Members of the AAPI community tell us how they are celebrating AAPI Heritage Month

By Carolyn Bick
NORTHWEST ASIAN WEEKLY

In honor of AAPI Heritage Month, the Northwest Asian Weekly asked how community members planned to celebrate the month. While there is a sense of anxiety that stems from the rhetoric at the federal level, all those whom the Northwest Asian Weekly spoke with said they are deeply proud of their heritage, and plan to celebrate the month in different ways.

Sanya Kapoor
Vice President of SASA

I’m Asian American, born and raised here, but my cultural roots have always been a huge part of who I am. My connection to the AANHPI community comes from my family and the spaces I’ve found in school, especially through the South Asian Student Association (SASA) at Seattle University, where I’m currently the vice president.

Growing up, our house was always filled with music, traditions, religious celebrations, and food that reminded me of where we came from. That connection hasn’t faded at all, but rather it’s grown stronger as I’ve gotten older and found joy in sharing it with others.

This month is an opportunity to reflect on how much richness exists in our identities and celebrate everything that makes our community so beautiful and resilient. It’s also a time to reclaim our place—to make sure our stories are heard, our culture is seen, and our experiences are honored.

We just hosted one of my favorite events of the year so far on campus, a Pani Puri fundraiser through SASA! For anyone unfamiliar, pani puri is an adored, delicious, Indian street food: crispy, hollow puris filled with spiced potatoes and tangy, flavorful water—it’s messy, delicious, and impossible to eat just one.

We made everything from scratch, and invited the whole school community—students, faculty, staff—to try it. Watching people light up when trying it for the first time felt so special. Events like this are my favorite way to celebrate: sharing the food I grew up with, inviting others into our traditions, and having fun while doing it.

Also, dressing up and dancing to Bollywood music is such a core part of my identity. I choreograph dances all the time—it’s my creative outlet and one of the most joyful ways I stay connected to my culture. Growing up, dancing at family weddings or just in our living room was the norm, and that energy still lives on in me.

The best part is that none of it feels forced. My connection to my culture is something I genuinely love. I get to be fully immersed in both worlds—American and South Asian—and it makes me feel proud, grounded, and so fulfilled.

[The rhetoric at the federal level is] honestly frustrating at times—there’s been a lot of hurtful rhetoric in recent years, and it makes you feel like you have to constantly explain or justify your place here. But instead of letting it wear me down, it’s made me more committed to showing up for my community. It makes celebrations like AANHPI Heritage Month even more important. We deserve to be seen year-round, but this month gives us a chance to be loud, joyful, and unapologetic about our identities.

I love being Asian American. It’s not something I’m trying to balance or figure out—it’s something I’ve grown into, something that gives me strength. And I truly enjoy sharing it with everyone around me, whether they’re part of the AANHPI community or not. There’s something powerful about owning your story and letting it shine.

Vedika Dave
Diversity and Inclusion Officer of SASA at Seattle University

I am an Indian American, first generation immigrant.

I wouldn’t say I am doing anything extraordinary for AANHPI month. I am close friends with a lot of amazing members of our community, so I would say the most enriching thing I am doing is just honoring this month with them.

I am acting intentionally to support and uplift my friends, and make space for their stories to be shared. Additionally, I am spending a couple days currently in my hometown with family and close friends that I grew up with, almost all of [whom] are also AANHPI. When I am with my family, I often participate in Indian traditions and my favorite part of that is eating all of our traditional foods, from both North and South India.

The impact of the current administration and the rhetoric being projected onto people of color in America weighs heavily on me.

As the first child to my parents who made the difficult decision to leave their lives behind in India and immigrate to a country that has gone out of their way to perpetuate negativity against our people, I am deeply saddened. People of color are the backbone of American society, yet we are faced with increasing adversity pushed by the aggressively conservative politicians in power currently.

In this difficult time and in light of AANHPI month, I am dedicated to fostering a stronger sense of community amongst my people. We are nothing without unity and community, and the most  powerful tool to utilize in times like these is our power as a collective.

As the Diversity and Inclusion Officer of SASA, I feel that I am the most empowered to take upon this task and I will lead my community interactions with this mission in mind. I plan on advocating for our rights as Asian American immigrants and hopefully I will empower my community to find power and solace by creating our own system of liberation.

Leilan Solip
Member of the Bidayuh community, a collective of several Indigenous groups from Sarawak, Malaysia

I’m Asian, I’m an Islander, but I don’t really do things specifically just for the month, because I feel like for me, I represent my culture wherever there is an opportunity that arises.

For example, I would represent my culture at the Asia Pacific Lunar New Year celebration. Recently, one of the schools had an event where they had a heritage or international night, and I went and represented my culture there. And just wherever there is a need and an opportunity, I’m there. So I don’t necessarily look at just a month in a year to do that, to represent my culture.

And neither do I let any political situation stop me in the way of doing that, because I think if we all take the time to understand each other’s culture, we could bridge that, the differences or any just sheer misunderstanding about people that don’t look like us, if we only take the time to learn about other people’s culture.

To me, that is the first step: Once you seek to understand what other cultures are, I think that would bridge a lot of gaps that … have unintended consequences, because people are just not—they’re ignorant of other people’s culture. So, I’m always seeking to share my culture with people, and at the same time, I’m always looking at learning more about other cultures, because I come from a very multicultural and very diverse background. It’s second nature for me to just embrace and appreciate other people’s culture.

We grew up celebrating other people’s festivals or religious, you know, activities that are not necessarily our own, and they, in turn, would do the same, and that way we establish that goodwill among our communities and neighbors.

When I grew up, I came here to the U.S. as an exchange student, and I went to high school under the International Intercultural Exchange Program. I learned that definitely breached a lot of gaps—like I would present about my culture at my school, my community, churches, and Rotary clubs, and kids and adults alike would ask me a lot of questions that shocked me. But I would explain to them and answer their questions, and I realized how, if we don’t take the time to educate ourselves and learn about each other’s culture when the opportunity arises, we don’t have to wait for the month to do that, right? To me, that is of the utmost importance, so I do it regardless of the month, and I do it regardless of who is out there. To me, it’s nothing and we shouldn’t be political about it.

We all come from diverse heritage and background, no matter which part of the continents we come from or what color our skin is. So, that, to me, is what makes a beautiful mosaic of the society today, and to me, that is what makes it so colorful and beautiful, when we learn to embrace each other’s culture. But first, we need to seek to learn about it and be open to learning about other cultures. I think it’s sad when people only look at their own.

It’s kind of like looking at things in just one dimension or one color, when there’s so much out there to be gained by embracing other cultures.

Noemi Cagatin-Porter
Filipina founder of nonprofit housing organization CJK Community Homes

I’m a founder of a nonprofit organization here in Pierce County. We do housing, on-site mental health, financial literacy, and rental reporting.

We are housing about 135 individuals now in Pierce County, 25 families and about 30 single adults in 20 or so scattered sites. I just actually finished our financial literacy for our Asian community up in the Renton Chamber of Commerce. We’re looking to continue hosting and facilitating more financial literacy for our Asian community, so we can continue to provide access to opportunities.

I’m an immigrant. I’m from the Philippines. [In doing this work, I] highlight my culture and my community that we are out here, doing work within our community. And we are trying to make impacts not only within our own culture, but the community that we serve and the people that live in our county.

With all the stuff that’s going on with the political climate, I’ll be honest with you: It’s scary right now for me, and also for our community members.

For me, the things that I’m going to be doing for myself, really, is just a lot of family time, because not only do I have a day job, but I do a lot of my work for the nonprofit. And so I just focus on my family, as I take care of my parents, and just having a lot of family time. Those are things that I don’t get a chance or opportunity to do too much, because the community takes a lot of me.

[I find taking care of] my family and community really to be impactful, because, you know, we require a lot of support, especially more so than I do. And we are able to have the opportunity to pay things forward, and continue to focus on community and our culture.

My parents are almost in their 90’s. And so taking them out, spending family time, getting all the families together, so we can celebrate them, celebrate us, celebrate all of the years and the sacrifices … my parents have made, to set us up for success, even in the difficult times of our upbringing.

I’m grateful, definitely grateful, to be in a country where there’s so many opportunities that’s in front of us. Regardless of a lot of the things that’s going on right now, we continue to look and seek for joy and hope that will overcome it. For everything that negative happens, there’s always opportunities that you can also see and focus on.