New Exhibition

I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story

For Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2013, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center is proud to open the exhibition, I Want the Wide American Earth: An Asian Pacific American Story, at the National Museum of American History on May 1, 2013. Visit the exhibition on the third floor. Click here to view photos from the opening reception.

This year's APA Heritage Month theme is I Want the Wide American Earth, based on a poem by Carlos Bulosan and our upcoming exhibition opening on the same day. The theme captures how the Asian Pacific American experience is aspirational—in spite of the challenges that define a particular era, generations of Asian Pacific Americans have remained steadfast in their belief in America.

As Bulosan so eloquently writes:

"Before the brave, before the proud builders and workers,
I say I want the wide American earth
For all the free.
I want the wide American earth for my people.
I want my beautiful land.
I want it with my rippling strength and tenderness
Of love and light and truth
For all the free."