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| Rosemary Kyompa wears a traditional Vietnamese costume with umbrella during opening ceremonies for the Asia & The Pacific Islands Heritage Month 2003 in University Park at Cal Poly Pomona. |
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| Jonathan Delarosa lifts Janine Sarmiento as they do a traditional Filipino dance during opening ceremonies for the Asia & The Pacific Islands Heritage Month 2003. |
The university will host a series of events in April to celebrate Asia & The Pacific Islands Heritage Month. The national celebration, called Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, is held in May. Both commemorations seek to increase awareness of and appreciation for the historical contributions of Asian and Pacific Islands peoples in the United States.
Sponsored by the university?s Asian and Pacific Islander Student Center and numerous other campus organizations, events range from panel discussions to a free concert by musician Magdalen Hsu-Li and a scholarship dinner.
In addition, the student center will host a cell phone drive for battered women throughout April in support of Sexual Assault Awareness Month, which shares the same time frame. Anyone interested in participating can drop off used cell phones and chargers at the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Center in Building 95.
For information on any of these events, call the Asian and Pacific Islander Student Center at (909) 869-5025.
- Opening ceremony of Asia & The Pacific Islands Heritage Month will take place April 8, noon to 1 p.m., in University Park.
- Kristina Sheryl Wong will fuse performance art and education during her presentation ?Subversive Art and Activism? on April 7 at noon in the Bronco Student Center?s Lecture Hall. Wong is a writer, solo performer, actor and educator. Her most notable work is www.bigbadchinesemama.com, a mock mail order bride site visited by ?perverts, academics, activists and Klansmen worldwide,? she says. The Ethnic & Women?s Studies department cosponsors this event.
- Presentations on the Cambodian, Armenian and Jewish genocides, called ?Genocide: Don?t Let History Repeat Itself,? will be offered on April 9 at 5 p.m. in the Music Recital Hall. The Armenian Student Association cosponsors this event.
- A free opening reception for the art exhibit ?The Beauty of Lines? will be provided April 12, from 6-9 p.m., at the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center. The exhibit features calligraphy by the Korean Calligraphy Association, a cosponsor of the event. ?The Beauty of Lines? will be on display throughout the month. The Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center is located at 300 W. Second St. in the Pomona Arts Colony.
- Musician Magdalen Hsu-Li will perform her one-woman show ?Fire? on April 16, 6-8 p.m., in the Bronco Student Center?s Multipurpose Room. Hsu-Li is a Chinese-American feminist and bisexual who is both a provocateur and an artist. The Pride Center, Stop Violence Grant Office, LGBT History Month and Reentry & Women?s Resource Center are cosponsoring this free event.
- A panel discussion on interracial dating and marriage in Asian and Pacific Island populations will be April 17, 3-4:30 p.m., in the Bronco Student Center?s England-Evans Room. The Asian Pacific Faculty, Staff and Student Association cosponsors this event.
- Author Icy Smith will offer a slide show presentation of historical Los Angeles Chinatown on April 22, noon to 1:30 p.m., in the Bronco Student Center?s Lecture Hall. A reception and book signing will follow. In her book ?The Lonely Queue,? Smith chronicles the long history of Chinese Americans in Los Angeles.
- An Asian & Pacific Islander alumni panel will discuss ?Life After Cal Poly Pomona on April 23, 6-8 p.m., in the Career Center, Building 97, Room 120. Career Services and the Office of Student Life & Cultural Centers are cosponsoring this event.
- The API Theater Group will stage ?Dreams? on April 26, from 4 – 6 p.m., in the Cal Poly Pomona Downtown Center. The student-run performance group wrote ?Dreams? as a series of monologues and short acts.
- Asia & The Pacific Islands Heritage Month events will close with a Scholarship Dinner on April 28, 6-8 p.m., in the Bronco Student Centers? Multipurpose Room II. The evening?s program includes cultural performances and recognition of the President and Mrs. Bob H. Suzuki Scholarship and student award recipients. Tickets are $20 general admission, $10 for students, $15 for APFSSA members or $8 for APFSSA student members. The Asian Pacific Faculty, Staff and Student Association cosponsors this event. RSVP by April 23 at (909) 869-5025.