In Community: March 2023 Newsletter
The AAPI community celebrated historic Oscar wins while TAAF and other AAPI organizations raised $1.7 million for Monterey Park victims.
Dear Friends,
On Sunday evening, the Asian and Asian American community made history. The cast of “Everything Everywhere All At Once” took home seven Oscars; Judy Chin’s craft was celebrated on “The Whale”; “RRR” and “The Elephant Whisperers” told stories deeply rooted in Indian culture. Michelle Yeoh was the first Asian woman to take home the “Best Actress” award in the show’s 95 year history. Ke Huy Quan’s win showed that the Asian story is the American story—a story of resilience, perseverance and hope. And Janet Yang celebrated her first Academy Awards as the first Asian Academy President. The success of this awards season has shown our community’s ability to challenge harmful stereotypes and celebrate our cultures and narratives on the global stage.
The resilience of the AAPI community is also being demonstrated in the aftermath of the attacks in Monterey Park and Half Moon Bay. Collectively, $1.7 million was raised via GoFundMe fundraisers to assist the victims and their families with direct support, including housing, medical, and bereavement expenses. Thank you to the leadership of Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) in Half Moon Bay and Asian Americans Advancing Justice-SoCal in Monterey Park who led these efforts and are distributing the funds to those impacted.
Since our inception almost two years ago, TAAF has been focused on convening and supporting community organizations and leaders while also ensuring that our voices, our achievements, and our narratives are celebrated and seen at the highest levels. At the end of 2022, we shared our End of Year Recap, spotlighting the incredible impact of our grantees and nonprofit partners focused on anti-hate, education, and narrative change efforts. We also highlighted the commitment that corporate partners, foundations, and donors have made to our AAPI Giving Challenge, with over 70% of commitments going directly to the AAPI community and causes. With this momentum, we look forward to sharing the next phase of our strategic fundraising strategy with you in the coming months. We are doubling down on our core areas of focus—anti-hate, education, narrative change, and unlocking resources—and excited to join you in more celebrations in the future!
In solidarity,
Norman Chen
CEO, The Asian American Foundation
NARRATIVE CHANGE
Sunrise Collective: Bringing AAPI and multicultural talent together at the 2023 Sundance Film Festival
(Credit: Christine Chang/Andrew Ge)
Furthering TAAF’s commitment to AAPI creatives, TAAF, along with Daniel Dae Kim’s 3AD and Gold House, launched Sunrise Collective, the official AAPI House of the Sundance Film Festival.
- With support from The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation, Panda Express, JP Morgan, The Coca-Cola Company, United, and Airbnb, Sunrise Collective was a unifying home for AAPI and multicultural leaders, creatives, and talent.
- Three days of programming helped to cultivate important industry dialogue and build opportunities for collaboration to continue to tell rich, nuanced, and diverse stories about the AAPI community.
Veteran journalists like Amna Nawaz, Richard Lui, JuJu Chang, and Samhita Mukhopadhyay led conversations about diverse narratives across all mediums, and filmmakers including Destin Daniel Cretton, Randall Park, and Justin Chon discussed the excitement and challenges telling stories that reflect the range of the AAPI experience.
- And cultural change makers such as Gurinder Chadha, Nina Yang Bongiovi, and Rupi Kaur shared how their personal experiences have impacted their storytelling, artistic expression, and creative outlets. Videos for the Shortcomings and Asian Women Representation panels are on YouTube with more to follow.
We learned of the Monterey Park mass shooting on the last morning of Sunrise House and we focused on the second part of our mission: to be a space to celebrate achievements but also provide a place of community in moments of tragedy. In addition to celebrating and supporting AAPI storytellers, we found ourselves creating a space of collective action, community, and healing.
NARRATIVE CHANGE
Heritage Heroes: Nominate your Community Trailblazer!
AAPI Heritage Heroes, our special celebrating unsung AAPI organizers, activists, and community leaders in a dynamic program spotlighting their remarkable stories, is returning this May.
- We are looking for unsung heroes who are doing incredible work to power our communities and light the way forward. This year we're announcing a Community Trailblazer Award- nominated and voted by YOU!
- To nominate your Community Trailblazer, please click on the button below and fill out the form by Wednesday, 3/22 and tune into our Instagram (@TAAFOrg) to vote on your favorite Trailblazer!
Nominate your Community Trailblazer HERE
PARTNERSHIPS
Cultivating Women Leaders at the Inaugural TAAF Women’s Salon and Reception
On March 8, we brought together 170+ women AAPI leaders across all sectors at our inaugural International Women’s Day event in partnership with Saks Fifth Avenue. We had powerful conversations about finding our voices and our superpowers, leadership and mentorship, motherhood, allyship, and how to support each other.
- There are unique issues that we as AAPI women face, and a goal at TAAF is to not only celebrate our wins but to face the challenges together. For example, according to the McKinsey Women in the Workplace report, only 1 in 4 C-suite executives is a woman and only 1 in 50 is an AAPI woman. Together, we will make our voices louder.
- We want to extend our gratitude to Sheila Lirio Marcelo, Akila Raman-Vaseghi, Naomi Tacuyan Underwood, Yasmin Vossoughian, Annie Young-Scrivner, Erika Moritsugu and Sandra Park for sharing their inspiring stories of the state of AAPI Women in Leadership and inspiring AAPI women to be in allyship with one another.
- Saks will be donating 10% of sales to TAAF from March 9 through March 23 and proceeds will benefit AAPI women and girls. You can show your support by shopping in-person in NYC or online at saks.com using the code NYCHARITY.
NARRATIVE CHANGE
Celebrating Everything Everywhere All at Once with Vanity Fair
In the lead up to the Oscars, TAAF partnered with Vanity Fair and Richard Mille for a celebration at the new Mandarin Oriental Residences in Beverly Hills, honoring the cast and creators of A24’s “Everything Everywhere All at Once,” including Daniel Kwan, Daniel Scheinert, Michelle Yeoh, Ke Huy Quan, Stephanie Hsu, Jamie Lee Curtis, James Hong, Harry Shum Jr., and Tallie Madel.
COMMUNITY PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Building AAPI youth solidarity with Jeremy Lin Foundation’s Stronger Together Collaborative
In partnership with the Jeremy Lin Foundation, TAAF and other partners have committed $1.5M in seed funding to the Stronger Together Collaborative over three years. This initiative recognizes that to achieve cross-racial solidarity, we also have to achieve intra-AAPI solidarity. Our support goes directly to youth organizations dedicated to building bridges within AAPI communities and other communities of color.
- Together, the recipients work with over 4,000 youth from multi-generational, historically underserved, low-income families.
- Some organizations are fostering belonging within the AAPI community focused on Nepali-speaking, Indo-Caribbean, Vietnamese, South Asian, and Cambodian youth, while other organizations are already multiracial in nature providing bridge building programs between AAPI, Black, and Latino communities.
- The inaugural cohort of the Stronger Together Collaborative are Adhikaar, Apex for Youth, CAAAV (Committee Against Anti-Asian Violence), CACF ASAP (Asian Student Advocacy Project), CYI (Chinatown Youth Initiative), DRUM (Desis Rising Up and Moving), Mekong NYC , MinKwon Center for Community Action, and SAYA (South Asian Youth Action).
- For Black History Month, the Jeremy Lin Foundation featured Black grantee leaders, recognizing the amazing work of our Black leaders demonstrating solidarity & bridging the gap for people/youth of color, including Chinatown Youth Initiative (a Stronger Together Collaborative grantee), East Bay Asian Youth Center, StreetCode Academy, Harbor House Ministries, Trybe, and Hope Horizon.
AAPI GIVING CHALLENGE PARTNER SPOTLIGHT
Mastercard
Celebrating the Respect for Marriage Act with the South Asian LGBTQ+ community. Shamina Singh, founder and president of Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth and Maneesh Goyal, founder & partner at SONA & SONA Home, brought together 200+ Desi/South Asian and LGBTQ+ leaders and allies for a celebration of the passage of the Respect for Marriage Act and to uplift LGBTQ+ role models in the South Asian community. The event benefited Desi Rainbow Parents & Allies, a charitable organization that provides a community for Desi/South Asian families with LGBTQ+ members.
TAAF was a proud partner alongside Mastercard’s Center for Inclusive Growth, ADL, McKinsey & Company, Deutsche Bank, and JP Morgan. We are grateful to the host committee, our partners, and attendees including Anjula Acharia, Sarita Choudhury, Kal Penn, Alok Vaid Menon, Jay Sean, Tan France, and Lilly Singh.
AAPI Giving Challenge Partners in the News
- NFL: Lo van Pham has made history as the NFL's first-ever Asian American official. View the video here.
- JCPenney: Nepalese-American fashion designer and activist Prabal Gurung has partnered with JCPenney to launch iMPOWER, a collection to celebrate diversity, inclusion and optimism, launching March 2.
- General Atlantic: Biden nominates former Mastercard CEO and General Atlantic's current Vice Chairman Ajay Banga to lead the World Bank. See General Atlantic's announcement here.
- KPMG: KPMG welcomes Collin Morikawa as Brand Ambassador. See KPMG's announcement here.
HEADLINES FROM ACROSS OUR COMMUNITIES
New York Times: After Tragedy, Ballroom Dancers Find Hope in Each Other’s Arms
n+1: Corky Lee and the Work of Seeing
Tammy Duckworth: U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth of Illinois Re-introduces Legislation to Prevent Atrocities Like Mass Japanese American Internment from Happening Again
Facing South: The South's Asian American population is booming — and diverse