Sunday evening in the EMU Ballroom began with a bang — the bang of drums, that is — as the University celebrated Asian Pacific American Heritage Month with an event hosted by the Asian Pacific American Student Union.
The drums accompanied a traditional lion dance that kicked off an evening full of performances including hip-hop, wushu and spoken word.
“For May, we traditionally host one main event and offer a series of workshops throughout the month,” APASU co-Director Kit Myers said.
Art major Hanif Panni and English major Adam Lewis brought audience members to their feet with a high-energy hip-hop set.
“We’re here to have a good time and accentuate the positive,” Lewis said.
The Mango Tribe, a Chicago-based Asian/Pacific Islander American women’s performance team that specializes in spoken word, provided the evening’s main performance.
“It was really powerful to see APIA women on stage performing,” APASU co-Outreach Coordinator Jasmin Thana said.
The Mango Tribe presented “Bombs and Butterflies,” a performance that used singing and dancing to address issues of cultural identity, stereotyping and gender relations.
APASU co-Director Lydia Koo said it is necessary to approach such issues.
“Overall, their performance was very serious in a good sense,” Koo said. “By bringing awareness of these issues out, they show how they can be overcome.”
The Mango Tribe performance also included a collection of visual images entitled “Hello Kitty is Dead” to show a representation of the relationship between American media and Asian women. The video montage was projected on a screen that hung over the Ballroom’s stage.
“For me, as an Asian woman, these images reveal things that I already know, but throwing those images in your face is a way to alert those who are not aware,” Koo said.