Asian Leaders Alliance Newsletter #21
By Jimmy Hua & Brian Pang
Happy Asian American and Native Hawaiian/Pacific Islander Heritage Month, ALA! This month celebrates all of us and the achievements and contributions we have made. We hope you are able to come together with your AANHPI communities both in your personal and professional lives and explore the many different cultures that make up our diaspora.
We would also like to send Happy Lei Day to our Hawaiian members! Lei Day is a day to celebrate and recognize the custom of giving and receiving leis. Leis hold cultural significance and were used in sacred ways, like for religious offerings and a way to connect with Hawaiian gods, who manifested themselves in natural things, like valleys and plants. of For more information about Lei Day, check out this article from USA today.
Join ALA
ALA as a platform, enables connections and collective impact and is open to all. Join our community on Slack and the Event Portal to directly interact, share, and uplift each other across ALA.
AANHPI Heritage Month toolkit
Within the past year, the Asian American communities have both experienced deep grief as well as monumental achievements. As organizations, E/BRGs, affinity networks plan activities and celebrations for May’s Asian American Native Hawaiʻian and Pacific Islanders Heritage Month, Asian Leaders Alliance (ALA) has built a toolkit to help guide your planning process and to offer resources for you to leverage.
Please access the guide here:
- Guide: https://ala.fyi/Heritage-Month-Toolkit
- Planning Template: https://ala.fyi/Heritage-Month-Template
ALA’s AANHPI Heritage Month theme is “Center and Uplift”. “Center”, as we focus around wellness and mental health, while “Uplift” celebrates the wins and achievements across Asian communities.
If you like to source or contribute more ideas, or opportunities to collaborate with other ERG communities, please visit ALA’s Slack by clicking here. ALA will maintain an AANHPI Heritage Month events pin in the following channels:
Cross-posted to #general
Our Story, Your Story!
ALA exists to unify, advance, and elevate the AANHPI community. We now represent 900+ ERG’s and organizations, with over 2,000 leaders.
We have digitized 14 ALA leaders’ stories in partnership with Homi, a short video career platform. Each leader did a HomiTalk, a long-form hosted career conversation, which was then clipped into short digestible clips.
You can watch these clips anytime at app.homi.io/ala. We encourage you to share this link with anyone in your network!
Our stories have power. They have the ability to influence, to teach, and to inspire the next generation. These stories are who we are, and our goal this Asian Heritage Month is to see Asian faces talking about themselves, their successes, and their communities.
Onward,
ALA + Homi
ERG Spotlight
As we all know, many companies have been downsizing their real estate in recent months. Salesforce’s Asiapacforce and Earthforce used that opportunity to help the community. Instead of going to landfill, over 2,000 Emergency Go-bags were instead donated to 17 local API nonprofits. These Go-bags contain emergency water, first aid kit, emergency food, and numerous other emergency gear; that would help families and small businesses that the nonprofits served. All they did in order to make it happen was to ask the Real Estate Team about what was going to happen to these bags that were from decommissioned spaces.
I would like to thank the individuals and the ERGs in ensuring that resources don’t go to waste, but instead go to those in the community that would benefit.
If you know of things that your company is disposing of that could be useful to the community and/or nonprofits, you should reach out to someone at your company and see if they can instead be donated. Recruit some volunteers to deliver them and take it as a win for your ERG and for your employer!
Upcoming Events
There are a ton of upcoming events that you can plug your ERG into, both virtually and in-person. See ALA’s Event Portal for more upcoming events
Asian American, Native Hawaiian, Pacific Islander Heritage Month & Mental Health Awareness Month
May is Mental Health Awareness month. Alongside AANHPI Heritage month, consider hosting events around mental health. Below are a couple of organizations centered around the AANHPI experience.
Anise Health — Anise is here to be your partner in wellbeing by providing mental health services that acknowledge cultural context and address your unique needs as part of the Asian community.
Asian Mental Health Collective — AMHC aspires to make mental health easily available, approachable, and accessible to Asian communities worldwide. Their mission is to normalize and de-stigmatize mental health in the Asian community. Check out their website for resources and ways to get involved.
Asian Mental Health Project — Asian Mental Health Project provides educational resources and community care initiatives that help make mental health care more accessible and approachable for the Pan-Asian community. Today, we create multimedia resources, host community events and provide mental health assistance grants.
Meta Prosper x Barrett Hoffher— This May, in addition to celebrating, Meta Prosper wants to commemorate our long standing history in the United States. Meta Prosper was approached by the creative agency Barrett Hoffher to consult on this PSA (link).
This PSA is special because it shines light on the continued marginalization of our community during this APIHM. It is also special because Barrett Hoffher is not an agency from the API community. It shouldn’t be just on us to recognize the importance of our stories and to tell our stories. It’s also up to our allies who understand the importance of championing our mission.
Please take a moment to watch the spot and engage on this social post (here) by liking, commenting, and resharing.
NextShark community bulletin — launched to feature job postings and community events.
Heads In The Clouds — In 2023, 88rising expands its marquee Head In The Clouds Music & Arts Festival in North America, for the first time, to New York. Head In The Clouds will bring its 2-day festival to the historic Forest Hills Stadium in Queens, New York on May 20 & 21. This year will also mark the 100th (centennial) anniversary celebration of the illustrious Forest Hills venue.
WHIAANHPI, TAAF, Gold Gala
During the past two weeks, ALA leads attended the following APAHM celebration events:
- Gold House — Gold Gala
- The Asian American Foundation — Together We Build summit
- White House Initiative for Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders — Visible Together summit
All of these were empowering, impactful, and inspiring events to celebrate our communities — Happy APAHM everyone!
LAAUNCH — STAATUS Index
LAAUNCH’s third annual report on the STAATUS Index — “Social Tracking of Asian Americans in the U.S.” (with permission) was released earlier this month.
The STAATUS Index is a leading national study of attitudes and stereotypes towards Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Our data aims to increase awareness and provide solutions to continue improving the status of AAPIs in the U.S.
This year’s survey shows a continued trend of feeling unsafe and a lack of belonging among Asian Americans. 1 in 2 Asian Americans feel unsafe in the U.S., while nearly 80% of Asian Americans do not fully feel they belong and are accepted.
Created in partnership with TAAF, AAPI Data and the Asian American Research Initiative, this year’s expanded study takes a deeper dive into questions related to belonging, and includes new insights into U.S.-China relations, personal safety, and cross-racial solidarity. To learn more, visit http://staatus-index.org for the full report.
Act to Change — Act To Change is rallying the nation — including cities, elected officials, influencers, and community organizations — around the 5th Annual National AAPI Day Against Bullying and Hate.
May 18, 2023 would have been Vincent Chin’s 68th birthday. Chin’s life was cut short four decades ago in a hate crime where two men brutally attacked him just because he looked Asian.
The continued hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, and the recent shootings in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay have deeply shaken up our community, while also reminding us of our resilience and our power to heal in unity.
We are gathering on May 18 to honor Vincent Chin and to remind AAPI youth that you are the future of our nation, and that you all belong here. Join us virtually or in-person to celebrate our youth and their creativity, beauty and power.
Here’s how you can support the National AAPI Day Against Bullying and Hate:
- Take the Act To Change pledge against bullying
- Watch our 2022 event United We Heal
- Become a 2023 event sponsor (contact info@acttochange.org)
- Make a fully tax-deductible donation to Act To Change
- Share Day Against Bullying and Hate Graphics (tag us @acttochange)
- Support the 3rd Annual AANHPI Mental Health Day (May 10)
Asian Leaders Alliance x CAAM x LionsGate x Tremendous Communications x Stand With Asians
ALA partnered with CAAM, LionsGate, Tremendous, and Stand With Asians to activate two theater buy outs for the movie Joy Ride to help kick off CAAMFest in San Francisco!
JOY RIDE is a hilarious and unapologetically explicit story of identity and self-discovery centers on four unlikely friends who embark on a once-in-a-lifetime international adventure. When Audrey’s (Ashley Park) business trip to Asia goes sideways, she enlists the aid of Lolo (Sherry Cola), her irreverent, childhood best friend who also happens to be a hot mess; Kat (Stephanie Hsu), her college friend turned Chinese soap star; and Deadeye (Sabrina Wu), Lolo’s eccentric cousin. Their no-holds-barred, epic experience becomes a journey of bonding, friendship, belonging, and wild debauchery that reveals the universal truth of what it means to know and love who you are.
Please stay tuned for more info regarding additional theater buy outs coming to a city near you.
CaliStar Entertainment
CaliStar, also known as Calista Wu, is an American recording artist, activist, and well-respected attorney who is releasing her six-song Glitterati EP on May 19, 2023. The Extended Play album comes as a follow-up to her latest single “Glitterati (feat. Kiyoné),” which was released on May 5, 2023.
THE GLITTERATI EP
The Glitterati EP is the latest release from recording artist CaliStar, who views important points of her life as different chapters, with her return to music as a chapter in itself. The Glitterati EP reflects that viewpoint, with the EP being the “Glitterati” chapter of her life. It consists of six songs, including previously released singles titled “Ethereal Lover”, “Can’t Sleep”, “Don’t Give Up” and “Glitterati (feat. Kiyoné)” as the title of the EP suggests, and two new songs titled “Do What We Wanna” and “Better.” CaliStar, whose repertoire defies expectations and inspires others to pursue possibility, is breaking barriers and redefining empowerment through music and art. She has worked with industry veterans Chris Gehringer (Lizzo, Dua Lipa, Rihanna, Lady Gaga), Jae Chong (Coco Lee, Elva), and Enik Lin (Royal Pirates, Amber Liu) to create her most recent projects. In 2022, her song “Electric Highs” was featured in the original soundtrack for the motion picture BLADE OF THE 47 RONIN.
Links to CaliStar’s profiles and where to stream “Glitterati” once available:
Spotify: VERIFIED ARTIST LINK
Apple Music: LINK
Amazon Music: LINK
Fans can follow CaliStar latest work on her social media here:
YouTube: CaliStar
Instagram: @caliwu
TikTok: @caliwu
Twitter: @calistawu
Asian Pacific Fund Summit
The Asian Pacific Fund, celebrating its 30th anniversary, is hosting its annual Asian and Pacific Islander (API) Summit back in-person!
This year’s Summit, “Honoring our Roots, Charting our Path: APIs in the Racial Justice Movement,” will create space for leaders to gather, reflect, and gain insights on how the API community can continue to work in alignment with other communities of color toward healing, recovery, and collective action.
We have an exciting lineup of guest speakers and panelists, including Rob Bonta, Attorney General of the State of California; Viet Thanh Nguyen, Pulitzer Prize-Winning Author; and Helen Zia, Writer and Activist, among others!
A high-level agenda can be found here: https://asianpacificfund.org/what-we-do/apisummit/
Give in May
An initiative by Asian Pacific Fund and numerous other organizations to bring awareness and support to AAPI Nonprofits and other nonprofits. You can learn more about the initiative and the nonprofit that are being supported by visiting: https://www.giveinmay.org/giving-events/giveinmay23/home
Let’s support our community and share so that others can help these nonprofits that are typically not as supported. Let’s Give In May!
Looking for Bay Area ERGs — participate in the 6th Annual Youth Summer Program
Future CEO — Youth Summer Career Exploration Program is coming back to in-person! We need your help! If your ERG has an office in SF area that can host 30 youths, we would love you to join to host this great program! We will have 9 sessions and you can host 1 or more of those. What does this mean?
- You host a workshop with 30 youths and 5 staff at your office
- Have volunteers from your company to be part of the workshop with the youths
- Have some snacks and drinks for the youths
- You can show off what makes your company awesome!
You don’t need to worry about the workshop, that is all handled. Just have have space, people, and snacks. Potential Dates: 6/23, 6/30, 7/7, and 7/21.
If interested please reach out through the following
- Email: jimmyhua@asianleadersalliance.com
- Post in ALA slack: #youth-development
