May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Month (AAPI Month), when we take additional time to remember, celebrate and share the contributions and influences of Asian Americans and Pacific Islander Americans to our history and culture. The month has its origins in 1977, when Congresspeople Frank Horton and Norman Mineta, and Senators Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga introduced legislation in each chamber of the United States Congress to honor Asian-Pacific Heritage Week. May was specifically chosen since the first documented Japanese immigrant, Nakahama Manjirō, arrived on May 7, 1843, and because the first transcontinental railroad, built by Chinese immigrant labor, was completed on May 10, 1869. The week was eventually lengthened to a month in 1990 by the signing of a joint resolution by President George H.W. Bush, and its name went through various forms, from Asian-American Heritage Month to Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in 1992, and finally to its current name under President Obama in 2009.

Asian American and Pacific Islander are both relatively simplified terms that each describe a diverse group of peoples and cultures. This includes peoples and cultures from the continental regions of East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia, and the Pacific Island regions of Micronesia, Melanesia, and Polynesia. This demographic group is the fastest growing both in the United States at large. There are numerous ways to immerse yourself in or celebrate some of these cultures this month. Just a few of them are listed below: 

Asian/Pacific American Heritage (US GOV)

https://www.asianpacificheritage.gov/

Read Books with AAPI Connections (Smithsonian)

https://smithsonianapa.org/bookdragon/

Explore Asian/Pacific Art (Smithsonian)

http://www.asia.si.edu/events/families.asp

Please feel free to share other sources and ways to celebrate AAPI Heritage Month.

Best,

Corey