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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Macalester College celebrates Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) heritage and history. We recognize the multiplicity of identities, cultures, ethnicities, struggles, and stories within and across our many communities.

*Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month is nationally honored in May; however; due to how the academic calendar is structured, Macalester College recognizes it during the month of April. 

Efforts to commemorate AAPI Heritage Month began in 1976 with Jeanie Jew, a 4th-generation Chinese American and former Capitol Hill staff member. The month of May was selected to recognize the arrival of the first Japanese immigrants (May 7, 1843) and the completion of the first transcontinental railroad, built by the labor of Chinese workers (May 10, 1869). In 1992, the U.S. federal government designated May Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. 

Macalester College encourages our campus community to engage in meaningful dialogue and space with our AAPI communities and continue learning from the diverse voices and experiences of AAPI stories. 

If you would like to have your event and/or program featured please submit it via our online form.

Please note that the events below are organized by different organizations and departments at Macalester. Use the links below for further information, or directly contact the event host with questions.

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Community Luncheon

Tu., Apr. 2 | 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Kagin Ballroom
Hosted by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

Macalester College invites our AAPI students, staff, faculty, administrators, and alum to a community luncheon. In sharing a meal together, this will be an opportunity to build connections across campus through celebration and reflection.

To attend, please RSVP.

Previous Events & Programs

  • Spring 2024

    Kick-Off Gala: Macalester by Night

    Sat., Mar. 30 | 5:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. | Kagin Ballroom
    Hosted by: Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans | [email protected] | [email protected]

    The name Macalester By Night is inspired from Paris By Night, a popular Vietnamese variety show that features singing, dancing and sketch comedy. “Paris By Night was conceived by immigrant Tô Văn Lai in 1983, in Paris, France, to “fill the cultural void” felt by Vietnamese refugees living in France” (Wikipedia)

    With the new and improved APIDA Gala, we are hoping to draw from the Paris By Night format to celebrate our Asian identities through an evening of food, performances, and words from our community members.

    Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Community Luncheon

    Tu., Apr. 2 | 11:30 a.m. – 1:00 p.m. | Kagin Ballroom
    Hosted by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

    Macalester College invites our AAPI students, staff, faculty, administrators, and alum to a community luncheon. In sharing a meal together, this will be an opportunity to build connections across campus through celebration and reflection.

    Night Market

    Fri., Apr. 5 | 6:00 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. | JWall Commons
    Hosted by: Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans | [email protected]

    The commons will be transformed into a bustling night market, much like those seen across Asia, set to be an evening of fun, festivities, and food from the various Asian identities here at Mac!

    *This event is only meant to feature the aesthetics and atmosphere of a night market. Admission will be FREE for all Mac students staff, and faculty.

    Placental Politics: Embodied Land Work, Indigenous Feminist Resurgence, and Anticolonial Aesthetics in Guåhan with Dr. Tina Taitano DeLisle

    Wed. Apr. 10 | 4:30 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. | John B. Davis Lecture Hall (Campus Center)
    Sponsored by: Racial Justice Fund, Institutional Equity, Program Board, Women’s, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, and American Studies

    We invite you to join us with Dr. Tina Taitano DeLisle from University of Minnesota Twin Cities, Department of American Indian Studies, for a discussion about the historical and cultural land work she calls “placental politics”—an Indigenous feminist theory and anticolonial praxis of being and action informed by age old CHamoru ideas of self in radical and reciprocal relationality with lands (waters and skies) and more-than-human beings and communities of Guåhan. Inspired by the sacred midwifery knowledge and practice of placental burial, which safeguarded newborns from harm’s way and steered them along maolek (good) pathways rooting them in home and place, placental politics also represents the work of CHamoru women artists and activists protecting Indigenous homelands against new and ongoing forms colonialism, militarism, and environmental destruction and degradation.

    The Name Jar by Theater Mu

    Fri., Apr. 12 | 7:00 p.m. | Stages Theatre Company
    Sponsored by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

    Based on the book by Yangsook Choi, written by Susan H. Pak, directed by Jake Sung-Guk Sullivan, in collaboration with Stages Theatre Company.

    “Unhei has moved from Korea to America with her family and has started a new school. When the kids struggle with her name, she wonders if she should choose a new one to fit in. Her classmates decide to help out by filling a glass jar with names for her to pick from, but will any of them fit? The Name Jar is a celebration of culture, family, and what’s in a name.” Theatre Mu

    X-Ertion Showcase

    Sat., Apr. 13 | 7:00 p.m. – 8:30 p.m. | Kagin Ballroom
    Hosted by: Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans | [email protected]

    Mark your calendars and look forward to joining us Sat., April 13 for unforgettable performances. Stay tuned for further announcements, such as showcase theme and performance concept photos, which will all be released soon!

    Sun Yung Shin ’95
    Budae-jjigae 부대찌개 (Army Base Stew) with SPAM®: A Decolonial Poetry Workshop

    Tu., Apr. 16 | 6:00 p.m. – 7:30 p.m. | Davis Court
    Hosted by: Institutional Equity | [email protected]

    The histories of Asians and Pacific Islanders at home and as “Americans” are inextricable from U.S. empire. This poetry workshop is named for a South Korean dish developed—out of necessity and ingenuity—during desperate post-war times lived in the shadow of U.S. army bases. Despite having 5% of the global population, the U.S. military budget is by far the biggest in the world; it’s 40% of the world’s military expenditures, with more spent on defense than the next 9 nations combined. The 75-year old recipe “Budae-jjigae” incorporates a now iconic 20th-century American food product, SPAM®, produced right here in Austin, Minnesota. In this workshop we will read and discuss eco-feminist poems by Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans, and generate our own drafts of poems that explore our own relationships to empire(s), “race,” ethnicity, nature, body, community, place, language(s), and self.

    신 선 영 Sun Yung Shin was born in Seoul, Korea and was raised in the Chicago area. She is a poet, writer, and cultural worker. She is the of What We Hunger For: Refugee and Immigrant Stories on Food and Family (2021) and of A Good Time for the Truth: Race in Minnesota, author of poetry collections The Wet Hex (winner of the Midland Authors Society Award for Poetry and finalist for a Minnesota Book Award) Unbearable Splendor (finalist for the 2017 PEN USA Literary Award for Poetry, winner of the 2016 Minnesota Book Award for poetry); Rough, and Savage; and Skirt Full of Black (winner of the 2007 Asian American Literary Award for poetry), co-editor of Outsiders Within: Writing on Transracial Adoption, and author of bilingual illustrated book for children Cooper’s Lesson and picture book Where We Come From, co-written with Diane Wilson, Shannon Gibney, and John Coy. Her forthcoming picture book, Revolutions are Made of Love: Grace Lee Boggs and James Boggs, co-written with Mélina Mangal, will be published in 2025.

    She is a teaching artist with the Minnesota Prison Writing Project and elsewhere. She is a former MacDowell fellow and has received grants from the Bush Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, and the Minnesota State Arts Board. She lives in Minneapolis where she co-directs the community organization Poetry Asylum with poet Su Hwang. (sunyungshin.com)

    1st Annual Pan-Asian Film Fest

    Wed., Apr. 17 – Thu., Apr. 18 | 7:30 p.m. – 9:30 p.m. | JBD Lecture Hall (CC Lower Level)
    Free Admission
    Hosted by: Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans and Japanese Culture Club | [email protected]

    Films are a powerful medium, ever more so the case when seen, not on a phone or laptop, but together with your peers in a theatre. Through this event, we hope to highlight just a portion of the incredible body of work by APIDA filmmakers and films telling APIDA stories. Post-dinnertime, with drinks and popcorn provided.

    Midnight Mahjong: Tabletops Across Asia

    Fri., Apr. 26 | 8:00 p.m. | Campus Center – Café Mac
    Hosted by: Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans | [email protected]