The Serve the People Institute (SPI) will celebrate the start of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with its inaugural event on Friday, May 2, at 9:30 a.m. at the Japanese American National Museum, 100 N. Central Ave., Los Angeles.
Elected officials, community activists and leaders, and university students, staff and faculty will be in attendance to unveil SPI, a community-driven project to document, preserve, and share the issues, events, and un
derlying values at the heart of the Asian American Movement in Los Angeles in the 1960s, 1970s, and 1980s. More than a documentary effort, SPI will offer practical lessons and leadership development opportunities to contemporary activists to build on the legacies of the Asian American Movement.
SPI’s inaugural event will showcase speakers and performers who came out of the Asian American Movement, including Jai Lee Wong, an activist involved in the Free Chol Soo Lee campaign; Dan and June Kuramoto, founding members of the fusion jazz band Hiroshima; Kerry Doi, president and chief executive officer of the Pacific Asian Consortium in Employment; and Warren Furutani, director of SPI and former California State assemblymember. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Pasadena) has also been invited.
This event is free and open to the public. For additional information about the inaugural event or the Serve the People Institute, contact Christina Baggao at (213) 353-3982 or cbaggao@pacela.org. For sponsorship opportunities, contact Carol Gallant at (213) 989-3218 or cgallant@pacela.org.
SPI aims to empower Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) communities toward greater economic and political self-sufficiency by developing and cultivating the next generation of activists and community leaders. To do this, SPI brings together a unique cadre of community leaders from the Asian American Movement based in Los Angeles to document the struggles of the past and empower the leaders who will continue the fight for social justice.