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Campus groups to celebrate April as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month

Talks, demonstrations and cultural exhibits have been scheduled throughout April as part of the campus celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. The annual event is being cosponsored by the Yale College Dean's Office, the Asian American Cultural Center and the Asian American Students Association (AASA), as well as other campus organizations.

The month of activities will kick off on Friday, April 3, with a cultural show and dinner on the theme "Rice: A Celebration of Pan Asian Unity." The evening will feature Yale students presenting demonstrations of Korean drumming, the traditional Vietnamese hat dance, South Asian dancing and Chinese-American kung fu. The event will be held 5-9 p.m. in the Afro-American Cultural Center,
211 Park St. Tickets will be sold at the door. For information, call 432-2906.

The dance, art and food of the Hmong peoples will be presented in a Hmong Cultural Exhibit at 2 p.m. on Sunday, April 5, in the Asian American Cultural Center, 295 Crown St. This event is free and open to the public.

A discussion titled "More Than Black and White: Asian Americans and Civil Rights" will be presented at 7 p.m. on Monday, April 6, in the Law School's Levinson Auditorium, 127 Wall St. The event will feature two speakers: Angela Oh, a California attorney who is an adviser for the President's Initiative on Race, will talk about her experiences on that commission; and Bill Lee '71, acting assistant attorney general for civil rights at the U.S. Department of Justice, will speak about his office's agenda.

Oh, who specializes in state and criminal defense at the Los Angeles firm of Beck,
De Corso, Daly, Barrera & Oh, has long been a leader in the organized bar and civic organizations in the Los Angeles area. Following the riots in 1992, she was appointed as special counsel to the Assembly Special Committee on the Los Angeles Crisis. She has also served as commissioner to the Los Angeles City Human Relations Commission and president of the Korean American Bar Association of Southern California, among her many other activities.

Considered one of the country's leading civil rights attorneys, Lee has spent his 23-year career defending the rights of Americans in such areas as employment discrimination, prevention of lead poisoning in poor children, and equal access to health care, public transportation and education. Before joining the Justice Department in 1997, he served as western regional counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund, the civil rights firm founded by the late Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall.

"More Than Black and White" is free and open to the public. The event is cosponsored by the Pacific Islander, Asian and Native American Law Students Association, as well as the organizations listed above.

Other highlights of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month will include:

* An art show featuring works by Yale College students, which will be on display Wednesday-Friday, April 8-10, in Maya's Room of Silliman College, 505 College St.

* A talk titled "Asian Americans on Stage: 'M. Butterfly' and Beyond" by author and playwright David Henry Hwang, who won a Tony Award for his play "M. Butterfly," at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 11, in Sudler Hall of William L. Harkness Hall, 100 Wall St.

* An open house at the Asian American Cultural Center 1-4 p.m. on Friday, April 17.

* A panel on "Grass Roots Activism" at 3 p.m. on Saturday, April 18, in Sudler Hall.

* A master's tea with Chris Lee, president of Tri-Star Entertainment, at 4 p.m. on Friday, April 24, in the Jonathan Edwards College master's house, 70 High St.

All of the above are open to the public free of charge.

The month-long celebration will conclude with two off-campus events, both on Sunday, April 26. Yale undergraduate Diveya Kumar '98 of Silliman College will present "Translations: South Asian Dance" at 7 p.m. in the Educational Center for the Arts, 24 Audubon St. The second annual AASA Formal will be held 9 p.m.-1 a.m. at Gecko's, corner of College and Crown streets. For more information about the latter, call Neela Moorty at 436-1662 or Taylor Le at 436-1312.

Other scheduled events during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month include study breaks, film screenings and demonstrations. Watch the Calendar of events in this paper for information about these activities.


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