Asian American / Asian Research Institute

Learning and Unlearning Asian American Representation in Film: The Intersection of Pop Culture and Policy
2026-04-28 17:00 - 18:30 (America/New_York) | NY
This workshop explores the history of Asian American representation in visual media, with a focus on film. Participants will examine how policies and laws have shaped—and been reflected in—film through recurring archetypes, tropes, and narratives. Together, we will trace the intersection of policy and popular culture, analyzing how these representations have evolved over time and how they continue to influence public perception and understanding of Asian American communities.
Facilitator: Kathryn LeBlanc, TAAS Fellow
Free and open to all. Professional Development hours awarded.
This event is brought to you by Teach Asian American Stories and AAPI New Jersey.

HCAP Mental Health Event - Building Self Confidence
2026-04-28 15:00 - 16:30 | Hunter College, 695 Park Avenue, New York, NY, 10065
What do you do to stay positive? To think positive thoughts about yourself and all that you’re doing right now? It’s normal to struggle with self confidence, especially when we are in new or challenging situations. We may experience doubt or put ourselves down. Join us for a workshop where we practice self compassion and positive self talk in order to build up our self confidence and take care of ourselves.
This program is open to Hunter College and BMCC students of all identities and backgrounds.

Power Building for Racial Equity (PRE) Virtual
2026-04-28 12:00 - 18:30 | NY
This workshop offers practical strategies and insights for confronting power dynamics to advance racial justice in organizations.

This workshop focuses on the role of power when addressing systemic racism and advancing racial justice. Systemic racism is a system of power–hierarchical, coercive, and oppressive power–based on race. Racial justice, to be achieved and sustained, also requires power–inclusive, collective, and liberatory power. As we do the work of racial justice, power plays a critical role and needs to be explicitly examined and deliberately transformed. When power is ignored, unjust patterns of power can be unintentionally replicated. This workshop provides an opportunity for reflection, sharing tips and tools, and exploring ways to transform power in your racial justice work, whether internal-facing (within your organization) and/or external-facing (with your community or the broader society).
Racial and social justice activists, organizers, and educators are seeking more frameworks and tools for deepening their work.

Film Screening: The Vow from Hiroshima
2026-04-28 11:45 - 13:45 | LaGuardia Community College, 31-10 Thomson Avenue, Long Island City, NY
The Vow from Hiroshima is a documentary profiling Setsuko Thurlow, a survivor of the 1945 Hiroshima atomic bombing and a longtime nuclear disarmament advocate. The film follows Thurlow’s friendship with Mitchie Takeuchi, a second-generation survivor and New York City–based filmmaker. The screening will be followed by a Q&A with producer Mitchie Takeuchi.

Book Event: The Blue House I Loved with Kao Kalia Yang & Jen Shin
2026-04-27 17:30 - 19:30 | south of Bryant Park, South of Bryan Park, New York, NY
Celebrate The Blue House I Loved with authors Kao Kalia Yang & Jen Shin — read-aloud, Q&A, and light refreshments!

Join us for an evening celebrating a beautiful new children’s book — and a true Paul & Daisy Soros Fellowship collaboration.
The Blue House I Loved is written by award-winning author Kao Kalia Yang (2003 Fellow) and illustrated by artist and architect Jen Shin (2018 Fellow). Together, they’ve created a lyrical, luminous story about a Hmong family’s first home in America—a blue duplex in St. Paul, Minnesota that is too small, imperfect, and utterly beloved. It’s a book about memory, belonging, and the homes that live on in our hearts long after they’re gone.
Kalia and Jen will read the book aloud, with illustrations displayed on screen, and then open the floor for questions from you and your little ones.
Come for the reading, stay for the conversation, and leave with a book your family will return to again and again.

Book Talk: Balikbayan: A Revenant History of the Filipino Homeland with Dr. Adrian De Leon
2026-04-27 15:00 - 16:00 | NYU Espacio de Culturas, 53 Washington Square S, New York, NY, 10012, United States
What does it mean to go back home, especially when “home” is shaped by conquest, labor, and longing? This question has animated the experiences of global migrants displaced by imperialism, capital, and the nation-states that have sought to manage their movements for their own political and economic benefit. Through vivid storytelling, Adrian De Leon traces how Filipinos, both at home and overseas, have both shaped the societies they’ve settled in and transformed the very idea of the Philippines itself.
By following the emergence of the Filipino return migrant (balikbayan), De Leon explores how statecraft in the Philippines—from the late Spanish period through the post-1946 independent state—attempted to co-opt value from migrant communities. Balikbayan shows how diasporic labor and transpacific political imaginations were central to the development of a modern Philippine nation-state, through enabling the continued conquest of the islands’ frontiers, and sustaining the economic recovery of a nation indebted by native elites and overseas empires. In turn, these lands were reframed by the state as the birthright of overseas Filipinos who yearned to connect with their roots.
Compiled through deep and thoughtful research in community archives, the itinerant histories brought to life in Balikbayan coalesce around a new cultural-economic form that has come to define contemporary nationhood: the homeland.

Sakura Matsuri: Cherry Blossom Festival
2026-04-26 12:00 - 17:00 | Charles B. Wang Center – Stony Brook University, 100 Nicolls Rd, Stony Brook, NY, 11794, United States
Welcome spring to Long Island with the blooming of sakura (cherry blossoms), the sounds of taiko drums, and a wondrous array of Japanese cultural exhibits at the Wang Center! The Wang Center will provide many exciting activities, including koto plays, Japanese traditional dances, martial arts demonstrations, bonsai workshops, calligraphy workshops, ikebana flower arrangement, tea workshops, manga drawing, origami paper folding, and cosplay (costumed role-play of a Japanese manga character) for all ages. Join us in your favorite manga character costume!

Holi Dance & Music Celebration: Festival of Colors
2026-04-25 14:15 - 16:15 | Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY, 11354, United States
Celebrate Holi with ullas (joy), sahbhaajan (sharing) & prem (love) at our dance concert as we invite you to experience India’s rich folk-dance legacy with live musical accompaniment. Abha B. Roy and Srijan Dance Company perform lively dances from Bengal, Jammu-Kashmir, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Gujarat, Uttar Pradesh. Featuring the renowned classical Hindustani vocalist, Sanjukta Sen alongside Tapan Modak on tabla and Mirashi Gulam on harmonium. Delicious Indian food, drinks and more for sale by Chef Nupur Arora and Queens Curry Kitchen.

A Conversation with Mei ZhenCai: 梅振才先生訪談
2026-04-25 13:00 - 14:00 | Chatham Square Library, 33 East Broadway, New York, NY, 10002
Mr. Mei Zhen Cai is a local author, educator, and member of the Chinese Cultural Art Association. He will be joining us at Chatham Square LIbrary to discuss his work and writing process.
This program will be conducted in Cantonese.

Moving Objects: Modes of Conveyance & the Making of Global Asias
2026-04-24 10:00 - 17:30 | 20 Cooper Square – NYU, 20 Cooper Square, New York, NY, 10003, United States
The Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU and Pennsylvania State University’s Global Asias Initiative are pleased to present “Moving Objects: Modes of Conveyance & the Making of Global Asias,” a one-day symposium at NYU and a Convergence feature for a special issue of the journal Verge: Studies in Global Asias. “Moving Objects” examines the varied modes of conveyance and the material infrastructures that facilitate the movements of people, cultural objects, and materials, by which Global Asias come into existence.

New York City Air Quality and Health Summit (NYC AQHS)
2026-04-24 10:00 - 16:30 | Fordham University, 150 West 62nd Street, New York, NY, 10023
The New York City Air Quality and Health Summit will bring together academics, clinicians, policymakers, and community stakeholders to explore the health impacts of air pollution. The program includes a plenary address by Dr. Wolfram Schlenker of the Harvard Kennedy School, as well as presentations by leading environmental economists, policymakers, and clinicians. It is organized by Fordham faculty (Dr. David Rosenkranz and Dr. Marc Conte) and the head of research at Lincoln Hospital (Dr. Vidya Menon), and sponsored by the Bronx Research Institute for Community Solutions at Fordham. Lunch will be provided for registered attendees.

K-Dialogue: New Technology and AI Development In Korea Workshop
2026-04-23 19:00 - 20:00 | NY
Do you want to improve your Korean speaking skills? In this workshop, we will read articles from Korean newspapers about AI and new technology development in Korea, and discuss various questions related to the topic. The workshop will be conducted using both English and Korean, but discussions will mainly take place in Korean. It is designed to be engaging and will provide plenty of opportunities to practice speaking in Korean. Intermediate-level Korean proficiency or above is recommended. This workshop is open to ages 16+.

Beyond Borders: Highlighting Immigration Stories
2026-04-23 18:30 - 20:00 | 53rd Street Library, 18 W 53rd St, New York, NY, 10019, United States
New York City, a city founded by immigrants, has been shaped and enriched by generations of newcomers across the five boroughs. Each story of immigration is deeply personal and unique; at the same time, many immigrants share core experiences of settling in a new place. Finding community, speaking a second language, navigating institutions and paperwork, staying connected to culture—these experiences shape the lives of countless people who call the city home.
This event brings together authors Karla Cornejo Villavicencio, Grace M. Cho, and Ruben Reyes Jr. in conversation with author and journalist Maria Hinojosa to explore modern stories of immigration. They’ll discuss the connections between their work, navigating the world of publishing, and how immigrant stories can speak to our moment.

SCREENING: Don’t Be Long Little Bird & LA Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement
2026-04-23 18:00 - 21:00 | The People’s Forum, 320 West 37th Street, New York, NY, 10018
Join us at the Paul and Eslanda Robeson Cinema at The People’s Forum, created in the spirit of their love of art, film, and revolution.
Don’t Be Long, Little Bird (2025, 23m) follows a story of the daughter of a displaced Palestinian family, who accidentally finds herself time traveling to 1930s Palestine, where she spends a few days with her great-grandmother when she was her age.

LA Rebellion: A Cinematic Movement (2025, 56m) Following the Watts Uprising, UCLA’s School of Theater, Film and Television enacted affirmative action policies to increase enrollment of students of color in its film program — a group historically underrepresented in the student population. The “ethno-communications” initiative to recruit students from Black, Asian, Chicano and Native American communities became a movement known as “LA Rebellion.”

Cooking to the President's Taste: Asian Chefs in White House History
2026-04-23 18:00 - 19:00 | Museum of Food and Drink, 62 Bayard Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11222
Join MoFAD for a special evening with Adrian Miller and Deborah Chang in celebration of their award-winning book, Asian Heritage Chefs in White House History: Cooking to the President’s Taste. Chefs cooking for the president — in the White House kitchen, for state dinners, on presidential yachts, and at Camp David — help define American cuisine on a national scale. Asian Heritage chefs with roots in China, Japan, the Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand have been cooking for presidents for over a century and continue to do so today.
Learn more about these chefs from Adrian Miller and their recipes, Asian and American, from Deborah Chang at this important conversation moderated by Ernabel Demillo from CUNY-TV.

AAPI New York: Stories From Brooklyn
2026-04-23 17:00 - 20:00 | Brooklyn Technical High School, 29 Fort Greene Place, Brooklyn, NY
New York City teachers, community members, and youth are invited for an interactive day of storytelling, community building, and curriculum development on the localized history of Brooklyn’s Asian American community.

Neha Dixit: Media, Power, and Democracy in South Asia
2026-04-23 17:00 - 19:00 | Room 527, Gallatin School, 1 Washington Place, New York, NY, 10003, United States
Join us for a talk by Neha Dixit on “Media, Power, and Democracy in South Asia.” Hosted by the Gallatin Human Rights Initiative, co-sponsored by the Global and Joint Program Studies, Arthur L. Carter Journalism Institute. April 23, 5 PM, Room 527, Gallatin School.

America's Taiwan Dilemma: Allies' Reactions and the Stakes for US Reputation
2026-04-23 16:00 - 17:00 | NY
Join us for a discussion with Mark Christopher, author of the new book: America’s Taiwan Dilemma: Allies’ Reactions and the Stakes for US Reputation. In conversation with policy director Jonathan Corrado, Cristopher unpacks the findings from his rigorous open-source analysis of how America’s key allies—South Korea, Japan, and Australia—would respond to US intervention or inaction in a Taiwan conflict. If Beijing attempts to forcibly annex Taiwan, Washington’s decisions will have far-reaching consequences for its credibility in East Asia and beyond. Yet, the long-term implications of these choices on America’s alliances and global standing remain largely unexamined—until now. Based on over 100 interviews with leading experts from South Korea, Japan, Australia, Taiwan, and the United States, this book provides unparalleled insight into how America’s allies view the stakes in a Taiwan contingency. It captures, in their own words, their perspectives—sometimes contradictory but consistently pragmatic—as they grapple with their reliance on the United States as a distant security guarantor and their unease with an increasingly assertive China nearby.

Bridging Gaps in Care: Policy, Equity, and Access
2026-04-23 13:00 - 14:00 | NY
This Minority Health Month, join members of the NCAPA Health committee to share how we are responding to the needs of our communities at this time as it relates to reproductive health, health equity, gender affirming care, misinformation, affordability, and recovery efforts. Speakers will also share federal policy updates and public opinion data. Attendees will develop a further understanding of the current health landscape and learn more on how to stay informed and engaged.

Finding Refuge at Bryn Mawr: The Exiled Mathematician Emmy Noether
2026-04-23 12:00 - 14:00 | Kupferberg Holocaust Center – Quensborough Community College/CUNY, 222-05 56th Avenue, Queens, NY, 11364
On November 7, 1933, Emmy Noether, the most eminent woman mathematician in Europe, arrived in New York after she was dismissed from the University of Göttingen. Dr. Qinna Shen, Associate Professor of German at Bryn Mawr College and author of A Refugee Scholar from Nazi Germany: Emmy Noether and Bryn Mawr College (2019), will reconstruct the story of how Noether found refuge in the U.S. and share ongoing efforts made by mathematicians and physicists to honor her.

Decision-making for Racial Equity (DRE) Virtual
2026-04-23 11:00 - 17:30 | NY
Provides a framework that seeks to disrupt dominant forms of decision-making that perpetuate racial bias.
Learn more about our ticket prices here: https://bit.ly/RFTicketInfo
In 2020, following the murder of George Floyd, many organizations and institutions realized the need to incorporate racial equity into their practices. However well-intentioned, many face challenges implementing racial equity across their organizations as too often, their plans and decisions are made without sufficient attention to racism, participation from people of color staff and communities, and deliberate attention to the opportunities to advance equity.
The Decision-making for Racial Equity (DRE) training provides a framework that seeks to disrupt dominant forms of decision-making that perpetuate racial bias. Through the use of Race Forward’s Racial Equity Decision-Making Tool (“RED Tool”), participants will engage and be guided through building an organization-wide racial equity decision-making practice and culture that centers Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander staff and communities..
Participants are asked to attend with other colleagues from their organization to practice working on an actual “choice point” from their real work. A choice point is a specific decision (e.g. program planning, hiring, budgeting, event planning, service delivery, grant-making, etc.)–generally a routine aspect of your core work–where applying a racial equity framework could change actions and outcomes.
Audience: This training is intended for a general audience from different types of organizations and institutions, particularly the non-profit sector, public agencies, philanthropic organizations, educational institutions, labor, businesses, and social justice groups.

Mona Tewari in conversation with Chelsea Abdullah for BURN THE SEA
2026-04-22 19:00 - 20:30 | 667 Washington Ave, 667 Washington Avenue, Brooklyn, NY, 11238, United States
Join us for the release of BURN THE SEA by Mona Tewari, as she is joined in conversation with Chelsea Abdullah.
** We kindly ask attendees to please avoid wearing scented products (such as perfumes or colognes) as they can trigger Mona’s chronic illness. **

Extravagant Camp: The Queer Abjection of Asian America
2026-04-22 16:00 - 17:30 | Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY, 10065
Dr. Eng will discuss his newly released book, Extravagant Camp: The Queer Abjection of Asian America.He will also be joined in conversation by current CRAASH member and Hunter College student, Alvi Chowdhury. An audience Q&A and book signing to follow.
What happens when we take the predominantly tragic and heroic narratives of Asian American historical violence and recast them in a queerer, more irreverent light? Eng contemplates this question by amplifying multiple valences of the term “camp,” addressing both the camps as biopolitical sites of confinement and the campy as an aesthetic mode of queer expressiveness. The book talk spotlights how campy performances that imaginatively restage canonical scenes of camps throughout Asian American history: Chinese railroad labor, Japanese American incarceration, Vietnam War refugee resettlement, and counterinsurgency camps across US imperial entanglements in the Philippines.

Angela Reyes 'From Conyo to Rizal: Elite Emanation and Inversion'
2026-04-22 14:10 - 16:00 | Columbia University – 457, 4th Floor Schermerhorn, 1200 Amsterdam Ave, Schermerhorn Extension, New York, NY, 10027
This talk explores how people imagine a twenty-first-century social persona as emanating from a nineteenth-century individual person. The persona in question is the Philippine “conyo,” regarded as spoiled, empty-headed, rich kids who speak a distinct style of “Taglish” (Tagalog-English). The person in question is José Rizal, one of the most celebrated Filipino historical figures. Drawing on ethnographic and media data, I trace how Rizal is regarded as “the original conyo,” as its first author or animator. Examining how this type-token interdiscursive link between persona and person plays on the inversion of a chronotopic frame, I consider what conceptualizing elite historical continuity accomplishes socially and economically. I argue that citing Rizal creates a channel to move value.

Nikkei Asia webinar - 'Decoding Sanae Takaichi: Japan's first female PM and the road ahead'
2026-04-22 11:00 - 12:00 | NY
Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi has made a huge splash since coming to office nearly six months ago. Her popularity propelled her ruling Liberal Democratic Party to a two-thirds majority for the first time in its seven-decade history, and she’s taken the global stage by storm with her energetic diplomacy.
Now she is facing the first major test of her time in office as the war in the Middle East roils markets and the nation’s economy. The conflict is also posing questions about Japan’s security capabilities. Will she be able to weather this crisis and set out her vision for the future of Japan in these uncertain times?
Tune into ‘Decoding Sanae Takaichi: Japan’s first female PM and the road ahead’ for exclusive insights into these questions and more from Nikkei’s news editor, veteran political journalist Naoya Yoshino.

Across Languages: New Voices in Korean Poetry
2026-04-21 18:30 - 20:30 | The Korea Society, 350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY, 10017
Across Languages: New Voices in Korean Poetry brings together acclaimed South Korean poets Lee Jenny, Yoo Heekyung, Oh Eun, and Shin Hae-uk with award-winning literary translators Archana Madhavan and Stine An, for a Korean–English bilingual reading and conversation to share the dynamism and innovations of language in Korean poetry culture. Through poetry and discussion, the speakers examine the cultural centrality of poetry in Korea and consider translation as a critical, creative practice that reshapes how literature circulates, sounds, and is felt across languages.
This program is presented in partnership with Ugly Duckling Presse and Zephyr Press.

Michael Luo with Qian Julie Wang | Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America
2026-04-21 18:30 - 19:30 | Stavros Niarchos Foundation Library (SNFL), 455 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY, 10016
Author and journalist Michael Luo sits down to discuss his lauded narrative history Strangers in the Land: Exclusion, Belonging, and the Epic Story of the Chinese in America with best-selling author and civil rights lawyer Qian Julie Wang.

The Incompatibilities Between Generative AI and Art
2026-04-21 18:00 - 19:30 | Columbia University (Pulitzer Hall), 2950 Broadway, New York, NY, 10027
The Incompatibilities Between Generative AI and Art
A conversation with author Ted Chiang and Professor Denise Cruz, Columbia University

Asian Heritage Month: Embodied Grief: Transforming Loss in Times of Climate Change
2026-04-21 12:00 - 15:00 | Richard Harris Terrace, 199 Chamber Street, New York, NY, 10007, United States
Important Note on Attendance: As this is an intimate, movement-based circle designed to foster a supportive community space; capacity is strictly limited to 18 participants and pre-registration is required.
To preserve the healing environment for all participants, we ask for a commitment to the full duration of the workshop (12–3 p.m.). Late arrivals or early departures can be disruptive to the collective process, so please only register if your schedule allows you to be present for the entire session.
This guided workshop invites participants to acknowledge and move through grief held in the body, particularly grief connected to ecological loss and collective uncertainty. In a grounded and supportive space, participants are encouraged to breathe, move, and listen to what their bodies carry, allowing pain to be witnessed and gently transformed in community.
Rooted in care and embodiment, the session offers space to clarify what feels heavy, reconnect with inner calm, and experience grief not as something to suppress, but as a pathway toward healing and renewal.
Please register here to request your spot: Register Here
Once you submit the form, we will review the responses and reach out with final confirmation by April 17th.
See a complete list of Asian Heritage Month events.
Attend 2 or more Asian Heritage Month events for Co-Curricular Transcript (CCT) credit.
If you have any questions, contact one of the following:

Professor NaRhee Ahn, Co-Chair
naahn@bmcc.cuny.edu
Shahreen Laskar, Co-Chair
slaskar@bmcc.cuny.edu

Beyond gas prices: How the Middle East War is affecting Chinese Americans
2026-04-21 12:00 - 12:45 | NY
Global politics moves fast. The U.S.-Iran conflict has opened space for China to assert new diplomatic influence, and the ripple effects are already being felt in U.S.-China relations. What does this mean for Chinese Americans with cross‑border family, work, and community ties? Join us for a discussion with Thomas Krueger, Senior Policy Advisor on national security and international affairs at Akin Gump, moderated by Ben Wu, former U.S. Deputy Under Secretary of Commerce, on how these global shifts are shaping Chinese American communities and what it means to live “between two worlds” in 2026.On April 1, the Supreme Court will hear arguments that could redefine what it means to be a U.S. citizen. It is a battle Chinese Americans have fought before. In 1898, Wong Kim Ark sued for his right to reenter the United States after being denied because of his Chinese ancestry. His Supreme Court victory established birthright citizenship as we know it.
