May is Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, and NPR is celebrating through special coverage projects, cultural aggregations, and unique audience engagement opportunities. We have compiled these resources which include a Spotify playlist, a reading list, a picture show, a data visualization piece, Tiny Desk compilation and an opportunity for dialogue, all with a focus lens on Asian/Pacific Islander heritages.
As a company, we want to honor, uplift and celebrate the Asian/Pacific Islander community and make sure they are represented in our stories. We encourage you all to educate yourself on these topics, join our discussions and continue to be an active participant. For more information on how to achieve this, be sure to join our Twitter Spaces conversation!
Engage In Conversation
Twitter Spaces Engagement: Thursday, May 27th
Join NPR on Twitter Thursday, May 27th for a conversation about what Asian and Pacific Islander journalists and producers think about when they're covering their own communities in news and podcasts. Hear how they approach building a respectful narrative and share with them what Asian and Pacific Islander stories you want to hear from NPR! Stay on top of the latest way to engage with us by following the NPR and NPR Extra Twitters.
Special Reporting Projects:
Engaging With Asian American And Pacific Islander Heritage Month: A Reading List
In the past year, and throughout history, narratives surrounding Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been rife with violence, hardship and grief. Yet they are so much more than their experiences of suffering — beyond tales of war and isolation, there is joy, confusion, anger and relief. NPR has compiled a reading list of works from Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander writers. Through a wide range of fiction, poetry, graphic novels and nonfiction, they examine everything from motherhood and displacement to sexuality.
The Picture Show's Photographers Reflect On What It Means To Be Asian American
NPR's Visual team invited a group of AAPI photographers to share their reflections on recent anti-Asian violence and on what Asian community, culture and life really looks like. Their thoughts include worries and concerns about their families, desires to end perceptions of Asians as forever foreign, commitment to preserving culture, and love as a form of survival. Explore this photo project that turns the lens back on the photographers themselves, and demonstrates the complexity of embodying one's identity during a stressful time.
6 Charts That Dismantle The Trope Of Asian Americans As A Model Minority
This NPR data visualization project seeks to debunk misconceptions around a pernicious stereotype: the Model Minority. Since the end of World War II, this myth about Asian Americans and their perceived collective success has been used as a racial wedge — to minimize the role racism plays in the struggles of other minority groups, such as Black Americans. Characterizing Asian Americans as a "model minority" flattens the diverse experiences of the Asian American into a singular, narrow narrative. And it paints a misleading picture about the community that doesn't align with current statistics. Learn more about the inaccurate myths that underpin this concept and all the data disproving them.
Collecting Stories, Experiences, and Culture:
Celebrate with podcasts from NPR featuring the people, stories and issues at the heart of the Asian American community. This list of sixteen podcast episodes spanning over ten hours just scratches the surfaces of the different and plentiful narratives that surround the Asian American experience.
Margaret Cho's 5 Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts; Eddie Huang's Favorite Tiny Desk Concerts
In line with their series "Tiny Desk Playlists," NPR Music asks musicians, creators and folks they admire to choose the concerts and performances they've come to love. For the two editions published in May, the Music team asked comedian, podcaster and actress Margaret Cho and writer, director and author Eddie Huang to pick their favorites.
For the celebration of Asian/Pacific Islander American Heritage Month, NPR Music invited NPR staff members from the community to curate a playlist of their favorite Tiny Desk concerts featuring artists who trace their ancestry across the Asian continent and the Pacific Islands. Be on the lookout for which Tiny Desk artists resonated with NPR's API staff in this diverse compilation.
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