#asian american and pacific islander month

[thecosmicpunk]

This Easter and TDOV really just showed that people have a lot of shit to say but don't know what the everloving fuck they're talking about.

"Why do Trans people need a day you have a whole month already???" Trans Visibility Day is for Trans people, Pride month is for all Queer people. It's different. But also there are other national months that have a dedicated day in a different month.

Easter is a different day every year and sometimes it's going to land on a day that already has a holiday/nationally recognized day. You gonna be mad at stoners next year for daring to have a smoke with jesus?

Why do you think February is Black History Month? Or why May is AAPI month? Or why June is Pride month?

Do people think that national months happen by closing our eyes and pointing at a calendar? Do you think we just picked a month at random and claimed it ours? Significant moments and events in history happened during those months. And it often took years for those months to be nationally recognized. History is actually so fun to learn about please read something I'm begging.

• And if you're outside of the U.S and you have different national months/holidays please let me know I'd love to read about it!

(Also I only used History.com and one AmericanBar articles because other links weren't working but I encourage you to do research from other sources as well as read the articles I linked.)

In February Black History Month was Black History week for decades:

In March Women's History Month started as Women's History Week:

April is Arab American Heritage Month:

May is Asian American & Pacific Islander Month:

June is Pride Month:

Juneteenth:

July is Disability Pride Month:

September 15 to October 15 is Hispanic Heritage Month:

Indigenous Peoples' Day is the second Monday in October, and November is Native American Heritage Month:

[rachy-chel]

Maysia 2: new year

[korra-of-the-watertribe]

Happy Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month!

[mindboogling]

Kamaʻāina E Komo Mai Welcome Home, Kamaʻāina

🌺Happy AAPI Month!🌺 I've had this piece in mind since I visited home last year. Among the chaos of the airport's baggage claim and shuffling between impatience, a screen greets each guest in yellow text, saying those very words: "To our returning Kamaʻāina, welcome home." My heart ached when I had to leave, leading me to draw this with a lot of plant life and flowers from my nostalgia. Now I'm back on my island, reuniting with my family, and embracing my culture - I'm Kānaka Maoli and couldn't be more grateful to be home.

[uwmspeccoll]

Staff Pick of the Week

My staff pick this week is the trade edition of The Tale of the Shining Princess by Japanese-born writer Hisako Matsubara (b.1935) and Japanese-Canadian artist-printmaker Naoko Matsubara (b.1937), published by Kodansha International LTD. Tokyo, Japan in 1966. 

As a artist-printmaker and bookmaker who makes woodcuts, I am greatly inspired by Naoko’s prints. Naoko Matsubara’s work carries on traditions of Japanese printmaking while having its own contemporary flavor. Her woodcuts are ecstatic, they are vibrating with movement. Her use of bold shapes and the white line of the the carving tool makes the most of what woodcut has to offer. In the book form, the active images carry the reader’s eyes through the book space. Her use of negative space activates the page. Additionally, her woodcuts have translated beautifully to commercial printing. 

The Matsubara sisters are daughters of a senior Shinto priest, and were raised in Kyoto. Both studied, lived, and worked in the United States. Hisako received her Master of Arts degree from Pennsylvania State College, moving to Germany where she continued her studies and became a prominent writer, publishing her work in Japanese, English, and German. In the 1980s she moved back to the United States, this time to California where she worked at Stanford University. 

Naoko received her Master of Fine Arts from Carnegie Institute of Technology in Pittsburgh, now Carnegie Mellon University. After her studies she traveled across Europe and Asia. She returned to the United States and became the personal assistant to the artist and wood engraver Fritz Eichenberg, an artist who has been featured many times on our blog. Naoko taught at Pratt University in New York and at the University of Rohde Island. She also lived in Cambridge, Massachusetts for a time. Naoko is currently living and working in Canada in Oakville, Ontario, where she continues to work and exhibit nationally. 

The work of both Hisako and Naoko have had great influence inside the United States and around the world. So lets celebrate their accomplishments! 

This book has end sheets of mulberry paper with inclusions of Bamboo leaves, the cover is a red textured paper with a gold stamped design by Naoko. 

View some of our other AAPI selections for this month.

View our other Staff Picks.

- Teddy, Special Collections Graduate Intern

[mysteriouspercentage]

happy aapi heritage month, loving and friendly reminders

stop erasing pacific islanders or i'll rip out ur spine

asians outnumber pacific islanders by millions and more often than not this month gives CRUMBS to pacific islanders and it's honestly, transparently anti-indigenous at this point.

pacific islanders are melanesian, micronesian, and polynesian. these identities are not homogenous or interchangeable, but are deeply historically connected.

filipinos are not pacific islander and we are not discussing this further

(i am not pacific islander so if anyone from that community wants to add more friendly reminders onto this post, pls do 💛)

east asians are not the only asians

despite being the face of "asian-ness" in the us, there are actually more countries in asia than south korea, north korea, japan, and china.

celebrate southeast asians !

celebrate south asians !

celebrate west asians !

celebrate central asians !

celebrate north asians !

there is so so much diversity in the pacific islander and asian experiences worldwide, and it's well past time we celebrate all of the facets of our identities

celebrate indigenous asians !

celebrate asians who aren't mixed with white !

celebrate dark-skinned asians !

end the diaspora wars !

we need to stand together in community as we face down the capitalist, imperialist, white supremacist machine. uplift each other, and hold each other accountable, always

[juliettelime]

happy asian american pacific islander heritage month! here is some art i made for a local non-profit's aapi heritage month event programming, i was asked to follow a theme of interweaving stories (both cultural and intergenerational) and i also drew upon my own experiences living in the diaspora as a third gen filipino american ☀️

✧ instagram | portfolio ✧

[renegaedz]

HAPPY AAPI MONTH TO EVERYONE WHO QUESTIONS MY EXISTENCE

NOW ASK ME AGAIN (WHY I WEAR HIJAB)

[tangramkey]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month !!!!!!!

[tishrivers]

SASHA COLBY: Pride Today Interview (2023)

[whenweallvote]

About 15 million Asian Americans will be eligible to vote in 2024, including roughly 1.7 million Gen Z’ers.

  AAPI voters have the power to decide key races across the country. 🙌🏽 Celebrate #AAPIHeritageMonth with us today by registering to vote at weall.vote/register!

[read-alert]

Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! Full titles under the cut!

The Dragon Republic (The Poppy War #2) by RF Kuang

A Magical Girl Retires by Park Seolyeon

The Siren, the Song, and the Spy by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A Witch's Guide to Magical Inkeeping by Sangu Mandanna

Disability Intimacy: Essays on Love, Care, and Desire edited by Alice Wong

Tell Me How It Ends by Quinton Li

Falling Back in Love with Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls by Kai Cheng Thom

Squire by Nadia Shammas and Sara Alfageeh

She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan

[rachy-chel]

Maysia 1: OOTD/what’s in my bag

Hello everybody look at all this stuff I got❗️

[gisellelivesunderabook]

Happy Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month!! Here are some AAPI book 📚 recs!! :3

[the-overgrown-states]

happy asian american and pacific islander heritage month!!! i know i’m a few days late but :3

[arcadialedger]

Wanted to highlight two Pacific Islander properties coming up for PI part of AAPI Heritage Month!

The first is ‘Hailey’s On It!”, a new Disney Channel show starring the voice of Moana, Auli’i Cravalho.

The second is middle grade book ‘Lei and the Fire Goddess’ by own voices author Malia Maunkea.

Both come out soon and you should absolutely support them!