We’re celebrating Asian Pacific American Heritage Month this week by highlighting young Asian American leaders in the Twin Cities. Check out some of the cool work they’ve done recently and why it’s important to do this work.
This list is not exclusive.
#1 – AAOP’s Youth Action Team
The Youth Action Team began in Fall 2019 and is composed of 5 high school youth from St. Paul: Saylia, Pa, Pakou, Kimi, and Pa Hok. Since graduating from the Summer Youth Organizing Fellowship program in Summer 2019, they’ve further developed their youth organizing skills and focused on bringing more mental health resources to their peers and high schools.
They’ve worked with local organizations like Unidos/Navigate MN and have facilitated Mental Health workshops geared towards youth. These workshops have given space for youth to learn and use tools for mental health well-being.
Even with the shift to virtual spaces, the Youth Action Team continues to meet virtually to continue building mental health resources for teens — something that is needed in crucial times like this. They aim to publish a mental health well-being zine by youth for youth. Their work also includes holding space with high school administration on mental health resources and support.
#2 – Kevin Yang (he/him/his)
Kevin Yang (he/him/his) got involved in Street Stops and Mountain Tops through another local Hmong artist, Tou SaiKo Lee. Kevin and Tou SaiKo first met after an API open mic when Kevin was just beginning to discover spoken word poetry. A poet, slam artist, and community advocate, Kevin says poetry helped connect him with the community — whether it’s through the topic or the reasoning behind the writing.
SSMT’s work in bridging diasporic Hmong communities across the globe deepens cultural identities through artistic exchange and education. It felt especially powerful being in Thailand, Kevin says. The work empowered the Hmong community, globally, to tell their own stories.
“Media making and digital storytelling is such a powerful platform,” Kevin says. “It teaches you how to understand, how to ask questions, how to listen very carefully; it teaches you how to work with other people, to invite other truths and other skills to the project because you can’t do it alone.”
#3 – Marina Kittaka (she/her/hers)
Marina Kittaka (she/her/hers) works in video games, comics, and other diverse media. Her video game work includes the Anodyne series, Even the Ocean, and Secrets Agent. Anodyne is modeled after classic adventure games like the Legend of Zelda with a heavy dose of surrealism and introspection. Many of the stories she creates explore birth, metamorphosis, and existentialism.
Marina uses stories to marry ideas and emotion. The turning point in her journey of telling stories, she says, was when she completed How You Like Your Eggs. How You Like Your Eggs tells the story of a friendship between a bird egg and a caterpillar, each of them facing metamorphosis. This story was completed before she knew she was queer or trans.
“When I wrote it, I identified with the Egg character, but now I identify more with the butterfly character,” Marina says. “It was a very special experience of allowing themes that are important to me to come through in a safe and indirect way.”
Identity was very much fluid and complicated for Marina.
“I tend to approach identity very indirectly in terms of trying to create characters that kind of exist in these spaces of tension or limbo,” she says.
You can learn more about Marina’s work at: marinakittaka.com
#4 – Paulina Hoong (she/her/hers)
Paulina Hoong (she/her/hers) will use CAAL’s Spark Leadership Fund with Sandy Lor (she/her/hers) to showcase authentic Asian cuisine in the Twin Cities from 15 ethnicities spanning Southeast Asia, East Asia, and South Asia through blog posts on a website and social media platforms such as Instagram. With COVID-19 impacting many Asian restaurant businesses, Paulina and Sandy identified a need to highlight Asian restaurants.
“We noticed that a lot of Asian restaurants in the Twin Cities aren’t featured in mainstream media, so we wanted to feature those restaurants,” Paulina said. “It’s important to help them increase business during COVID-19 and give them the spotlight that they deserve. We hope that our project will help these amazing restaurants gain much-needed visibility in Minnesota, and bring them to the forefront of the conversation of excellent food and reduce racial stigma to the virus.”
The project is set to launch soon with the very first visit to NL Oriental Market, where they will spotlight Hmong cuisine. Later this month, they plan to visit Paulina’s family’s restaurant in Blue Earth, China Restaurant, to highlight Chinese American cuisine. The website will launch in June.
Aside from this project, Paulina is also part of a community group that centers the experiences of Asian, femme, trans, and women identities. In this space, Paulina and others explore anti-capitalism in a nurturing and encouraging environment.
To keep updated on their project, check out MinnesotaRice.com or @minnesota.rice on Instagram.
#5 – L. Kling
L. Kling (they/them) or Pickle Witch, as bestowed by friends, began their pickling business in sharing their love for food with friends and family. In their home, it was important that food was shared with everyone. Food became not just a way to communicate, but also to heal.
“There is nothing that says love more to me than fruit that’s been peeled and cut and put on a plate,” L. Kling says.
L. Kling is also the founder and lead organizer of Support Local Hustle, which began in September 2017. The market space prioritizes Black, Indigenous, People of Color (BIPOC) vendors and creates a space for BIPOC artists, crafters, and makers to test their product. The nontraditional market structure allows makers to experiment and be messy, but also provides support for vendors that differs from many craft markets.
“In our society, there’s a culture of expertise. There’s an expectation that you know what you’re doing and you’re going to do it right, and it’s going to be perfect,” L. Kling says. “It’s harmful that we’re not allowed to be messy, to experiment or fail, or figure it out, or learn from each other. So that’s how Support Local Hustle started.”
The most recent Support Local Hustle was held virtually at the end of March, pivoting to digital while many organizations still debated in-person gatherings. Many of the organizers and vendors that are part of SLH have disabilities, or are immuno-compromised. Some are caretakers, but many depended on the market for income so the pivot to digital was crucial.
And the virtual sale was a success. Several vendors even sold out.
To find more information about Pickle Witch or SLH, check out their instagrams: @picklewitch, @supportlocalhustle.
#6 – Annie Moua (she/her/hers, any)
Annie Moua (she/her/hers, any) is a youth organizer part of CAAL’s Becoming Organizers, Becoming Advocates (BOBA) program. She recently wrote a story on the difficulties of distance learning as a second generation queer Hmong student, describing the different tasks and duties she needs to complete as the oldest child, before attending class.
This story was also inspired by Annie’s sister, whose health conditions means that Annie’s priority is to support her family before she can attend online class. While she initially felt hesitant to share this story, Annie realized how important it was to have that youth perspective.
“I think it’s really important to let people know that we’re [students] not just staying home, not doing anything if we’re not doing your work. We’re actually going through things, we’re struggling like crazy out here. You can’t just assume without asking, without acknowledging that you know we’ve got stuff going on at home too.”
Having student voices was especially important, Annie argues.
“There’s a lack of youth representation, especially within the education system, especially during this time. There are a lot of decisions being made without youth, but it’s the youth’s future that we’re talking about.”
As part of the BOBA program, Annie will be working with other BOBA participants to launch a social media campaign on Tik Tok on how youth are impacted by the pandemic.
#7 – Sophia Chang (she/her/hers)
Sophia Chang (she/her/hers) is currently a high school student and a canvasser with AAOP focusing on Census outreach. She also sits on the Minnesota Youth Alliance governance committee.
“As a young Asian American, I see how important it is for us to use our own voice to help other people,” Sophia says.
While the Census outreach work is mostly through phone calls and previously, door-to-door conversations, Sophia says it’s meaningful because helping even one person fill out the Census means that the impact will last 10 years.
“As young people become adults, this is our responsibility to become active in our democracy and realize how important it is to participate and take advantage of everything that we have,” Sophia says.
Since learning more about the impact of the Census, Sophia looked for other ways to do Census outreach. Through AAOP, she was able to connect with the Census Bureau and created a Complete Count Committee at her high school, DeLaSalle High School.