We hope you and your loved-ones are safe and comfortable.
As you may know, all in-person programs that the Asian Culture Center and collaborators have planned for the 2021 AAPI Heritage month have been made virtual due to the COVID-19 pandemic. While COVID-19 has caused a massive disruption in our daily lives, both personally and professionally, we are going to do our best to prevent the virus from interrupting our mission to inform, educate, and advocate for you and the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
As part of IU's tradition of honoring the history, culture, and contributions of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) as well as recognizing the issues affecting the AAPI community and in the diaspora, we would like to invite you to join us virtually by participating in the following programs.
Thank you and we look forward to connecting with you.
2021 Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month Virtual Programs:
Upcoming Events:
ACC Virtual Office Hours with Kevin and Sarah
Dates: Tuesdays at 12 PM ET, Jan. 26 - Apr. 27
Description: Kevin and Sarah will be hosting weekly drop-in virtual office hours for students. If you have a question, want to chat, or want to connect, join us! Please register in advance here.
ACC Virtual Office Hours with Hibah and Kelly
Dates: Thursdays at 5 PM ET, Jan. 28 - Apr. 29
Description: Hibah and Kelly will be hosting weekly drop-in virtual office hours for students. If you have a question, want to chat, or want to connect, join us! Please register in advance here.
2021 IU Asian American Studies Program Undergraduate Essay Contest
Deadline: Fri, April 2, 11:59 pm ET
Description: The Asian American Studies Program invites submissions for the most outstanding undergraduate academic essays and research papers addressing Asian American/Pacific Islander/diasporic subjects and issues. Submissions may be of any length, including citations. Submissions should be formatted as follows: double-spaced with standard margins and standard font and citation style appropriate to the paper’s disciplinary approach (i.e. MLA, APA, or Chicago). Papers should include a cover letter with the following information: applicant’s name, email address, phone number, undergraduate level, major and minor, and paper title. Competition is open to College of Arts and Sciences Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate students. Submit your entries as a word or pdf file to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. $250 awards (multiple may be given).
2021 IU Asian American Studies Program Physical Distancing Creativity Showcase
Deadline: Fri, April 2, 11:59 pm ET
Description: Send us your smart, interesting, weird creations that address the theme “Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, + COVID-19.” The format is up to you. Here are some suggested guidelines: Text (fiction, non-fiction, poetry, etc.): up to 3000 words; Still Visual (photography, graphic design, etc.): one image + accompanying text of up to 1000 words; Sound or Video: up to five minutes length + accompanying text of up to 1000 words. Competition is open to College of Arts and Sciences Indiana University Bloomington undergraduate and graduate students. Submit your entries to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.. Please include your name, year, major/minor/degree/program (whichever is relevant to you). $200 awards (multiple may be given).
Indiana Review Blue Light Reading Series
Date: Sat, April 3
Time: Workshops at 10 am ET, Reading at 6 pm ET
Description: Blue Light Books’ Annual Reading and Workshop will feature poet and prose-writer Sally Wen Mao. Mao is the author of Oculus (Graywolf Press, 2019) and Mad Honey Symposium (Alice James Books, 2014). She is the recipient of a Pushcart Prize and fellowships from the New York Public Library and George Washington University. Her work has been published in Poetry, Kenyon Review, Tin House, A Public Space, and the Best American Poetry. She is currently a Shearing Fellow at the Black Mountain Institute in Las Vegas. Register here.
IU Asian Alumni Association Career Panel
Date: Thurs, April 22
Time: 7 pm ET
Description: Join to hear from a panel of Asian IU Bloomington alumni working in a variety of fields and professions. Panelists will share the highs and lows of their career journeys. Zoom link here.
AAPI Heritage Month: Arts Industry Insight
Date: Monday, April 26, 2021
Time: 5 PM PST (8 PM EST)
Regist here or email This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for link
Description: Join us for a Zoom panel as we elevate AAPI voices and provide a space to discuss topics like social impact, representation, equity, and more within the media industry! We will have non-profits such as Asian American Arts Alliance and OCA Asian American Advocates with us to talk about their work too.
Letters for Black Lives: A Conversation
Date: Sat, April 3
Time: 3 – 4 pm ET
Description: The Asian Culture Center, in cooperation with the Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council (APAFSC) at Indiana University, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign Asian American Cultural Center and the University of Illinois Chicago Asian American Resource and Cultural Center, invites you to join us in a moderated conversation about the Black Lives Matter movement. Please register in advance. For queries or for more details, please contact Kulsoom Tapal at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Minority Association of Premedical Students’ Diversity Shindig: A Tour Around the World
Date: Wednesday, April 14, 2021
Time: 7 pm ET
Zoom Meeting ID: 861 4932 2517
Description: Join fellow students to learn about the various cultures represented at IU! Hosted by the Minority Association of Premedical Students.
Department of Folklore and Ethnomusicology Colloquium Series presents, Dr. Margaret Magat, author of Balut: Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora
Date: Friday, April 16, 2021
Time: 4 pm ET
Register here
Description: In “Balut: Fertilized Eggs and the Making of Culinary Capital in the Filipino Diaspora,” Dr. Margaret Magat explores both the traditional and popular cultural contexts of eating balut, embryonic eggs that have developed feathers and beaks. Hailed as an aphrodisiac in Filipino culture, balut is often used as an object of revulsion in Western popular culture and this work draws on interviews, participant observation, reality television programs, food blogs, and balut-eating contests to examine how traditional foods are used in the performance of identity and ethnicity. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Folkmore and Ethnomusicology, the Journal of Folklore Research, IU Food Studies Institute, and the Asian Culture Center.
Jacobs School of Music Community Conversations: Diversity Guidance from Campus Experts
Date: Thursday, April 22
Time: 7-8:30 pm ET
Registration link
Description: Everyone is invited for the next in our series of virtual discussions, “Jacobs School of Music Community Conversations: Diversity Guidance from Campus Experts,” featuring a panel of representatives from the Office of the Vice President for Diversity, Equity and Multicultural Affairs and the Office of the Vice Provost for Diversity & Inclusion. This Community Conversation will focus on programs of IU's various culture centers, the services they provide to students, and how Jacobs students, faculty, and staff, can be better allies and support their important work.
Resources on responding to COVID-19 related racism and xenophobia
The Asian Culture Center, with the assistance of other units, has compiled a list of resources for students, faculty, staff, and community members page. This page provides links to report bias incidents and hate crimes, ways to respond and stand against racism, and additional readings.
More resources for IU students, faculty, and staff
We are sharing a list of resources that other organizations located on and off campus have compiled in addressing support for food, shelter, financial and well-being needs for faculty, staff, and students. This page also includes articles about community-engaged classes and programming, virtual volunteer opportunities, and regional resources.
Update on COVID-19
Please visit coronavirus.iu.edu for up-to-date information, but also feel free to contact us This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The doors to the IU Asian Culture Center may be closed, but we are more than happy to assist, chat, and engage with you in a remote fashion.
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Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month 2020
Remembering our Beginnings: Stories of Asian American and Pacific Islanders
Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month Opening Reception
Date: Friday, March 27 at 4:30-6 pm | Venue: University Club President’s Room (Reception followed by talk in the Whittenberger Auditorium)
Kick off the month-long celebration of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at IU Bloomington. Special guest Jonny Sun is the author and illustrator of everyone’s a aliebn when ur a aliebn too and the New York Times best-selling illustrator of Gmorning, Gnight! by Lin-Manuel Miranda. He is a writer for the sixth season of the Netflix Original Series BoJack Horseman, and is writing a movie for 20th Century Fox (https://www.jomnysun.com/). Jonny Sun will give a formal talk following this reception at Whittenberger Auditorium at 6 pm. Mr. Sun’s visit and presentation is made possible with support from the Union Board. This event is free and open to the public and is co-hosted by the Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council.
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Film Screening: “Chinatown Rising”
Date: March 29, 2020 | Time: 4 pm | Venue: IU Cinema
Amidst the social upheavals of the 1960s and 70s, a young student from San Francisco’s Chinatown set out to document the political turmoil rolling his own community. Armed only with a 16mm camera and leftover film scraps, Harry Chuck captured the astonishing energy of Chinese American activists who challenged conservative elders and helped launch the Asian American Movement. Shot over 45 years, Chinatown Rising features exquisite unreleased archival footage to tell of this unprecedented moment in Asian American history. This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, and the IU Cinema. The film screening is free, but ticketed.
Fridate with Scholars Without Borders
Date: Friday, April 3 | Time: 4-6 pm | Venue: IU Asian Culture Center
FriDate is an opportunity for student organizations to shine! A different student organization hosts each week to share information about their organization and host an activity, which may include a cultural event, a social hour, or discussion. This event is open to the public.
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Film Screening: “Lingua Franca”
Date: Sunday, April 5 | Time: 4 pm | Venue: IU Cinema
In this beguiling drama, an undocumented Filipina immigrant works as a caregiver to a Russian-Jewish grandmother in Brooklyn. Secretly paying an American man for a green-card marriage, the threat of deportation constantly shadows her. When he backs out, she begins a relationship with a slaughterhouse worker who is unaware that she is transgender. In English and Tagalog with English subtitles. Contains mature content, including sexual situations. Director Isabel Sandoval is scheduled to be present for this screening. This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, and the IU Cinema. The film screening is free, but ticketed.
Discussion with Dr. Grace Peña Delgado, author of Making the Chinese Mexican Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands.
Date: April 6, 2020 | Time: 4-5 p.m. | Venue: La Casa (715 E 7th St)
In recognition of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, La Casa and Latino Studies Program is hosting a videoconference discussion with Dr. Grace Peña Delgado. on her book Making the Chinese Mexican Global Migration, Localism, and Exclusion in the U.S.-Mexico Borderlands. Making the Chinese Mexican examines the Chinese diaspora in the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. Through an intersectional approach to racism and immigration, it looks at the experiences of Chinese migrants in the region during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. This book challenges the reader to reexamine the complexities of nation making, identity formation, and the meaning of citizenship and represents an essential contribution to the general understanding of the U.S.-Mexico borderlands. About the author: Grace Peña Delgado is Associate Professor of History at UC Santa Cruz whose area of work focuses on Border Studies, Ethnicity, Chicana/o Studies, Nationalism, Immigration, Latin American and Latino Studies, Sexuality, Asian American Pacific Islander History, and Mexico.
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Film Screening: Aparisyon
Date: Monday, April 6 | Time: 7 pm | Venue: IU Cinema
The tumult leading up to Ferdinand Marcos’s 1972 declaration of martial law has infiltrated even the cloistered walls of Adoration – a monastery nestled deep in the woods outside of Manila. Avoiding the careful watch o Mother Superior, wide-eyed novice Sister Lourdes begins attending political rallies surreptitiously with Sister Remy, a young nun suffering a crisis of faith following her brother’s protest-related disappearance. Pitting prayer against political action, guilt against sin, Apparition tackles the repercussions of (mis)construing the actions of men as the will of God. In Tagalog with English subtitles. This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, and the IU Cinema. The film screening is free, but ticketed.
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Film Screening: Short Films
Date: Tuesday, April 7 | Time: Doors Open at 5 pm with a reception; Screening at 6 pm followed by Q & A with filmmakers until 7:45 pm. All events free, but ticketed. Tickets can be secured through the BCT Box Office | Venue: Buskirk-Chumley Theater
This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, the IU Cinema, and the Asian Pacific American Faculty and Staff Council. Filmmakers Drama del Rosario, Haley Semian, and Shelly Yo are scheduled to be present for a Q&A following the films: The films in this short-film program include:
- In this Family (2017) Directed by Drama del Rosario
- I’m Okay (and Neither Are You) (2019) Directed by Drama del Rosario
- Moonwalk With Me (2018) Directed by Shelly Yo
- Chinese Hoosiers (2017) Directed by Haley Semian
- Halwa (2018) Directed by Nirav Bhakta (Tentative)
- “In this Family” by Drama Del Rosario – 12 mins; filmmaker will be present
In This Family is a short documentary that looks at how one Filipino family reacts to having a gay son. Revisiting unreleased audio recordings of fights from inside his own home, documentary filmmaker Drama Del Rosario shares his story of being outed as a teenager, dealing with his family's reaction, and the society's percipience on homosexuality. Beyond coming out, the film speaks about how parents learn to embrace their children unconditionally.(summary from IMBD: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt7812080/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl)
- “I’m Okay (and Neither are You)” by Drama Del Rosario
This short film recently won the inaugural BAFTA-GSA Commissioning Grant. The film explores the filmmaker’s personal story of sexual assault trauma and mental health from the perspective of a gay couple.
- “Moonwalk with Me” by Shelly Yo – 14 mins filmmaker will be present!
A story about a Korean American girl named Juno who is haunted by her father's disappearances. Upon his return, Juno must decide to keep her drifting father grounded or to let him go. (summary from IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt10009596/)
- “Chinese Hoosiers” by Haley Semian – 7 minutes
Chinese Hoosiers (2017) is a documentary short that takes a look into the lives of Chinese international students at Indiana University. We will see how this "common group" of people live their lives in vastly different ways and how they've all found home in the Hoosier state.
- “Halwa” by Nirav Bhakta - 17 minutes (tentative)
On the eve of her wedding anniversary, empty-nester Sujata Chopra attempts to find some joy in her broken marriage, until she learns about the passing of her childhood companion's spouse on Facebook. Having been disconnected from this woman for over 30 years over a misunderstanding, Sujata finds the courage to reach out to send her condolences. They reconnect, sparking friction when Sujata's controlling husband, Dr. Chopra, finds out.(description taken from IMDB: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt9075918/plotsummary?ref_=tt_ov_pl)
Zarzuela in Three Continents
Date: Wednesday, April 8 | Time: 8 pm | Venue: Auer Hall
The lyric-dramatic genre of zarzuela may have originated in Spain, but its popularity extended throughout the Hispanic world and was cultivated widely in Latin America and the Philippines, where it still enjoys popularity today. Join the Latin American Music Center for a concert highlighting the rich variety of zarzuela repertoire, with songs drawn from works by Philippine, Latin American and Spanish composers from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. The program will also highlight some of the often overlooked musical, cultural and historic connections between these three parts of the world.
Film Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Screening: “When We Walk”
Date: Thursday, April 9 | Time: 7 pm | Venue: IU Cinema
Director Jason DaSilva’s autobiographical When We Walk tracks his daily exertions balancing his progressive multiple sclerosis and fatherhood. The follow up to the Emmy Award-winning When I Walk (2013), When We Walk is the second installment of a documentary trilogy chronicling a devoted filmmaker and father’s indestructible drive to keep the cameras rolling no matter what – and to show his son what it means to never give up. This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, and the IU Cinema. The film screening is free, but ticketed.
Movement: Asian/Pacific America
Film Screening: “Lingua Franca”
Date: Friday, April 10 | Time: 7 pm |Venue: IU Cinema
In this beguiling drama, an undocumented Filipina immigrant works as a caregiver to a Russian-Jewish grandmother in Brooklyn. Secretly paying an American man for a green-card marriage, the threat of deportation constantly shadows her. When he backs out, she begins a relationship with a slaughterhouse worker who is unaware that she is transgender. In English and Tagalog with English subtitles. Contains mature content, including sexual situations. This film screening is part of “Movement: Asian/Pacific America,” a partnership between the IU Asian Culture Center, the Asian American Studies Program, and the IU Cinema. The film screening is free, but ticketed.
Fridate
Date: Friday, April 17 | Time: 4-6 pm | Venue: IU Asian Culture Center
FriDate is an opportunity for student organizations to shine! A different student organization hosts each week to share information about their organization and host an activity, which may include a cultural event, a social hour, or discussion. This event is open to the public.
Monday Table Topics with Diana Wuli, D.M. candidate
Date: Monday, April 20 | Time: 12-1 pm | Venue: IU Asian Culture Center
“New Identities” featuring Anna Mach
Date: Thursday, April 23 | Time: 5 pm | Venue: IU Asian Culture Center or IMU State Room West
"New Identities" is a solo viola recital featuring works by four Asian composers. The recital explores the blend of Western and Eastern musical traditions and how that creates a unique musical identity. Anna Mach is a Filipino-American studying viola performance and music theory at the Jacobs School of Music. She is also a Student Chef at the Asian Culture Center and enjoys exploring cuisines from across Asia! Light reception will be served following the recital.
End of the Year Banquet
Date: Wednesday, April 29, 2020 | Time: 6-7:30 pm | Venue: IMU Tudor Room
The Student Recognition Banquet is a three-in-one annual celebration held to recognize graduating students as new IU alumni, to recognize the Asian and Asian American student leaders at IU for their contributions to the university, and to appreciate the volunteers of the Asian Culture Center. By invitation only.