Honoring Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Month
May 27, 2021, Katie Huynh
As May comes to a close, the team at BBBS Twin Cities honored this heritage month in a few fun and educational ways for the communities of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi ancestry in the U.S. Several of our team members of Asian descent shared their cultural experiences and resources by organizing a cooking class and creating staff newsletters full of activities, resources, books, movies, and important figures to celebrate the history and experiences of our APIDA communities.
Cooking class with Katie H!
Our advancement intern hosted a class to teach the team how to cook two Asian dishes: Earl Grey milk tea & Korean spicy pan-fried tofu. It was a winner to those who attended!
APIDA Resources
While celebrating the history and cultures of our APIDA communities, the team members also wanted to bring awareness to the recent events of racism and hate crimes against Asians. Here are lists of their book and movie recommendations in bringing awareness to the APIDA experience and a PDF of infographics on dispelling Asian stereotypes.
Book recommendations:
- Kim Jiyoung Born 1982 by Cho Nam-joo
- The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- The Making of Asian America by Dr. Erika Lee
- My Footprints by Bao Phi
- Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
- Pachinko by Min Jin Lee
- No-No Boy by John Okada
- Farewell to Manzanar by Jeanne Wakatsuki Houston & John D. Houston
- The Bracelet by Yoshiko Uchida
- A Place for Us: A Novel by Fatima Farheen Mirza
- Unaccustomed Earth by Jhumpa Lahiri
- Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford
Movie recommendations:
- Always Be My Maybe
- Parasite
- The Farewell
- Crazy Rich Asians
