Transcripts For SFGTV APA 20240706 : vimarsana.com

Everyone. And welcome to San Franciscos 19th annual api heritage Month Celebration. My name is grace hari kari, one of the co chairs of this years celebration, along with my mother, brother from another mother, um other culture alferez. Yes. Give him ahead. We want to also acknowledge our third corps co chair thomas lee, who unfortunately cannot be here with us this evening. Then how about another round of applause for the halal hula dance troupe for opening tonights program and celebration with the wahine . A. Oh no a and danny hula, so one more time. So they are based in South San Francisco under Master Teacher kawika, the groups primary focuses on cultural traditions associated with the hawaiian islands. Good evening. My name is al perez. I am so excited about this years celebration. Because in my mind , i kept thinking that its much about everything asian everywhere all at once, just like the movie. Well with the three amazing organizations that were honoring tonight, doesnt it feel like a little bit like an oscar night . While we do hope that you will enjoy this evenings program, this celebration event would not be possible without the generous support and dedication of the many people in organizations we have who have come together to make this tonights event a success. We are very grateful to our sponsors publicity partners , the members of the a p a Heritage Celebration Committee and all the volunteers this evening between here and city hall. We have almost 150 volunteers working to make sure that everyone has a good time and enjoyable experience. Please give them all a round of applause. And we also want to take this time to recognize our celebration partners. The Asian Art Museum, the San Francisco Public Library and the center for Asian American media for an amazing range of art and cultural programs they are offering throughout the month of may. So please do check the celebration guide that you can is found at a p. A. S f. Org for a list of all the programs and now it gives me great pleasure to turn over tonights program to our mistress of ceremonies. Please give a warm welcome to pria. David clemens host program kqed newsroom, one of the longest running programs that focused on news and public policies, prayer. Thanks so much. What an amazing night everybody. Hello one more round of applause for our Celebration Co chairs. Its great to have you all here. Lets all stand for the national anthem. Course say, can you see . By the dog. Bonds. Early. Hi whats so proud . No, louis. At the tour. In light. Lastly me, whose broad stripes i and bright star. Rise through through the pain. Bye. Oh, the red as we want. It was so good. Land lease tree me. So bombs. For game. Gave proof. All through the night. By that i black. Tag was still there wont say does that star. Spain angled oh, yeah. Dave. Oh, the left. Hand of the free and uh huh. Oh, my. Amazing please be seated. So you just heard that amazing voice from 21 year old recording artist science brown. Shes been singing since she was six years old. The answer is of half filipino and half black heritage. She already has recorded three original colleagues songs with a record label in the philippines and she was recently on the front cover of the magazine. Afro inspired we do have amazing talents in our community been so honored to, um, be a part of this community over the last several years. I came here in 2005 as a cub reporter for ktv. You and i do work for kqed. Now ive lived all over the nation. All over the world. But San Francisco the bay area is the home of my heart. And i feel, um , really, truly honored to get to be here tonight and celebrate our heritage together and the celebration of that and the embrace that the city provides as well. 45 years ago. Lets talk about how we got here. 45 years ago, president jimmy carter signed into law a resolution declaring one week in the month of may as Asian Pacific American Heritage week in 1991 Week Celebration was expanded to the entire month of may and then in 1992 legislation was signed into law making Asian Pacific American Heritage month in may, a permanent celebration in the united states. Yeah, we can applaud that. Then in 2005 here in San Francisco mayor gavin newsom enthusiastically supported the idea of an annual official celebration that would include all asian and Pacific Islander communities. Here in San Francisco, if you didnt know more than one third of the population is of Asian American and Pacific Islander descent. There are a lot of us we continue to show the nation how to properly celebrate Asian American and Pacific Islander heritage month our city celebrations, which include a Public Awareness campaign, you may have seen some of the images out front and on the plaza. These are the collective efforts of the members of the a Heritage Celebration Committee in partnership with the apa Heritage Foundation. Its a Non Profit Organization dedicated to securing the sponsorship and resources. To support this celebration. And at this time please welcome claudia. In chiang. She was the president of the a. P, a Heritage Foundation and coordinator of this community celebration. She is here to give her greetings on behalf of the a p, a heritage celebration team, claudia. Okay. Thank you. This is all yours. Thank you for you. Happy api heritage meant everyone. Thank you for joining us for this celebration this evening, and events like this take more than a village. And. Just the api community. There are no less of villages as we know, and i really want to on behalf of the aapi Heritage Foundation. Thanks all the diverse ethnic group for coming together putting together not only this evening celebration, but events throughout the month. And for all the elected Officials Department has numerous members of the council of core. Our sponsors Community Partners who are with us here today. Your support and presence means a lot to us. Thank you so much. And as priam mentioned this year marks the 45th anniversary of the signing of the law, creating a special time in the month of may for the celebration of a p i culture and heritage. Some of us have been thinking 45 years. What changes has been there. Well honestly, it just kind of disappointing at times. Because when we think about anti asian hate fighting for equity. Breaking the glass ceiling. None of none of these issues and new often times its more of the same in this very frustrating however, through the pandemic. I think we realized that when organizations and communities put together. We can make the difference. The pandemic shows us that a lot of theyre actually a lot of Silver Linings that you know we can see. And run organizations pulled together. My First Communities coming together talking about how do we stand together with each other . That gives us hope. Give us hope, and thats whats in spite this years theme celebration theme. Strengthening the fabric of our community. We are not just talking about the api community. But the community of our city, the community of our country the fabric in be inclusive of everyone. This past weekend. We kick off the aapi heritage Month Celebration a couple of times once in the Samoan Community and actually also in japantown. The event at the japan tang is titled outcome, our community, our pride. Our community, our pride. Thats exactly how we feel about the api community. And thats exactly why every year so many of us put, you know, really spent countless hours many, many months because we want to have a month that we are so proud of, and i can say thank you enough again. Our amazing co chairs perez, our own Amazing Grace and thomas lee without them. I mean , we really cannot be really cannot make this and i just want to show i appreciate appreciation to them again. I dont know where they are. And probably backstage somewhere. We all come from different places, even within the Aapi Community. Different cultures, different backgrounds. We are all different colors, forms and shapes that makes up the fabric. Like on a quilt. You see so many different patches. But we are part of the whole we may be different, but we are part of the whole. And thats what we want to see, and we hope that over the years will continue to Work Together to make this a more perfect fabric to make this a more perfect and beautiful quilt. And now it is my honor to introduce our mayor who times and times again has demonstrated her commitment commitment to embracing diversity. Someone who inspired us, actually, together with the Human Rights Commission and the San Francisco Public Library to put together coordinate the first ever joint celebration of Lunar New Year and black History Month. Someone who constantly remind us that we should look beyond our differences and focus on what we have in common place. Warm cup place. Warmly welcome San Francisco mayor london breed. Thank you, claudine. And thank you to the Asian Pacific Islander Foundation for the work that you continue to do to really strengthen those ties. Year round. Um i gotta say being here today im really excited and it does take me back to my days in high school. Not too long ago. When i attended Galileo High School and even in middle school and elementary school, what i appreciate most about my experiences. We celebrated our diversity. Many of us came from a lot of different backgrounds and during the assemblies that we held during Lunar New Year and African American History Month we had a chance to learn about one anothers culture. And, yes , we all hung out with one another. But at the end of the day, whats so important . Is to learn and to celebrate and to recognize that we are a Strong Community because we have course represent our various culture our communities, our families and what we grew up with. But we become Even Stronger when were able to build bridges and come together and to learn about one another, and to respect appreciate an uplift one another and i must say that the work that the Asian American m Pacific Islander heritage month has done is not only celebrate each of the Diverse Communities within the Asian Community but more importantly including other communities and making sure geographically that were touching on just how amazing and diverse San Francisco is, in a way that oftentimes is not on full display, and i want to really appreciate and know that there are so many elected leaders here, but i want to take this opportunity to thank the Asian Art Museum to thank the San Francisco Public Library, and i see michael lambert. And to thank campus for the work that you all do to bring us together to make sure that for the past 19 years now we celebrate the month of may as a way to highlight our diverse Asian Community in San Francisco. I know that its been very difficult over the past couple of years, especially during the pandemic, and so many people have tried to divide us and tear us apart as a city and to single out the Asian Community in particular, and the reason why Something Like that doesnt work because of the foundation of who we are and what we know we represent as a city. How when challenging times occur, we come together and we stand up for one another and one of the things that i saw that was so amazing in the city is we didnt just throw up our hands or point the finger. We basically rallied. We came together members of the board of supervisors and our city leadership rallied for support and resources to go to various organizations. Where we collaborated and escort programs for seniors. The African American community in the Asian Community through c y c and the Street Violence Intervention Program came together and became the ambassadors of the community to look out for our seniors. It was an amazing time, and i know that it was a challenging time as well. What we have seen in terms of the reduction in the number of hate crimes in this city that have occurred have been encouraging, but we know its still not enough. But i am grateful that we have Real Partners in our Law Enforcement agencies. In particular. We have our police chief bill scott working hand in hand with our district attorney, Brooke Jenkins to ensure that accountability is no longer lacking in the city and county of San Francisco. So the work that we know we need to continue around safety around protecting our history and our culture, of course, acknowledging the past and the challenges that exist there, but also how do we move forward . How do we come together and events like this . And throughout the month of may that will occur will highlight the significance of this diverse community. But i do also want to take an opportunity to recognize that San Francisco as a global city we bring together people from all over the world. I know that we have ambassadors and Council Generals, but in most cases they all want to be located right here in San Francisco, because its such an amazing city and i want to acknowledge and thank the various Council Generals who we work hand in hand with from china from indonesia from japan , mongolia, the philippines, singapore and korea. Yeah. Thank you all so much for being here and thank you for the work that you continue to do with our office to ensure that communities from all over the globe are supported. Now in San Francisco will have another opportunity to be on the national stage. And in fact some of you have already heard that apec the Asia Pacific Economic co operative is going to be hosted here in the city and county of San Francisco in november of this year. So what does that mean . Well we have had no other Significant International event in San Francisco since 1945 when the u. N was a stab list in our city. So what does that mean . The heads of states that from all over the world ceo s from everywhere. Yes street closures and other challenges. So please be patient. But the fact is San Francisco will be on a world stage and to really highlight our Asian Community will be at the front and center of what we will do to demonstrate how amazing this city is. And im looking forward to working with each and every one of you to ensure that San Francisco is recognized. Last but not least i want to just acknowledge the number of organizations that are being honored throughout apa heritage month in San Francisco. Of course, one of this one such organization is one that ive had personal working relationship with. The Japanese Culture and Community Center of Northern California who has been around for 50 years working in and for community and not just to protect and support one of the oldest. Um and most significant japan towns in San Francisco but also supporting the surrounding community. The relationship between the African American and the Japanese Commun