Asian American / Asian Research Institute

K-Film Series: Beyond Liberation
2025-08-15 - 2025-08-29 | Korean Cultural Center NY, 122 E 32nd St, New York, NY, 10016
The Korean Cultural Center New York proudly presents K-Film Series:Beyond Liberation, special film screenings commemorating the 80th anniversary of Korea’s liberation. This event explores the artistic achievements and historical journey of Korean cinema over the past eight decades.
The program features a wide-ranging selection of films—from timeless classics preserved by the Korean Film Archive to internationally acclaimed works, including those recognized in The New York Times’ list of “THE 100 BEST MOVIES OF THE 21st CENTURY.”
Beyond Liberation offers audiences a meaningful opportunity to reflect on the evolving identity, resilience, and creativity of Korean filmmaking through stories that have shaped—and been shaped by—Korea’s modern history.

19th Annual OCA-NY Hate Crimes Prevention Art Exhibition
2025-08-16 - 2025-08-22 | The Storefront, 127 Walker Street, New York, NY, 10013
OCA-NY’s Annual Hate Crimes Prevention Program Exhibit is showcasing at The Storefront, 127 Walker St, NYC 10013.

Dates: August 16,17,19,21,22 in the afternoons.

High school students across NYC have submitted their interpretations of this year’s theme “Confronting the Abuse of Power: Dictate Your Fate, No Fear, No Hate.” Come and be awed by the talent and artistry.

Queens Storytelling Festival
2025-08-16 15:00 - 22:30 (America/New_York) | QED Astoria, 23rd Avenue, Queens, NY, 11105
Be a part of the inaugural Queens Storytelling Festival, an all-day to late-night festival featuring local NYC storytellers. Festival programs include live performances, panelists who will discuss their craft and writing, opportunities to connect with other local artists, ghost stories, and even a chance to share your “surprise stories.” The theme is “Queens:” the borough, the women, the icons, however you choose to define it. Hear stories from Keepsake House 2025 Artists in Residence Aida Zilelian, Joey Rinaldi, Roselle Bajet, and more!

43rd India Day Parade
2025-08-17 11:00 - 18:00 | Madison Avenue (38th Street to 27th Street)
Join us for a vibrant celebration of Indian culture, music, and heritage in the heart of New York City. The parade will feature colorful floats, traditional dances, live music, and delicious food.

Sizzle! Cook, Taste, Connect: Asian Foodways Workshop
2025-08-17 11:30 - 17:00 | Flushing Town Hall, 137-35 Northern Blvd, Flushing, NY, 11354, United States
This summer, step into the culture of Asia — all in one bite. The Asian Foodways Workshop at Flushing Town Hall invites you to roll up your sleeves and experience the joy of making okonomiyaki (Japanese savory pancake) and mai zai jian (Taiwanese-style sesame pancake).

Led by the trusted culinary teams of Professor Yi-Nian Lee from Overseas Chinese University and New York Cultural Ambassador Dr. Hsing-Lih Chou, this hands-on event is more than just cooking — it’s about sharing stories, discovering flavors, and bringing the spirit of Asian street food into everyday life. Whether you’re flipping your first pancake or just here for the fun, come for a bite and leave with a memory — delicious, meaningful, and made by you. Spots fill quickly — don’t miss this opportunity to cook, taste, and celebrate culture together!

Book Club: 'The Disaster Tourist' by Yun Ko-Eun
2025-08-17 16:00 - 18:00 | Orion Bar, 157 Suydam St, Bushwick, NY, 11221
Come join us at the wonderful Orion Bar in Bushwick for a book club discussion around The Disaster Tourist by Yun Ko-Eun. Tickets are $15 and include a beverage of your choice at Orion Bar as well as an entry into a raffle for a special YPB merch and book bundle!

Webinar: Navigating Changing Laws on Voter Registration Drives
2025-08-19 14:00 - 15:00 | NY
With almost 250 local elections this year and nearly 100 on Tuesday, November 4, voter registration efforts in 2025 will definitely not take an “off year”. Nonprofit VOTE and National Voter Registration Day have partnered with our friends at the Fair Elections Center to give you the information you need on 2025 updates to voter registration drive laws – with an emphasis on state laws that have changed in the past year. As you may know, we publish a set of 50 state guides for voter registration drives and we’ve made quite a few updates to them this year based on changes to laws at the state level.
We’ll hear from election law expert and attorney Michelle Canter Cohen from Fair Elections Center and NVRD Campaign director, Chyann Sapp who will share specific examples of changes and how to adapt for the 2025 election. Bring your questions about your state’s voter registration laws and get recommendations on registering voters as we countdown the weeks to National Voter Registration Day and the November elections!

Discover Your Life & Leadership Purpose
2025-08-20 14:00 - 15:00 | NY
Patrice Tanaka, co-founder of three award-winning PR agencies, and the consultancy, Joyful Planet LLC, focused on building “purpose-driven” individuals and organizations, will conduct an hour-long “Discover Your Life & Leadership Purpose” webinar on August 20 from 2 to 3 p.m.

QBPO - INDIA INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION
2025-08-20 18:00 - 19:30 | Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Blvd, Kew Gardens, NY
Join Borough President Donovan Richards for a celebration of India’s 78th Independence Day, as Queens honors its dynamic Indian American community with an evening of cultural performances, honors for local leaders, words of wisdom, refreshments and much more.

We Need To Talk About Pakistani Cuisine
2025-08-20 18:00 - 21:00 | Museum of Food and Drink, 62 Bayard Street, Brooklyn, NY, 11222
Despite being home to one of the largest diasporas in the world, shaped by centuries of migration, trade, and shared borders, Pakistani food remains poorly understood. But that may be starting to change.
Join us for a conversation with Maryam Jillani, author of the cookbook Pakistan; Pervaiz Shallwani, Senior Writer and Editor at Bon Appétit; and Zainab Shah, food writer and contributor to New York Times Cooking, as they discuss the longstanding struggle to define and represent Pakistani cuisine in the U.S., the cultural shift currently underway, and what the future might hold.

Writing for Graphic Novels - Workshop with Wendy Xu & Chris Kindred
2025-08-21 08:00 - 17:00 | NY
Curious about the professional process of creating a graphic novel? Join Wendy Xu and Chris Kindred for a weekend intensive where they take you step by step through the craft of combining script writing and art direction, with forays into the history of the medium and their own work experiences in comics as well as games for a comprehensive and holistic understanding. No drawing skill or experience required.

QBPO - INDONESIA INDEPENDENCE DAY CELEBRATION
2025-08-21 17:00 - 20:00 | Queens Borough Hall, 120-55 Queens Blvd, Kew Gardens, NY
Join Borough President Donovan Richards in celebrating 80 years of Indonesia’s independence. Enjoy an evening filled with cultural performances, delicious food and more.
In partnership with the Indonesian Gastronomy Association and Indonesia Bersatu New York.

The Butterfly Lovers
2025-08-22 - 2025-08-24 | David H. Koch Theater, 20 Lincoln Center Plaza, New York, NY, 10023
An eternal love that defies all expectations. Reimagined by an international team of creative minds together with Hong Kong Ballet’s Choreographer-in-Residence Hu Song Wei Ricky and Mai Jingwen, The Butterfly Lovers is a legendary Chinese folktale about humble scholar Liang Shanbo and aristocratic heiress Zhu Yingtai, who disguises herself as a boy in order to study at a prestigious academy. From innocently meeting as students and forging a strong, immediate bond to dangerously rebelling against centuries-old forces that threaten to keep them apart, the lovers face unexpected challenges at every turn, as secrets are revealed and a shocking family betrayal ultimately seals their fate.

Screening - Twenty-Four Eyes
2025-08-22 19:00 - 20:00 | Japan Society, 333 East 47th Street, New York, NY, 10017, United States
Imported 35mm Print. Equally known for her longstanding relationship with director Keisuke Kinoshita as with Mikio Naruse, Hideko Takamine remains eternally bound to her role in the immensely popular 1954 epic Twenty-Four Eyes, Kinoshita’s heralded anti-war masterpiece. Posted to teach in a remote fishing hamlet nestled within the sun-drenched isles of the Inland Sea, schoolteacher Hisako Oshi (Takamine) takes special devotion to her class of first graders, a group of 12 schoolchildren—the titular “twenty-four eyes”—who grow and mature alongside their pacifist teacher in the ensuing two decades, facing hardship, joy and tragedy as Showa’s imperialism and the fervor of wartime patriotism begin to take hold. Kinoshita’s humanist drama is elegant and sprawling, a powerful work that reflects on the darkest period of Japanese history.

It’s Time for K-Culture 2025: Seoul Beauty Metro
2025-08-23 - 2025-08-26 | Korean Cultural Center NY, 122 E 32nd St, New York, NY, 10016
Seoul Beauty Metro brings together two powerful forces in Korean cultural promotion — the Korean Cultural Center New York(KCCNY)’s It’s Time for K-Culture initiative and Nurilounge’s K-Beauty Boost NYC project. This three-day experience transforms the KCCNY into a multi-level mini Seoul journey, guiding guests through Seoul’s most iconic beauty and lifestyle scenes.
From Gangnam’s glam to Seongsu’s street style, every corner of the event offers a hands-on, creator-led dive into the rhythm of Seoul life — all in the heart of New York. This collaboration marks a new milestone in aligning Korean public diplomacy with industry innovation, spotlighting the power of K-beauty and content-driven cultural exchange.

Strangers in the Land: A Conversation with Michael Luo
2025-08-24 18:00 - 20:00 | China Institute, 40 Rector Street, 2nd Floor, New York, NY, 10006
Join us for a compelling evening with Michael Luo, executive editor of The New Yorker and acclaimed author of Strangers in the Land: The Struggle for Belonging in America, as he explores the complex and often overlooked history of Chinese exclusion and the Asian American experience in the United States.
In celebration of the release of Michael Luo’s widely praised new book, Strangers in the Land, this timely conversation will delve into the roots of anti-Asian sentiment, the legacy of exclusion, and the ongoing struggle for belonging in America. Luo will shed light on untold histories, challenge enduring stereotypes, and invite us to reexamine what it means to be American in a multiracial democracy today.

Serica Storytellers with SAPAAC: Yiming Ma | These Memories Do Not Belong To Us
2025-08-24 20:00 - 21:00 | NY
In partnership with the Stanford Asian Pacific American Alumni Club, Serica is proud to host a virtual conversation with Yiming Ma, author of the debut, These Memories Do Not Belong To Us, a powerful and provocative novel that explores how governments and media manipulate history to control the collective imagination, set in a future where a renamed China is the sole global superpower.

Level Up Your Civic Holidays Activations: Go beyond tabling, free food, and merch!
2025-08-26 13:00 - 14:00 | NY
Join us for a virtual training collaboration from National Voter Education Week, Vote Early Day, and Campus Takeover designed to help you plan and execute high-impact Civic Holidays activations that will boost voter engagement in your community and build lasting connections with voters. Learn how to go beyond free food and swag to design interactive, eye-catching, and impactful activations that draw people in — and keep them coming back. Whether you’re just starting to brainstorm ideas or already planning an event, this session will leave you with valuable insights on how you can elevate your efforts to draw the maximum number of voters, even with a simple setup.

Vote Early Day 101 August Workshop
2025-08-27 14:00 - 15:00 | NY
This year, Vote Early Day partners will organize in person and online actions to empower their friends or neighbors to vote early nationwide. We hope you will join our monthly workshops to learn best practices and gain access to incredible tools to help your organization build an engaging and impactful celebration this fall.

Theater: GUT (굿) Act 2: Memoirs
2025-08-28 - 2025-08-30 | HERE Theater, 145 6th Avenue, New York, NY, 10013
Memoirs (Act 2) is the second act of GUT (굿), a three-act autobiographical hybrid/dance work and the fifth and final installment of Soomi Kim’s series exploring mortality in Korean and Asian American lives. Act 2: Memoirs examine the complex legacy between a Korean American daughter and her immigrant father, as she pieces together the history of a man she never truly knew. Set between 1950s postwar Korea and present-day America, Memoirs traces a poetic journey through grief, fragmented memory, and complicated love—asking: how can we let go when grief is a knot of longing and regret?

Festival & Screening - 9-Man: 80 Years of Chinatown Legacy
2025-08-31 15:00 - 21:00 | Columbus Park, 67 Mulberry Street, New York, NY, 10013
Celebrate 80 years of 9-Man with an evening of food, music, and local vendors in the heart of Chinatown. This special community event honors the legacy of the game and the people who’ve built it—on and off the court. Whether you’re a longtime player or just discovering 9-Man, come experience the culture and community that make it all possible.

Asian American Authors in Conversation: Tony Tulathimutte - Rejection
2025-09-02 18:30 - 20:00 | Chatham Square Library, 33 East Broadway, New York, NY, 10002
Please join author Tony Tulathimutte as we discuss his collection of short stories Rejection : Fiction. Booksigning to follow Q&A.
Tony is author of the novels Private Citizens and Rejection. His work has been published in The Paris Review, N+1, The New York Times, The New Yorker, The New Republic, Playboy, and elsewhere. He has received a Whiting Award and an O. Henry Award and Rejection was longlisted for the National Book Award.

Recruiting Volunteers and Drawing People to Your Event
2025-09-03 14:00 - 15:00 | NY
Whether you are planning a small celebration or a large activation, getting people involved is essential to your success. Vote Early Day and National Voter Education Week are teaming up to provide a hands-on session that will provide practical strategies for recruiting volunteers and increasing event attendance to make your activation a success. We’ll discuss proven outreach tactics, templates for promotional materials, free resources, and strategies for building excitement and engagement around your event.

Sound and Directing – with Emily Strong
2025-09-03 18:00 - 20:00 | The City College of New York – Shepard Hall, 259 Convent Avenue, New York, NY, 10031
Please join Thirdworld Newsreel and the Documentary Forum at CCNY for talk on sound recording and making films with documentary filmmaker and sound mixer Emily Strong.

NYUL Presents Center for Black Excellence Speaker Series with James Rhee and John King
2025-09-03 18:00 - 20:00 | Roosevelt House Public Policy Institute at Hunter College, 47-49 East 65th Street, New York, NY, 10065
NYUL’s Center for Black Excellence Speaker Series launches at The Roosevelt House at Hunter College. Join us & SUNY Chancellor John King & entrepreneur James Rhee for a timely discussion on safeguarding and strengthening higher education for underserved communities in the current political climate.

Who Is This Music For? Asian Diaspora, Counterculture, and Access
2025-09-03 18:30 - 20:30 | The Clemente Soto Vélez Cultural & Educational Center, 107 Suffolk St, New York, NY, 10002
A4 brings together Asian diasporic artists from experimental/countercultural music scenes and community leaders to discuss the lack of access Asian diasporic communities have to countercultural arts. Artists in the diaspora, especially those who work within experimental and countercultural scenes, often challenge traditional boundaries of genre and aesthetics.

MOCA x NYAFF Film Club: Saving Face
2025-09-03 18:30 - 21:00 | Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY, 10013
A queer romantic comedy set in vibrant, multicultural New York City, Alice Wu’s irresistible feature debut breathed fresh life into the charming story of a young woman’s complicated life and her pursuit of love amid the chaos. Wilhelmina is a 28-year-old overworked medical resident living in Manhattan with no social life. Her widowed mother, Ma, cannot understand why her desirable daughter spends all her time at work. Ma, meanwhile, appears to be a traditional ChineseAmerican woman still under the thumb of her ultra-strict father. That Wilhelmina and her mother are both products of the very insular, traditional (and, yes…gossipy) Chinese-American community in Flushing, Queens makes the usual family ties even tighter.
A true love letter to New York City, SAVING FACE is told with a great deal of warmth and humor, as everyone tries to sort out their emotions and fulfill their obligations…to themselves and to each other, while all along acknowledging their not-so-secret lives and trying to “save face.”
It was the first Hollywood movie that centered on Chinese Americans since The Joy Luck Club (1993).

Who Tells the War? Community Memory and the Vietnam War’s Enduring Legacies
2025-09-03 21:00 - 22:30 | NY
2025 marks 50 years since the end of the Vietnam War. This Luce Webinar hosted by the Center for Southeast Asian Studies, will examine the enduring consequences — particularly through the lens of how it differently affected communities across Southeast Asia. How the war is remembered, represented, and how do communities remember the war in ways that shape meaning, identity, and local history. Whose narratives are preserved or amplified? Whose voices are overlooked or silenced? From community-led memorials and oral histories to state-sponsored museums and the intentional absence of commemoration, the ways in which the Vietnam War is remembered reflect not only historical trauma, but ongoing struggles over identity, legitimacy, and visibility. In a time when factual accounts alone often fail to capture the complexity of lived experience, we explore how social memory is actively (re)constructed—and how communities reclaim authorship over how their histories are told.

Ed Park: An Oral History of Atlantis with Mira Jacob
2025-09-04 18:30 - 20:00 | The Korea Society, 350 Madison Avenue, 24th Floor, New York, NY, 10017
A deadpan, wildly imaginative collection of stories that slices clean through the mundanity and absurdity of modern life, An Oral History of Atlantis is the newest collection of short stories from Ed Park, the author of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize–winner and Pulitzer Prize finalist Same Bed Different Dreams.

Early AAPI Performance and the Construction of “Asian-ness”
2025-09-04 18:30 - 20:30 | Museum of Chinese in America, 215 Centre Street, New York, NY, 10013
From Exhibition to Expression: AAPI Performing Arts History is a three-part series exploring the rich and complex history of AAPI performance in America. From the early exhibition of Asian bodies to the fight for authentic representation on stage and screen, this series traces the evolution of AAPI artists in entertainment. Through discussions on yellowface, Hollywood’s early depictions, Broadway’s barriers, and the rise of Asian American theater, we’ll examine the struggles and triumphs that have defined AAPI performing arts.
In the first lecture, Professor Suzi Takahashi will delve into the history of early AAPI immigration to the United States and explore the earliest forms of AAPI performance in America, examining how Asian bodies and cultures were exhibited for public spectacle. Other topics to be covered include the Chinese Exclusion Act, the construction of “Asian-ness” in American melodrama, and the creation of Madame Butterfly—a work that continues to influence perceptions of Asian identity on stage and screen today.
