Celebrate and learn more with community members during Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month. These events are FREE and open to the community.
Smithsonian Conversations in Context
May 9, 2023, 6 p.m., Traverse Area District Library
Join us for a screening of Conversations in Context, hosted by MTV News correspondent Yoonj Kim and produced by the Smithsonian Channel. The brief films cover a number of topics, ranging from Asian American stereotypes in Hollywood to student protests for socioeconomic change.
Before the film, enjoy some light refreshments provided by a local AAPI restaurant, and afterwards for a post-screening panel discussion with AAPI community members.
Please register in advance. Limit of 80 people. If you would like to join online for the panel discussion only, please register for Zoom on TADL’s website. Zoom attendees can watch the Smithsonian shorts on their own via The Smithsonian’s YouTube channel.
BAD AXE screening
May 15, 6 p.m., Dennos Museum Center
Winner of the 2022 Critics’ Choice Documentary Award for Best First Doc Feature & the TCFF Audience Award for Best Feature Film, Bad Axe captures a closely-knit Asian American family living in rural Michigan during the pandemic as they fight to keep their local restaurant and American dream alive. With rising racial tensions, the family uses their voice and must unite as they reckon with backlash from a divided community, white supremacists and intergenerational trauma from Cambodia’s “killing fields.”
Before the film, enjoy some light refreshments provided by a local AAPI restaurant in the Dennos Sculpture Court. Then, join us in Milliken Auditorium for brief remarks with the film to follow. Please register in advance. Limit of 250 people.
Generous support for this project provided by Northwestern Michigan College, Northern Michigan E3, the Grand Traverse Regional Community Foundation and Oryana. Additional program partners include the Traverse Area District Library, Dennos Museum Center, and the Traverse City Human Rights Commission.