According 2 DL Hughley, Kamala Harris IS 'Black' bcuz:

She's from Oakland

She went 2 an HBCU

She's an AKA

She had a boyfriend named 'Willie'

These Boule Bootlicks R completely Out of Touch w/ the Black Grassroots. We have Charlemagne 'The Clod' posting a DNC Driven 'Pamphlet' that refers 2 Us as (Politically Immature) 'Ns'. Then We have Rickey Smiley going on a condescending Anti Black tirade. The man actually implied that We as a Community, R MISSING OUT on a chance 2 witness a Member of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority Inc. 'Swear In' a Member of Alpha Kappa Alpha Sorority Inc., on the Birthday of a Member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc'! For some reason, THAT is supposed 2 Move Us 2 The Polls.

It's interesting how ALL of these Shills repeat some variation of DNC Talking Points. Kamala Harris earned her critique by not putting out ANY Policy Measures. All We have to go on, is her Record as VP, Senator, Attorney General, & District Attorney. From a Black American Perspective, NONE of her Policies benefitted Us. Harris had an opportunity 2 'Do Right by Us' w/ Freedman's Bank, but instead, she LOOTED the Resources of Our Ancestors & made them available 2 ALL 'Minority & World Communities'. True 2 her Word, she's not doing ANYTHING that will ONLY benefit Blackfolk. Meanwhile, Kamala DID Award

$17.3B in Government Contracts SPECIFICALLY 2 the AAPI Community in 2022

$20B in Federal Contracts & $6.4B in Federal Funding SPECIFICALLY 4 the AAPI Community in 2023

It's in Kamala's Best Interest 2 produce a Policy Platform that includes a meaningful Black Agenda & a Road Map 2 a Lineage Based Multigenerational Reparations Plan 4 American Descendants Of Chattel Slavery. If she Fails to do so & stays w/ the current Agenda: Staying silent on Policy, while letting 'Boule Bootlicks' & 'Carpetbagger Colonists in Blackface' speak 4 her, I don't see Kamala's Honeymoon Period lasting much longer.

-Just My Opinion

[mankaicharity]

💌 New mail: from Citron! 🍰 “It is AAPI and mental health awareness month dayo~! Support and uplift those around you, and here are some links for donations! 🌸 https://www.savethechildren.org/us/where-we-work/indonesia

🌸 https://afsp.org” 🍭🎀

[mariacallous]

On the evening of March 23rd, the Kennedy Center honored Conan O’Brien with the 2025 Mark Twain Prize for American Humor. The ceremony, which attracted a mix of comedy stars and arts-adjacent members of D.C.’s beau monde, was the biggest event held by the center since February, when President Trump purged eighteen members of the nonpartisan board of directors and installed himself as chairman. With the exception of a few half-hearted references to “new management,” the currency of the night was encomiums, not political critiques. O’Brien, when his turn came to speak, made veiled jabs in the President’s general direction. (Mark Twain, he pointed out, hated bullies and defined patriotism as “supporting your country all of the time and your government when it deserves it.”) But if the evening had a true villain, it wasn’t Trump but Jay Leno, who took “The Tonight Show” back from O’Brien, in 2010, after pledging to retire.

The ceremony was held in the center’s Concert Hall, a 2,465-seat statement piece in white walls and coppery-red carpets, which was renovated in 1997 and conveyed a warm, slightly dilapidated grandeur. Afterward, guests departed for a party at the Reach, a 2019 addition spearheaded by the Kennedy Center’s former president Deborah Rutter. The seventy-two-thousand-square-foot complex of pavilions, galleries, and studios is home to much of the institution’s social-impact programming, which is aimed toward supporting marginalized artists and audiences. Last year, the annex announced a two-year residency program with Play Play DC, a collective that curates “refreshing, creative, fun, healing, and playful experiences for grown and queer adults,” and Chefs Stopping AAPI Hate.

These offerings largely pay for themselves with donations specifically set aside for social impact, but Trump and his allies argue that such “wokey” events are repelling audiences and draining the center’s resources. At a board meeting on March 17th, the President declared his intention to make the center “hot again” by staging more popular programming. Regaling trustees with memories of his first time seeing “Cats,” he noted that a Broadway hit “does well” at the center and that “we are going to have some really good shows.” He also spoke of wanting more control over the Kennedy Center Honors, the institution’s flagship awards ceremony, which has recognized such figures as Bonnie Raitt, Steven Spielberg, and Paul McCartney. Trump complained that past picks have been “radical-left lunatics” and named as possible invitees Babe Ruth, Elvis Presley, and the casino impresario Steve Wynn, a major donor; he also suggested that hosting duties for the event would by necessity fall to him, the “king of ratings.” The center’s new president, Richard Grenell, who served as Ambassador to Germany and acting director of National Intelligence during Trump’s first term, has shared few details about his programming plans but has promised a “big, huge celebration of the birth of Christ at Christmas.”

Both Trump and Grenell were conspicuously absent from the Twain festivities. At the after-party, as donors swanned past white-clothed tables bearing wilting bouquets of truffle-dusted fries, young Kennedy Center staff members, identifiable by their badges, clustered around, looking giddy and on edge. A few days earlier, Tavish Forsyth, an associate artistic lead at the Washington National Opera’s Opera Institute, had posted a YouTube video in which he stripped naked and recited a thirty-five-minute spoken-word poem about whether he should quit his job, after which he was promptly fired. The week of the ceremony, between five and ten employees had resigned. More were waiting until after the gala to quit. “We’re working extra to cover all the people we’re losing but we still don’t know what the outcome will be for our jobs personally or the programs we support at large,” a staffer told me.

Two days after the event, at least five members of the Kennedy Center’s social-impact team, including its vice-president and artistic director, Marc Bamuthi Joseph, were let go. Joseph, who had directed the division since 2019, told me he understands the official motivation to be financial. (A document obtained by NPR reportedly stated that the decision was based on the center’s “staffing needs.”) Speaking to the Washington Reporter, Grenell outlined his plan to cut back on “niche” offerings, saying, “We had spent way too much on programming that doesn’t bring in any revenue.” Former staffers stress that the mission of the Kennedy Center, a nonprofit founded in 1971, is not to make money but to represent the best of American culture. A former employee familiar with the center’s finances told me: “It is simply not accurate to say the center’s finances are in poor health. In fact, under Rutter’s leadership the center’s endowment grew more than fifty per cent.” Between 2014, when Rutter became president, and 2023, the most recent year for which tax records are publicly available, the center’s total assets increased from $470 million to $633 million. For six of those years, it ran a surplus, and the two lean years coincided with COVID’s decimation of the performing arts. “The balance sheets are proof it was in good financial health,” the former employee said.

By most measures, Trump’s takeover has darkened the center’s financial picture. Ticket sales fell by fifty per cent in early February, and haven’t rebounded. Several large donors have paused their infusions, a former staffer told me, until they have a clearer sense of the place’s new direction. Since early February, the institution has also refunded more than a hundred thousand dollars in small donations, the checks for a hundred or three hundred dollars that concertgoers regularly write as bond-cementing exercises—a worrying sign given that traditional nonprofit fund-raising often revolves around modest recurring gifts. One staffer expressed concern that DOGE’s ravaging of the federal workforce would shrink the center’s audience and donor base by slashing their disposable income.

Since the regime change, there has been a steady drip of resignations and cancellations by prominent performers, including the opera singer Renée Fleming and the comedian Issa Rae. On March 5th, Lin-Manuel Miranda announced that “Hamilton” would not be appearing at the center’s semiquincentennial celebration for the Declaration of Independence, next year, because “it’s not the Kennedy Center as we knew it . . . we’re not going to be a part of it.” Several other productions, including “Legally Blonde,” have been postponed or called off—a potentially devastating development, as Broadway shows function as the organization’s cash cows. So many artists have quietly pulled out of the 2025-26 season that the center has had to keep delaying its schedule announcements. The Kennedy Center usually unrolls its musical-theatre offerings in April, but, “at this point, I have no idea when we’ll be able to announce a theatre season,” one staff member told me.

In an unintentional nod to its namesake’s Catholicism, the Kennedy Center is a sort of trinity: performance venue, cultural center, and “living memorial” to Kennedy himself. Like all nonprofit arts institutions, it represents a delicate ecology of artists, audiences, donors, and administrators. In 2023, the center’s revenue was about two hundred and eighty-six million dollars. Around forty-five million dollars, or sixteen per cent, of its money comes from the federal government, and is earmarked for maintenance and building operations. The rest comes from ticket sales, donations, and space rentals. When the center is functioning correctly, its crowd-pleasing events bankroll art that is not always supported by the mainstream. The Washington National Opera and the National Symphony Orchestra, for instance, are revenue drags, which the center has to subsidize to the tune of nearly thirty million dollars annually. But, over time, these offerings draw gifts from donors confident that they are underwriting a vision they believe in; they also generate prestige, lure talent, and prop up endangered national art forms.

As evidence of malfeasance, Donna Arduin, the new chief financial officer, wrote in an e-mail to staff that Rutter and her team had bequeathed the center an operating deficit of more than a hundred million dollars. But several employees called Arduin’s claim misleading, as she referenced only earned revenue—box-office profits minus expenses—and not contributions, which, in a typical year, comprise about forty per cent of the center’s revenue. (In an e-mail to the Washington Post, the new head of public relations, Roma Daravi, wrote: “I understand this can be confusing to grasp. An ‘operating deficit’ is the net margin from operations. Net margin is revenues minus expenses. The extreme mismanagement of funds is certainly shocking and was designed to leave the Center in the red.”) An employee also disputed Grenell’s complaint, two days after he took over, that “there is ZERO cash on hand,” pointing out that, because theatre tours are seasonal, “cash on hand” fluctuates throughout the year and is a flawed benchmark. Certainly, the person said, there are ill-advised shows that lose money. Trump’s two-hour appearance at the Kennedy Center on March 17th—during which he peacocked on a balcony and bragged about his musical aptitude—cost the organization more than fifty thousand dollars.

Sprucing up the Kennedy Center building has emerged as a priority for Trump, the real-estate grandee; during his visit, he groused that his predecessors had left it in “tremendous disrepair” and mused about covering the exposed columns with his signature marble. Grenell, who has accused the previous leadership of “criminal” financial mismanagement, submitted that the federal funds designated for physical upkeep had been spent on D.E.I. initiatives, a claim that is contradicted by publicly available records. (Since 2020, one of the members of the Kennedy Center’s audit committee—which is responsible for monitoring its outlays—has been the Trump appointee Pam Bondi.)

Mary Helen Bowers, who joined the Kennedy Center board near the end of Trump’s first term, told me that she was excited for a “return to commonsense programming.” She’d been dismayed by “drag shows at a family theatre.” (One of the more than two thousand events hosted at the center last year was “Dragtastic Dress Up,” a gathering with snacks and lip-synching by the artist Tara Hoot, who bills her act as “Mr. Rogers in a dress.”) “That’s telling a large part of the American population, ‘Your family values aren’t important to us,’ ” Bowers said.

Bowers, who trained as a professional ballerina, is married to Paul Dans, one of the architects of Project 2025. When I asked whether she personally felt accepted by the old leadership, she paused. “Superficially, yes,” she said. “But I voiced complaints and concerns . . . that anything that would be more sexually oriented shouldn’t be geared toward families, for lots of different reasons, if nothing else it’s simply bad business. When I shared those thoughts, I don’t know that anything was really done other than ‘Hey, Mary Helen, thanks for letting us know.’ ”

Going forward, Bowers said that the board would focus on “getting the center into better financial health, really honing in on what people want to see and which shows produce higher attendance and revenues.” She was confident that Trump could right the ship. “We have one of the best businessmen in the world stepping in and putting a lot of energy into turning the Kennedy Center around,” she told me, referring to the President, “and I think the finances will reflect that.”

According to one former administrator, Trump’s leadership team has brought in its own fund-raisers, whose strategy seems rooted in political, rather than arts-based, fund-raising. “There’s more of an expectation of access to the chairman” in exchange for sponsorship, the person said. Grenell, who spent the Biden years developing luxury tourist sites in Serbia and Albania, suggested at a recent meeting that Trump’s plans to beautify the center were advancing; a proposal was under way to refurbish the lounges in front of the main theatres. Foreign governments—he expressed interest in seeking donations from the Gulf states and Japan—would fund the renovations. An employee described Nick Meade, Grenell’s chief of staff, prowling around campus “trying to see where else we can put a lounge or a bar or any space to put a donor name on.”

Grenell’s character—Trump has described him as “a fighter”—does not at a glance mark him out for arts administration. Nor is he an obvious diplomat; in a room of carrots and sticks, Grenell favors the sledgehammer. On a 2024 podcast, he argued that America needs a “tough” Secretary of State who “goes in to these tables and says, ‘Guys, if we don’t solve this here, if we don’t represent peace and figure out a tough way, I’ve got to take this file, go back to the United States, and transfer it to the Secretary of Defense, who doesn’t negotiate. He’s going to bomb you.’ ”

In Grenell, Trump has found a deputy who shares his aggressive posting style. After Miranda pulled the “Hamilton” performance, Grenell retaliated on social media: “This is a publicity stunt that will backfire. The Arts are for everyone—not just for the people who Lin likes and agrees with.” On March 13th, Vice-President J. D. Vance was booed at the National Symphony Orchestra. “This was not a young crowd,” an employee who attended the performance told me, “so it was pretty remarkable.” Grenell, the administration’s highest-profile openly gay member, sent a staff-wide e-mail stating that “as President, I take diversity and inclusion very seriously” and that “intolerance towards people who are politically different is just as unacceptable as intolerance in other areas.”

Most shows that have been called off so far have involved artists pulling out, but, in February, the Kennedy Center abandoned several productions involving L.G.B.T.Q. and progressive themes, ostensibly for financial reasons. A two-week run of the play “Eureka Day,” which explores vaccine skepticism at a private school, was scrapped, along with a Pride celebration featuring the N.S.O. and the Gay Men’s Chorus of Washington, D.C. Thea Kano, the chorus’s artistic director, told me that the Kennedy Center has traditionally maintained close ties to the L.G.T.B.Q. community. “We’ve done many concerts there; we tend to do our big anniversary concerts there every five years,” she said. When the chorus was founded, in 1981, she continued, “a lot of venues in this town wouldn’t respond to our phone calls.” With the cancellation of the Pride performance this summer, Kano said, “it feels like we’ve gone back in time.”

One of the first programs to be junked was a children’s musical called “Finn,” about a shark who comes to accept his sparklier, gentler side. A Kennedy Center spokesperson told Deadline that the show, which was co-created by Chris Nee, Michael Kooman, and Christopher Dimond, was discarded for “purely financial” reasons. “Finn” had been developed in partnership with the Kennedy Center in 2024, and had sold out shows in its initial run. It was scheduled to tour not only in 2026 but also in 2027, “which is rare for the Kennedy Center and is a testament to how much they believed in the piece,” Nee said. The idea that “Finn” was an encumbrance on the institution’s budget, she continued, “doesn’t make a lot of sense.” Dimond added, “It’s shocking and terrifying, just how politicized this has all become.”

On March 6th, as cancellations were rolling in, I attended a comedy show at the Reach that featured an all-female lineup. “Traumedy by Rola Z: A Comedy Showcase for Catharsis” began with free coffee, quiche, and falafel, and ended with a Q. & A. with two therapists. Rola Z., a local comedian who organized the show, took the stage with a disclaimer that nothing she was about to say represented the official views of the Kennedy Center. The comic Elizabeth Booker Houston jokingly expressed solidarity with the MAGA movement. She, too, pined for the “good old days,” she said, when “white men used to die.” Now, “they keep living and running for office,” she added, to screams of laughter from the crowd.

Houston told me that she had weighed her decision to perform at the Reach carefully. In the end, she concluded, it would be more meaningful to show up. “I’m not a billionaire,” she added. Maysoon Zayid, who was billed as the show’s headliner, was the last to perform. She spoke about the terror of constantly wondering whether her friends and family in Palestine had been killed. Over text, Zayid echoed Houston in her Kennedy Center calculus. “I actually can’t afford to cancel this gig,” she wrote. “I am a disabled woman living in America.”

Other artists are performing a different calculus. The novelist Thomas Mallon, a frequent New Yorker contributor, told me that he and his collaborators pulled “Fellow Travelers,” an opera based on his book, from the 2025-26 classical lineup ahead of its announcement on March 27th. “Fellow Travelers (the opera as well as the novel on which it’s based) is a love story set against the ruthless purging of gay people from the State Department in the 1950s. It ultimately stands for the expansion of freedom and liberty for all people,” Mallon wrote in an e-mail. “I look forward to its eventual presentation in Washington, when decency has been restored to the White House and independence has been regained by the Kennedy Center.”

On March 17th, the producers Seth Rudetsky and James Wesley Jackson partnered with “Finn” ’s creators to present a special performance in protest of the show’s cancellation at the Town Hall in New York City. They invited Broadway and screen stars, including Andrew Rannells, Michael Urie, and Nikki M. James, to play the main parts. The G.M.C.W. also appeared, with the New York City Gay Men’s Chorus singing alongside them in solidarity. Rudetsky said, of the show, “I heard that it was about a trans shark. I thought, Sounds fun. And then I saw the script and was, like, Wait, what?” Nee and Dimond’s story was sweet and innocent, its L.G.B.T.Q. allegory quiescent beneath an uncontroversial message of acceptance. “I thought it was going to be, like, the shark gets down,” Rudetsky said. “But this can be translated into anything. Don’t hide what’s inside of you. Be yourself.”

Rudetsky and Jackson discussed the vital role that the Kennedy Center has historically played in the theatre ecosystem. The venue is an important “tryout theatre,” a place where productions can be tested and tweaked before appearing on Broadway or on the West End. “Annie” and “Les Misérables” both tried out at the Kennedy Center, Rudetsky told me. The center has produced multiple Broadway shows, and it regularly hosts out-of-town auditions. It is—or was—a site of tremendous good will from the thespian community. “For our actor friends, doing a show at the Kennedy Center is like, oh, my gosh, if you’re going to do anything outside of New York, it’s, like, Yes, Kennedy Center is it!” Jackson said. Urie told me that he’d performed at the Kennedy Center twice, for “How to Succeed in Business Without Really Trying” and “Spamalot,” and that he’d loved it. But “I can’t imagine that I would say yes” if a gig materialized now, he continued. He was skeptical that they would even ask.

After talking to the singers and actors, I took my seat in the packed house to watch “Finn” and the gay men’s choruses. At the end of the evening, which featured a magnificently game Rannells belting “Can I still make the Shark Guard if I declare that I have an inner fish?,” the choruses came out to perform a mash-up of two songs by Stephen Sondheim, “No One Is Alone” and “Not While I’m Around.” As the arrangement concluded, the singers locked into unison on “round,” and a ripple of harmonics spun off the note and tumbled toward the ceiling.

In search of the psychic wound that got us here, commentators often cite Trump’s tense history with the Kennedy Center Honors. In 2017, after several prominent artists threatened to boycott the event if Trump showed up, the President broke with thirty-nine years of tradition by not only skipping the star-studded gala but also refusing to host the recipients at the White House beforehand. For the rest of his first term, Trump struck an outwardly chilly pose toward the Kennedy Center. But, behind the scenes, a former staffer told me, the Administration maintained a “productive” and “positive” relationship with the cultural hub. Trump filled the Kennedy Center’s Presidential Box—a V.I.P. area overlooking the stage of the 2,364-seat Opera House—with guests and loyalists almost every night.

This time is different. Trump’s interventionist tack speaks to his desire to extend his reach deep into the cultural life of the country. Although the President’s mockery by the creative and cultural élite has long rankled him, it’s the melding of his hurt feelings with his instinct for stagecraft and its uses that has crystallized the Kennedy Center as one of his prime targets. Trumpologists stress that the President once dreamed of being a Broadway producer. In the eight weeks since his Kennedy Center takeover, he has shown that he also wants to be the flattered consumer, the glittering patron, the inescapable star. The Kennedy Center, a system marked by the interplay of many moving pieces, is on a collision course with a man who yearns to absorb everything into himself. If he has his way, he’ll be the only show in town. 

[natlacentral]

acttochange ✨✨What were your favorite moments from #AANHPIHeritageMonth 2024 this May, and from the 6th National AAPI Day Against Bullying and Hate?

For us, it was all the youth leaders who joined Imagine a World Without (AAPI) Bullying, and their passion for pursuing justice & equality.

Our young trailblazers are leading us into a world of empathy and love.

Join the movement by visiting acttochange.org/resources

[system-of-a-feather]

Hiya! Umm... I saw your long AAPI/cultural appropriation essay, and you seem to know what you're talking about. Way more than I do.

I'm in a tricky spot and I don't know what to do about it. (I know you may not be the right person but I don't know who else to ask)

So. I'm a traumagenic system. I was lonely, and anime was there for me. I have introjects, sure. But we're polyfrag and it's fuzzy, and for the whole system it feels more than just a source media thing.

We grew up DREAMING about Japan. We studied japanese and tried to sing the original lyrics of songs and search up their meanings as a kid. I'd sometimes try to make english versions of them. Not to hide the original, but because my family couldn't understand the beauty I saw. And I felt such a connection to it...

Now I'm rambling... 😅

I've always wanted to teach Japanese, to use Japanese every day in my life. When I wrote stories I would go search through all the Japanese to english dictionaries and search for the perfect name with the perfect meaning. I thought all the names were gorgeous and appreciated how special they were.

I try and bring Japanese culture into my life every day, even. I listen to Japanese idol groups and pop. I'm still trying to learn japanese, and further more I want to teach it to my community, to create a place where we can come together and learn this language together, as a small country community. To learn and embrace some of their cultures and try new things along the way.

I know that I am not Japanese. I don't want to appropriate them. But I find them so... or not them. But the language and culture and almost everything I find out has me entranced and wanting to learn more. It almost feels like my purpose, or a huge part of my life. My goal. My mission.

I live on the disability pension. I will probably never see Japan in person, and I've heard disability is frowned upon there anyway, to some degree. I don't know if I could even live there, especially if my workability was low. I'm not so young anymore. Even then there are stories of all the people who aim for their dreams and don't make it there. So I dropped it from my cards. I decided if I couldn't do it there... maybe I could do it where I am.

If I'm culturally appropriating Japan and it's cultures I'm happy to give them all the credit. I'm proud of where I found what I have. I adore it and would lift it up any day. But I also adore what I'm doing, what I'm bringing to life. I'm making some Japanese-Aussie vibe culture hybrid or something. I don't know!

But I wouldn't give it up for anyone. If a Japanese person asked me too... I'd prefer to start life over in Japan with no money or resources to my name. I'd probably prefer to live their homeless. I couldn't organise it myself. But I'd take a harsher punishment rather than let it go. I'd prefer to embrace it entirely than ever give it up.

But people online keep saying that nobody should use the names, the language, the cultures... I don't know what to do. I... don't have an answer.

I don't want to be for something so harmful. But I've posted about how names are beyond something that could be taken away. I've disagreed with people of colour about Japanese examples. I've never met a truly Japanese people, beyond watching lessons and shows and blogs and cultural breakdowns. I don't know what they'd say. I've heard that Japanese people praise other cultures for trying to learn their language, from articles online detailing what foreigners should expect. But I know Japan is big on honour culture, so they might just think it and not say their true thoughts to be polite.

Idk what to do!! I want to uplift everyone around me. To build villages for people who I come in contact with. To create openness and to be respectful and create fond memories. I don't want to go down as someone oppressive. But I want to go down as me.

I have no Japanese heritage, no japanese blood or family. I have no rights except for years with nothing else.

I know the answer some people would give is to embrace my own culture. But well... Aussie culture is sort of memes and culture-mix-soup. Beyond white man capitalism and conquering and the white people bible. Aussie culture is "it's hot here and we're like smart, funky, weird sounding bogans". I sort of want more than that.

I want to preserve their (Japans) culture how I found it, if I can. If I accidentally tamper with it, I want to say that, to let it be known. But I like how it is too mostly.

There are some negatives to it too, I know. Like, LGBT rights in Japan, the mental illness stuff, and more. But I'm not willing to leave because of those bad things.

Sometimes moving forward means taking aspects of different places and furthering them together to make something new. Is that cultural appropriation? Will I get in trouble for doing that? And how can I progress it/myself, how can I aspire and dream of a better world if all the jigzaw blocks are forced down to the table and unmovable. What do I do?

I don't understand it. And I don't know what to do about it.

Help.

(sorry it is so long. Sorry 😅😥)

Reading this back, I feel like the indignant child. "I don't want the other one, I want that one." Is that bad? Idk.

I'll just leave this here. What is your take? What do you& think?

Yeah thats a complex situation that I don't really have any kneejerk direct opinions on it towards. I might actually leave this in my drafts for a bit to think about it some cause theres a multi-dimensional aspect to it and a lot to consider that even I don't think I'm entirely all that knowledgable to comment on

(Especially regarding Japanese culture as I am Not Japanese and while there are similar dynamics in how western / white perspectives influence it, the dynamics are different and the histories are different; additionally, of a lot of the 'main big' Asian groups, Japanese is honestly the one I've had some of the least engagement with as the places I've lived have been heavily Vietnamese, Thai, Chinese, and Korean; we have a couple Japanese marketplaces near but beyond community, I don't have too much personal insight into the intricracies of Japanese culture and their opinions on these matters, so do understand ANYTHING from this post is coming from a Indo-Chinese perspective and anything I say on this topic, is to be taken second / less than any Japanese person that might want to key in on it as well)

I do have to say - from what I can tell from this ask alone (which is not necessarily a best sample, a lot of judgement of respect is best seen in Action and not words which asks are limited to) - I do have to say I really think you have a good intent and a better understanding / concern to the complexities of things than a lot of people I've seen who "really like Japan and Japanese culture" so in my more optimistic, generally wanting-to-give-best-faith and progressive culture-sharing perspective, I would like to encourage the dream and intent cause I think the vision is really great and amazing honestly.

The issue I have is that the practical application is pragmatically difficult and a bit uneasy because, as much as I think you have a lot of good intent and probably more than the average person, you aren't the first nor last white person who found themselves enamored and emotionally bonded with an Eastern Culture and with a full heart and chest wanted to help preserve and care for the culture. I don't say it in a means to be accusatory or aggressive, but more so a thing to be cautious if you want to try both holding your dreams and joys in the most respectful manner - but the rhetoric does sound a bit white savior / white knight adjacent. That is just to say that it's important to remember that, in the end of the day, Japanese people don't need you (a white person) to advocate for them or to save them and the culture doesn't need you to spread or preserve it for them.

I don't like to say it because I think with a lot of caution, respect, and passion, people who really love something can do a lot of good in the world; but (and I don't know if this is the case or just my past experience with white people who want to help Eastern cultures making be a bit cautious) inherently if there is any part of you that feels as though you will be a hero or leader in any way or form towards the Japanese / Japanese culture, I think one of the first things you'd need to make sure you do is to toss that dream of heroics out and take a massively more "follower" and "aid" mindset out.

In the end of the day, if you want to help any eastern culture be preserved and what not, its important that you - someone who has never been raised or lived the life - are never the end point of people reaching to it; the best place your role would and should be is a means of connection and resource provision, because in the end of the day, you are going to always be a student compared to those that have lived their life in the environment

With that in mind, I am a person who really likes the idea of healthy and productive sharing of cultures and respectful interactions between them and I also know that in some places - which I assume Australia might be as well - there is not as an abundant AAPI populace and probably not much of a pre-existing environment / people to engage with so the complexities of "leave it to the people of the culture" is not entirely practical.

So with all that in mind, first thing I'd say is - as I said above - listen to Japanese voices over mine. I'm speaking largely from theoretics on what I've seen in trends in other eastern cultures and my own experiences as well as being a relatively more idealistic and open perspective.

Second thing, I would see if there is any pre-existing niches where there might be at least an AAPI center around where you live - see if there are any events or classes or something that you may realistically be able to get involved in. If there aren't any of those, consider seeing if there are any direct cultural derivatives from that to participate (as in arts, crafts, hobbies, etc) - cause in my experience, stuff like martial arts are open things to engage in and they can help you connect with people more familiar and more engaged with the genuine culture.

The main reason I say this is because - other than the risk of falling into the white savior complex - one of the largest obstacles to doing this respectfully and healthily is putting time and effort into getting around how white / western culture has already distorted your understanding of Japanese culture in ways you probably don't know about. (And this isn't only you, cause I also am 100% sure I don't see Japanese culture correctly due to white / western influences; I'm not particularly qualified to talk about it as a result; its a very hard and very long journey for any not-Japanese person to do to get as untainted, genuine, and complete understanding of the culture as possible)

One of the best ways to navigate working on that is to find people and environments that are less-tainted by white / western lenses and influences and to take a more student lens and approach to it; very much a "sit and listen and reflect and do your unpacking homework"

If none of those are available or reasonably possible due to disability and/or financial things, I would strongly recommend reaching out to Japanese communities online (reddit probably has a good community) and getting advice from them as they will have more insight and ideas than I could think up.

I will say, they might be a lot more hesitant and wary than I am, cause again - from what I've seen, I think I'm considered pretty idealistic and a bit of a dreamer when it comes to including non-AAPI people in cultures (some are even uncomfortable with married-in-white people getting involved; my bestie is married to a Chinese person and he's been derogatorily and regularly considered a 'gweilo'; ie derogatory term meaning "Westerner" / "white man" / "ghost man") so you will probably face a lot of people nay-saying it, but I would hope maybe someone shares a little of the optimism / appreciation for the vision that I do, even if it's a minority.

That said, I think if you do want to honestly go forward with this and try to do so with the most respect and healthiest lens, I think it is important that you inevitably face the amount of distrust a lot of AAPI have towards white / western involvement in their culture face on and deeply develop a very complex and nuanced understanding to your place and position in the overall roles, history, and participation in it. Cause if you do want to help and do want to be a part of it, it's important to understand where YOUR culture comes into play with all of this. Cause you aren't Japanese and you will never be Japanese, even if you were an expect PhD holding person living in Japan. Inherently you will always be the white person engaging with Japanese culture, and so its important to remember that with you, you bring your own culture into this and that is something that has to be dissected in relationship to it all.

Third, and (less important but relevant) I do not at all mean this to diss on the culture or anything, but a lot of Eastern cultures have something of bad blood towards Japan and I don't honestly know the details enough nor have the energy to Properly Get Into It in a way that won't be misread without nuance by White Piss on the Poor Tumblr, but if you don't know what or why that bad blood exists, it'd be good to try to read into it and look into non-Japanese AAPI voices about it. This isn't to say that "its a bad culture", but more so that if we are talking about seeing the history as a whole, its important to know the impacts Japan and Japanese cultures have had on related cultures which, unfortunately, Japan has been a large part of. (China, Phillipines, Korea, etc)

Overall, it'd probably be an unpopular opinion among other AAPI, but I like the vision and passion you have for it and while I'm a bit hesitant to give support because I know how many people say similar things then fail to do all the work it takes to Do It Right ((ie, I honestly haven't really seen it ever, that said I haven't put the effort into trying to see it happen ever)), if you are willing to do all the tedious and life long homework of understanding your culture, Japanese culture, the ways your and Japanese culture interact to impact your understanding of BOTH cultures, white / western history, white / western history with AAPI cultures and Japan's culture, Japan's history within overall AAPI history, etc and are willing to do your due diligence to network, get involved, and engage with less white-tainted and warped parts of the culture AND navigate a lot of the inherent (fair, earned and justified) distrust to white / western involvement in culture, then I don't think you might have some merit to the dream.

Like it's going to be a LOT of work, a life long thing of work and admittedly, you will likely never be the expert or the advocate or the person you idealistically dream to be and that sounds negative, but in Buddhist philosophy, you are never meant to actually obtain perfection and its considered near impossible to reach "true enlightenment", but we aim for it anyways because the ideal is 1) worth aiming for and 2) we do it because it is good to try and do it anyways as the ideal is not necessary to enjoy the good that genuine and good work towards the ideal.

I guess the last parting thing I'd put out is that a really helpful concept and lens I'd recommend sitting on and thinking about is one of my favorite Buddhist lines of thoughts from Shunryu Suzuki here as it might be helpful in persisting against a lot of the inherent obstacles you will face should you genuinely intend to do it right, cause you are going to probably inherently - due to being white, western and not around any actual japanese culture - "the bad horse".

In general, I think in the end, one of the things that also would be really helpful is that I mention a lot of being a student to the Japanese culture and whether or not you want to take the writing in the Zen Buddhist idea of Zen behavior or just generally keeping a very respectful and chronic student lens to any really insurmountably large and complex topic that you are inherently disadvantaged in (such as learning and respecting a culture that you have no inherent place in), I recommend giving Shunryu Suzuki's book on "The Beginner's Mind" a read / listen.

Overall, that book has helped me so much in both mental health, goal seeking, system management, and overall my perspective on people and culture beyond a simple "buddhist" lens so I really really strongly recommend it.

[jonjmurakami]

I’m grateful to be part of this project! 😊 @make.us.visible is an organization with 24 state chapters, dedicated to building communities of parents, students, teachers, and neighbors to bring Asian American history into K-12 classrooms.

Make Us Visible activates and empowers local communities to develop curriculum and advocate for the integration of Asian American contributions, experiences, and histories in K-12 classrooms.Their goal is to provide every community with the support and resources necessary to begin conversations about Asian American history.

I was asked to be part of their third book (I didn’t get to do any of the pages about Hawai‘i ^_^;):

Make Us Visible x National Park Service Coloring Book.

This coloring book, created in collaboration with @admerasia , Pacific Historic Parks, the National Park Service, and the Japanese American Museum of Oregon, showcases 25 individuals and communities representing 11 ethnicities from 24 states and territories.

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BTW - you can DOWNLOAD the whole book for FREE, or download particular pages to color at makeusvisible.org/resources

There are also great recommended reading lists and references! We encourage you to consider making a donation to support this great organization 🙂

#readinglist #donate #supportization #makeusvisible #AAPI #admerasia #nationalparks #coloringbook #coloringpages #AsianAmericanPacificIslanderHeritageMonth