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As a board member of Hyphen–Droga5's Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) affinity group–I've led agency-wide initiatives working closely with leadership. From concepting and executing month long programmings to leading ERG meetings, I've dedicated my time to cultivate space for the AAPI community and share my culture with the agency.
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Our goal for the 2022 AAPI Heritage Month was to champion the defiant, resilient, and joyful nature of the AAPI community. With the state of events surrounding a yet another rise of Asian hate crimes, we wanted to foster a much-needed visibility and pride for our group.
With that, See Us was born. |
See Us came to life in three key areas:
See Us Thrive–
show how success comes when our passions and identities collide. |
See Us Feast–
show how food is a cultural expression that tells our story. |
See Us Live–
show the way that our identity influences everyday life. |
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From bubble tea to cannabis and record labels, tastemakers from the AAPI community bring their perspective and experience to ventures that are shaping mainstream culture. We hosted a roundtable discussion where influential voices like these can share how their inspiration and vision are shaping the bigger culture.
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We invited Brian Nam, Eddie Nam, and Eric Nam–three brothers trailblazing in the music, tech, and culture space for an all-agency panel. I moderated the conversation where they shared their business journey with DIVE Studios and Mindset, Eric’s K-Pop career, and more.
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People love “discovering” diverse neighborhoods, but oftentimes the mainstream guides are written from a non-AAPI perspective. We created an Instagram Guide to share our tried and true spots to visit across NYC. Curated from the AAPI perspective, we wanted a resource available all year long that supports our favorite AAPI owned businesses.
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AAPI cuisine oftentimes gets typecast and vilified, yet it is simultaneously adored and devoured in equal measure. Whether it's a poorly written op-ed on things you shouldn’t eat or a prop in ads to act as shorthand for takeout food, AAPI cuisine is often the subject of stereotyping. The reality is that AAPI cuisine is not just one style of food, but rather a collection of different cultures and traditions that have evolved and adapted to various migrations and invasions over centuries.
To combat and challenge the stereotypes, we created content that showcases the rich heritage and diversity of our food, how it’s made, and where it originates. To make it fun and educational we hosted Starch Madness, a March Madness style bracket where we shared recipes and took to Instagram to settle the age-old rice vs. noodles debate. |
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In collaboration with the Latinx affinity group Somos, we highlighted the similarities between Filipino and Hispanic cultures through food.
We created a cooking video with a Filipino member from Hyphen, and a Puerto Rican member from Somos, where they came together to cook adobo and engage in a conversation about their cultures. Derived from the Spanish word adobar, or “to marinate,” adobo in many ways is a symbolic dish that exemplifies how separate cultures persist and evolve despite colonial influence. |
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We are often faced with stereotypes that try to dictate who we are and whether we belong. To show the world through our own eyes, we created a photo capsule that commemorates and visualizes how we see us. Unable to share here but a special part of the month, we highlighted stories and visually timestamped how we’re feeling, and reinforced the breadth of our non-monolithic experiences.
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Lunar New Year in 2021 approached us at the time of heightened hate crimes against the Asian community.
We created sharable educational content to help raise awareness of the resurrecting hate crimes that were being under looked, and shared actionable resources to spread beyond the agency. |
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Born Between Worlds was our theme for the AAPI Heritage Month in 2021.
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