The Brookline Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations would like to highlight several opportunities for the Brookline Community to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month and Jewish American Heritage Month this May!
From May 1st through the end of the month, we invite you to visit the Brookline Village Library to view an exhibit by local Brookline Artist Yoonkyoung Ahn (안윤경) showcasing Korean traditional artistry.
On Wednesday, May 15, 2024, we invite you to attend the Brookline Asian American Family Network’s 9th Annual Essay Contest Award Ceremony. The Award Ceremony will be held at the Coolidge Corner Theatre from 6-8 pm. Refreshments will be served after the celebration. The Keynote Speaker for the evening will be Mira T. Lee, Author of Everything Here is Beautiful. We are looking forward to an evening of celebration and recognition of outstanding essays! The event is free, but tickets are required. Visit 9th BAAFN ESSAY AWARD CEREMONY Tickets, Wed, May 15, 2024, at 6:00 PM | Eventbrite to reserve yours! The flyer is attached! For questions regarding the Essay Award Contest Ceremony, please contact co-chairs Susan Park and Giles Li at baafnessay@gmail.com
AAPI Heritage Month will culminate with our Second Annual Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Celebration. The Brookline Asian American Family Network (BAAFN), the Brookline Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations, and the Public Libraries of Brookline invite the Brookline Community to join the celebration that will focus on AAPI stories and art and features an author discussion, student performances and exhibits of student artwork. There will also be food, puppet performances, arts & crafts, games, prizes, and more.
The AAPI Heritage Celebration event will take place on Saturday, May 18, 11 AM to 3:00 PM beginning at Hunneman Hall in the Brookline Village Library and ending at Brookline Town Hall.
This year, our Featured Author is Vincent Yee, a BHS alum, local Author, and the Creator of the World of Azen. Beginning at 11 AM, hear how he wrote this fantastical 5-book series in 6 months and why portraying Asian American superheroes is so important with Special Guest Moderator Stephanie Fan, a long-time Brookline resident and advocate. Student Performances will follow the discussion and will include performances from Baker’s Fan Dance and KPop teams, the Triveni Dancers, the Brookline High School Popcorn Dance Club, and Guzheng, Hulisi, and Chinese Drum performed by students from the Brookline Chinese School. Brookline Interactive Group will record these presentations and a video will be available for viewing afterwards.
Following the performances, we invite you to join us at Town Hall for various crafts, fun, and food at Town Hall. Crafts will include Peace Cranes, coloring pages for younger participants, a Miyazaki-themed booth with clay, calligraphy, and more! Also featured will be the Puppet Showplace and Through Me to You Puppetry as well as Kamishibai, a form of Japanese Storytelling. For more information about this year’s Celebration event https://baafn.weebly.com/2024-aapi-heritage-month.html
Immediately following the annual AAPI Celebration, we welcome you to join the Public Libraries of Brookline for an hour-long concert celebrating the works of Rabindranath Tagore from 3-4 PM. Vocalist Maitreyee Chakraborty will sing Tagore’s compositions ornamented by the melodic movements of acclaimed sarodist Pt. Anirban Dasgupta. The duo will be accompanied by Hirak Modi on harmonium and Koushik Chakraborty on tabla. Translations of the lyrics will be displayed on the screen. For more information about this concert visit: https://www.brooklinelibrary.org/events/event/songs-of-rabindranath-tagore/
Lastly, the Brookline Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations would also like to highlight and acknowledge Jewish American Heritage Month for the entire month of May. Jewish American Heritage Month recognizes Jewish contributions to American culture, history, military, science, government, and more. In 2006, President George W. Bush proclaimed May as Jewish American Heritage Month. We urge you to learn more and share resources with your neighbors!
We also want to highlight the extraordinary work of Harvey Braveman, the Producer and Director of “Soul Witness, the Brookline Holocaust Witness Project”. “Soul Witness” is a documentary film based on more than 80 hours of Holocaust testimonies conducted 30 years ago by Holocaust testimony expert, Lawrence Langer. The interview tapes sat in a metal closet in Brookline’s Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Community Relations for decades before being rescued for the making of this film. Survivors describe their lives before the war, growing intolerance, their lives during the war, and the effect their experiences still had on them at the time of the interviews. Some witnesses survived death camps, some hid, others fought in resistance movements and many saved the lives of others. You can view the trailer, learn about the intent behind the original project, the discovery of the tapes in 2014, and buy or rent the documentary here https://soulwitness.org/
Visit https://www.brooklinema.gov/2328/Engage-with-Brookline to see all of this information, plus more, in one place!