|
By Pacific Citizen Staff
Published June 5, 2009
Call it "e-powering" the Asian Pacific American community. VisualizAsian.com, a new APA empowerment Web site, recently premiered its series of free teleconference interviews with prominent community leaders.
Founders Gil Asakawa and Erin Yoshimura launched the site in May to help APAs connect with their community's pioneers and leaders from politics, business, sports and entertainment.
The conversations are free and can be listened to over the phone or via a Webcast.
"The main goal is empowerment," said Yoshimura, 46. "To allow people to get close to these leaders and learn how they succeeded."
The first of the teleconference interviews kicked off May 21 with former Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, the first APA to be appointed to a Cabinet position, and the longest-serving Secretary of Transportation in U.S. history.
"What was apparent from listening to Norm — we asked him before the call if we could call him 'Norm' and he was fine with that — is how approachable he is, and how he's done all these amazing things and been the 'first' in so many ways, and yet he's a normal person," said Asakawa, 51.
The teleconference coincided with May's Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, which a then Congressman Mineta championed — along with Congressman Frank Horton — in 1978 with the House Resolution establishing APA Heritage Week and then in 1992 with a bill to expand the week to a month-long commemoration.
The conversation with Mineta drew close to 100 participants, who also submitted questions. Parti-cipants listened to Mineta tell personal stories about his internment days and the racism he encountered as mayor of San Jose.
"It's all about the personal stories," said Yoshimura.
The live events, which will be archived online and accessible to listen to any time, also highlight the movers and shakers in the community.
"Because Asian Americans are invisible in mainstream culture, we often don't know about the accomplishments of our Asian American-Pacific Islander leaders. And when we do, don't know know how and why they achieved their accomplishments," said Asakawa.
The second conversation, scheduled for June 9, will feature Yul Kwon, winner of "Survivor: Cook Island." Since winning the $1 million prize in 2006, the Korean American lawyer has continued his work in the community and in the media to dispel negative APA stereotypes.
Future interviews will include actor/activist Tamlyn Tomita, journalist/activist Helen Zia and Phoebe Eng, an award-winning lecturer on race and gender issues.
"We want audiences to learn about the great things AAPIs do, and how and why they do them, so that they can follow in their footsteps," said Asakawa.
For more information: www.visualizasian.com
|