NOW Live from the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center

Over 35 years ago, some of the America’s finest public servants—Representatives Norman Mineta and Frank Horton, and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga—believed that the nation should recognize the consequence and complexity of its Asian Pacific heritage. Their efforts led to the designation of the month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.

This May, the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center commemorates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month not just as a national moment, but also as a global one. Asian Pacific American communities in the United States are the nation’s fastest growing population. Asia accounts for more than a third of all new immigrants in the country. In less than 50 years, nearly one of every ten people in America will trace his/her heritage to Asia and the Pacific, an area that covers more than one third of the earth, including the Far East, Southeast Asia, the Indian subcontinent and the Pacific, and home to nearly half of the world’s humanity, natural life, nations, economies, and major faiths and languages.

Click here to see our #IAmBeyond projects

America is—and has been—an Asian Pacific story.

The Center’s theme is #IAmBeyond, a phrase that is meant to empower Asian Pacific Americans in their sense of inclusion in the national story and spark discovery and appreciation of America’s Asian Pacific heritage. #IAmBeyond gestures to the aspirations of the American spirit, how Americans of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have always sought to excel beyond the challenges of our time. #IAmBeyond recognizes Dalip Singh Saund’s election as the first Asian American Congressman in 1957 after campaigning for the rights of all Asian immigrants to become naturalized U.S. citizens. “#IAmBeyond recognizes the civil rights work of Larry Itliong and Philip Vera Cruz in championing for the rights of American workers across communities. #IAmBeyond recognizes the achievements of Patsy Mink, first woman of color and first Asian American woman elected to Congress, a woman whose legacy includes the promotion of equal opportunity in education. #IAmBeyond recognizes the legacy of Chinese American Grace Lee Boggs, a major figure in the civil rights movement who continues to work on empowering communities in Detroit, MI at nearly 100 years old. #IAmBeyond recognizes the patriotism of Daniel K. Inouye, decorated World War II veteran and long-time Senator, whom President Barack Obama has called “a true American hero” and “my earliest political inspiration.” #IAmBeyond is the theme of the new Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center exhibition Beyond Bollywood: Indian Americans Shape the Nation, a look at the history, art and culture of Indian immigrants and Indian Americans in the U.S. beyond stereotypes.

Please join us in recognizing the rich and complex past, present, and future of Asian Pacific American communities, our organizations, our leaders and innovators, our artists and musicians, our organizers and activists, our teachers and students, our youth and elders—Americans of Asian Pacific descent from all walks of life.

Konrad Ng
Director
Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center