Alexandria Library's Blog: May Is Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Press release from Alexandria Library's Blog:

2021-05-19

The Alexandria Library is celebrating Asian American & Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month this year with various virtual events ranging from a spiritual seminar and a musical narrative experience to author talks and book discussions featuring Asian American authors.

Two poets joined virtually in honor of AAPI Heritage Month. Linda Watanabe McFerrin, a poet, travel writer, novelist, and contributor to numerous newspapers, magazines and anthologies, joined for a reading of her poems which speak about her Japanese heritage.

Lost Pines

This year the Japanese beetle

has attacked my pines.

I will sell no trees this Christmas.

My wife works diligently,

Makes baskets from the dead needles –

and me, with nothing to put in them.

–Linda Watanabe McFerrin, from Navigating the Divide: Selected Poetry and Prose, published in 2019 by Alan Squire Publishing

Peter Goldmark has held many high-pressure jobs in his life. He served as New York State budget director during the 1970s fiscal crisis. He was the president of the Rockefeller Foundation, head of New York and New Jersey Port Authority, publisher of the International Herald Tribune, and program director at the Environmental Defense Fund. He added “author” and “poet” to this impressive list with his new book of poetry.

He found poetry at age 40 as a way to cope with work stress and decompress. Writing helped him cope with eight members of his immediate family contracting COVID-19.

His book, Haikus for New York City, uses the traditional Japanese poetry form to express his love for his city and as a form of therapy to deal with the sadness of the past year.

You can view his reading of one of his haikus, “On NYC subways,” here:

Haikus for New York City: Author Talk with Peter Goldmark

When: Thursday, May 27 @ 3:00 PM

Registration Require https://alexlibraryva.org/event/5049448

On a musical note, Eric Hung from Music of Asian American Research Center, tells stories set to music to explore naturalization laws, refugees, and transnational adoption.

Who’s an Immigrant?

When: Tuesday, May 25 @ 7:00 PM

Registration Required https://alexlibraryva.org/event/5038924

For alternative therapy during stressful times, certified Reiki Master Faith Cabico spoke about the benefits of Reiki, a spiritual healing art using energy healing with roots in Japan, and how it transformed her as a single mother of an autistic son. Inspired by her lifelong desire to help others, she opened Faith Hope Enlight to offer alternative healing treatments through both virtual and in-person therapy seminars. You can view a recording of her talk here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IA_pf9ykSd4.

Friends at Yoga in Daily Life offers a monthly meditation class on the first Wednesday of each month at 7:00 PM. More info: https://alexlibraryva.org/event/4672426.

Looking for a good read by an AAPI author? Here are the books that Alexandria Librarians are discussing this month:

Mystery Book Club discussed Shanghai Moon by S J Rozan starring Lydia Chin, a Chinese-American private investigator, and her PI partner Bill Smith as they team up to investigate a case involving one of the world’s most sought-after missing jewels and the history of Shanghai as a city which provided safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees from the Nazis. Let’s Talk Books discussed Min Jin Lee’s novel Pachinko, an epic historical novel featuring a Korean family who immigrates to Japan where they are subjected to racism and stereotypes. Burke Book Club read Deepa Anappara’s debut novel, Djinn Patrol on the Purple Line, where she writes about poverty in a smog-filled slum in India with the story centered around child kidnapping and human trafficking from a child’s voice. Duncan Book Club explored Charles Yu’s deeply personal novel about race, pop culture, and assimilation in his recent novel Interior Chinatown.

And a few of more recommendations:

• Angel & Hannah by Ishle You Park – This is a sweeping story of an interracial couple in 1990s New York, a reimagining of Romeo & Juliet, featuring Hannah, a Korean American girl from Queens, NY and  Angel, a Puerto Rican boy from Brooklyn. Park is the first woman to become Poet Laureate of Queens, NY.
• Good Talk by Mira Jacob – In her powerfully searing graphic memoir, Jacobs illustrates the messy reality of life as an interracial family through conversations about love and race with her family. It started when her six-year-old son started asking a lot of questions about his biracial identity. The author reflected on the confusing conversations on race and identity she had when she was growing up in New Mexico as one of the few Asian families. She realized there were no easy answers to his questions of what it means to grow up as a person of color in the United States in the years leading up to Donald Trump’s presidency.

Contributor: Caroline P.

Branch: Burke

This press release was produced by Alexandria Library's Blog. The views expressed here are the author’s own.