Forum " Preserving Asian Pacific Islander America: Mobilizing Our Communities"

Diverse populations have lastingly shaped America’s landscapes, culture, and communities. Buildings, streetscapes, and personal narratives associated with Asian Pacific Islander (API) heritage offer different lenses for contemplating uniquely American struggles and achievements. All too frequently, sites associated with America's API history go unrecognized and buildings, events, and landscapes that carry this legacy of cultural memories are threatened by demolition, abandonment, or lack of public understanding.

API communities have a crucial role to play in ensuring preservation and increasing awareness of the legacies of Asian and Pacific Island cultures in America.

A forum, Preserving Asian Pacific Islander America: Mobilizing Our Communities, will be held in San Francisco's historic Japantown June 24-26, 2010.

This constituency-building forum will convene a network of groups and individuals who are stewarding Asian Pacific Islander history and who:
• share an interest in broadening understanding of API cultural heritage in America;
• want to expand the discussion about who we are and the variety of API resources and API chapters in American history that we are struggling to preserve;
• want to share best practices, advice, and success stories to equip attendees with proven and innovative tools with which to pursue preservation efforts in their own communities;
• hope to engage new audiences and develop fresh approaches for preserving API heritage resources in these challenging times; and
• desire to put forward a pan-Asian preservation agenda and demonstrate an expanded meaning for "historic preservation" that will continue to ensure a place for diverse groups at preservation’s table.

Preserving Asian Pacific Islander America: Mobilizing Our Communities, will:
• demonstrate how preserving Asian Pacific Islander America can be synonymous with promoting community pride, cultural identity, and neighborhood vitality;
• create opportunities for stewards and advocates for Asian Pacific Islander heritage resources to forge consensus, share best practices, and increase capacity and outreach; and
• strengthen connections between the stewards of America’s Asian Pacific Islander heritage and the organized historic preservation movement.

Your input and ideas are important to us. Please help us understand whether the ideas we have identified reflect your concerns by taking a very brief survey.

Go to:
http://my.preservationnation.org/site/Survey?ACTION_REQUIRED=URI_ACTION_USER_REQUESTS&SURVEY_ID=10780

Please help us get the word out and gather input by letting others know of the forum and by forwarding this message.

Again, the dates for the forum will be June 24-26, 2010; most activities will take place on Friday, June 25.

The following groups are contributing to plans for the forum:

Angel Island Immigration Station Foundation
California Civil Liberties Public Education Program
California Japanese American Community Leadership Council
Chinese American Citizens Alliance
Chinese American Museum
Chinese Historical Society of America
El Pueblo de Los Angeles Historical Monument
Filipino American National Historical Society
Guam Preservation Trust
Japanese American National Museum
Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California
Japantown Task Force
Little Manila Foundation
Little Tokyo Service Center
National Japanese American Historical Society
National Park Service, Western Region
National Trust for Historic Preservation
Preserving California's Japantowns

Source:
Melita Juresa-McDonald | Program Assistant, Western Office | National Trust for Historic Preservation |
Email: melita_juresa-mcdonald@nthp.org | www.PreservationNation.org