Cultural Preservation Leader Recognized During AAPI Heritage Month for Advancing AAPI Historic Preservation

Programming example

We, our stories, and our places are not "unknown."But, Asian American Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islanders are underdocumented, underrepresented in the stories our places tell about themselves, and underfunded by the institutions that curate a visible and durable belonging. Even as AAPIs are the fastest-growing racial group in the United States, with the South among the fastest-growing regions for AAPI communities.This chasm matters. And it is overwhelmingly a suburban gap, with more than 80% of AAPIs living outside urban centers, in the places least equipped with the social and cultural infrastructure to document and sustain them.I am grateful this Asian American and Pacific Islander Month (and Historic Preservation Month) to have been awarded earlier this year with the Preservation Action Hero of the Year award in Washington, DC for my cultural preservation and placekeeping work in suburban Atlanta, and to have joined the board of APIAHiP: Asian & Pacific Islander Americans in Historic Preservation, the only national organization dedicated to AAPI historic preservation. Thank you to these organizations and staff—and their tireless leaders Briana Paxton and Huy Pham—for shining a spotlight on places essential to a fuller American story.Building on my earlier efforts, my current work focuses on nurturing new infrastructures to hold our histories and harbor our hopes. This network supports historians, artists, cultural workers, planners, and organizers in documenting post-1965 AAPI suburban communities across the South—beginning in Atlanta, Dallas, and Memphis—so that the communities rooted and growing here have the cultural anchors to fully participate in civic life and steward our shared future.We still have far to go in more deeply knowing, documenting, and sharing ourselves, our stories, and our places among one another and as fellow Americans. If this connects with what you're working on, I'd love to hear from you.hashtag#AAPIHeritageMonth hashtag#HistoricPreservation hashtag#CulturalPreservation hashtag#AmericanSouth

Communities

• Asian & Pacific Islander

Observances

• AAPI Heritage Month

Formats

• Awards & Recognition Event

Goals

• Connect