Kundiman is celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month for May! To kick off the month, we are offering a poetry folio, curated by Communications Intern Patrick Raneses, for all to enjoy.
The observance originated in 1977 after a resolution was proposed to proclaim a week in the month of May to celebrate Asian/Pacific Americans. May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the transcontinental railroad's completion and the Chinese immigrants who worked on it on May 10, 1869. Since the initial resolution was passed, the celebration has since then expanded to the entirety of the month.
In this folio, we have curated a list of poems that contemplate, complicate, and celebrate the multiplicity of Asian Pacific American identities!
- Aria Aber — "genealogy"
- George Abraham — "Essay on Submission"
- Fatimah Asghar — "If They Should Come for Us"
- Marilyn Chin — "We Are Americans Now, We Live in the Tunda"
- William Nu'utupu Giles — "Deodorant"
- Janine Joseph — "Language With American Dream"
- Kien Lam — "Linsanity"
- Sally Wen Mao — "Anna May Wong on Silent Films"
- Rajiv Mohabir — "Immigrant Aria"
- Sahar Muradi — "washee/was she"
- Craig Santos Perez — "The Pacific Written Tradition"
- Terisa Siagatonu — "Atlas"
- Purvi Shah — "You Hold Twilight"
- Monica Sok — "ABC for Refugees"
- Jenny Xie — "Naturalization"