Check out the calendar of events beginning today at:

https://apasf.org/

Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage Month

The City’s Asian American and Pacific Islander Month celebration began on a whim nearly 20 years ago.

Claudine Cheng — then the national president of the Organization of Chinese Americans — attended a civic event in Chinatown in February 2005, where she was assigned to sit next to then-Mayor Gavin Newsom.

Cheng chatted up Newsom because, as she put it, she needed to make conversation. She had no idea it would be so consequential.

“I had to find something to talk to him about, right?” she recalled to The Examiner.

Cheng told Newsom that San Francisco had no city-sponsored celebration of AAPI Heritage Month, which the U.S. had recognized every May since 1978. Although that demographic accounted for one-third of San Francisco’s population, the community had no city-sponsored celebration similar to Black History Month or Women’s History Month.

She said the pitch wasn’t preconceived, and she couldn’t even remember what event they were attending. But Cheng said she never forgot his response.

“The mayor said, ‘Oh that’s a good idea. Let’s do that,’” she recalled.

Just like that, The City’s monthlong AAPI celebration was born. Nearly 20 years later, the festival has grown into a fixture on The City’s annual calendar and a year-round labor of love for Cheng, a former trade attorney. The 2024 iteration — which organizers are billing as celebrating 20 years of “connecting and uplifting communities” — begins Wednesday with an awards ceremony and gala.

https://apasf.org/

Greg

And SFTGG President Emeritus and consort in Porto, Portugal yesterday