AAPI COVID Vaccine Booster Clinic at UPMC Mercy Southside, November 14.

Marian Lien of OCA Pittsburgh shares news of an AAPI COVID Vaccine Booster Clinic taking place on November 14.

We will be holding an AAPI COVID Vaccine Booster Clinic THIS SUNDAY Nov. 14th. from 9am to 12pm with translators on site. All vaccines Moderna, Pfizer, and J&J will be available. Reminder, to have a booster, you must be at least 6 months from the date of your second Moderna or Pfizer vaccine or first J&J vaccine. We also have a limited supply of children's vaccines available for those 5 years old to <12 years old. We will also have free flu vaccines on hand.

It will be at the UPMC Southside Clinic (2000 Mary Street Pittsburgh, PA 15203). No need to bring your ID, just your vaccine card so the nurses can fill out. Everyone is welcome!

October 17 Peelander-Z show cancelled.

The Peelander-Z concert, scheduled for October 17 at Club Cafe, has been cancelled.

Pittsburgh Chinatown celebratory event scheduled for May 2022.

The Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA) Pittsburgh has moved its celebratory event for the city's Chinatown neighborhood from September 2021 to, tenatively, May 2022, due to safety concerns. Pittsburgh's historical Chinatown neighborhood was granted a state historical marker in March, after numerous attempts over the decades, and there is an online fundraiser to raise money toward the plaque and celebration.

After 12 long years and 4 separate attempts, non-profit OCA Asian Pacific American Advocates of Pittsburgh has finally succeeded in getting official Pennsylvania historical landmark status for Downtown’s old Pittsburgh Chinatown! You can help us complete this project! We need $5000 to complete the bronze plaque made to the state’s specifications describing the designation. We hope to have a celebratory event this September in person!

Thank you so much for your generosity and contribution to help keep our rich history alive!

Post-Gazette: "Pandemic and aggression toward Asian Americans highlights Pittsburgh’s lack of centralized AAPI community."

The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette writes on Pittsburgh's figurative and literal AAPI communities amidst the COVID-19 pandemic and increased hostility toward Asians and Asian-Americans.

Pittsburgh’s Asian American community, which lacks the numbers seen in cities such as New York City and San Francisco, has found the angry sentiments difficult to process.

Without a place to gather or a stable network, the Pittsburgh Asian American community cannot come together and heal the same as other communities, said Caroline Yoo, of Los Angeles, a a master’s degree candidate at Carnegie Mellon University.

“In L.A., even though there’s that type of racism, you have community. Whereas in Pittsburgh, even though there is a community, it feels just a little bit quieter,’’ Ms. Yoo said.

“It’s only my first year here. In my experiences, there isn’t this huge hub of just Asian celebration anywhere, and I think because of that lack of celebration and the lack of visibility, in ways all the little micro-aggressions build. And you end up just swallowing it up and repressing rather than releasing it, crying for help from your other members of the community.”

Combating Hate against Asian Communities - Allyship and Advocacy: Responses to Xenophobia and Hate Crimes, May 11 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh's Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion will present "Allyship and Advocacy: Responses to Xenophobia and Hate Crimes" on May 11.

Join the Office for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion as we welcome Professor Sheila Velez Martinez who will lead the discussion, Allyship and Advocacy: Responses to Xenophobia and Hate Crimes Targeting Asian Communities. This discussion will address how the Pitt community can increase advocacy and support members of the Asian community. Professor Velez Martinez is the Jack and Lovell Olender Professor of Asylum Refugee and Immigration Law, the Co-Director for the Center for Civil Rights and Racial Justice, and the Director of the Immigration Law Clinic for the University of Pittsburgh’s School of Law.

We encourage you to share this invitation with your networks and we look forward to your participation.

The online event runs from 2:00 to 3:00 pm and registration is required.

AAPI COVID Vaccination Clinic, April 18 (part 1) at JCC in Squirrel Hill; Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Khmer, and Thai translators/interpreters on site.

The Jewish Community Center in Squirrel Hill will host an AAPI COVID Vaccination Clinic on Sunday, April 18. Organizers note that there will be "20 Mandarin, Cantonese, Spanish, Khmer, and Thai language translators on site."

This is the first of a 2-part Pfizer vaccination. (The second vaccine will take place on May 16th.) You do NOT NEED AN Identification card, social security number, or insurance card for this clinic. EVERYONE who is 16-years and older will be vaccinated. Those interested should register online. The JCC is located at 5738 Forbes Ave. in Squirrel Hill (map), accessible by buses 61A, 61B, 61C, 61D, 64, and 74.

Pitt's ASA, Crisis Relief Club, and SASA present "Discussion on East / Southeast Asian Violence" on March 25.

The Asian Student Association, Crisis Relief Club, and South Asian Student Association invite students to a Discussion on East / Southeast Asian Violence" on March 25.

ASA x CRC X SASA present a virtual healing space for students to come and discuss the prevalent and ongoing anti-Asian hate crime and violence in the United States. We will be having a round table discussion and will also provide a resource toolkit on how to support the Asian American community and be an ally.

The event runs from 9:00 to 10:00 pm on Zoom (977 7619 2019) and is open to the student community.

PublicSource shares perspective on anti-Asianism in Pittsburgh and "how media, government and academia fail Asian women."

photo by Jay Manning for Public Source.

Alexis Lai in PublicSource shares perspectives on anti-Asianism in Pittsburgh: "As a Han Chinese woman in Pittsburgh, I see the Atlanta massacre exposing how media, government and academia fail Asian women."

The massacre has been infuriating on many levels, but not at all surprising to anyone who has been genuinely listening to Asians in America. In fact, a year ago, when the first case of COVID-19 was reported in Pittsburgh, I wrote that it wasn’t paranoid to wonder if there would be another Vincent Chin. An American of Chinese ancestry, he was beaten brain dead in Detroit in 1982 by two white men furious about the growing Japanese dominance of the auto industry. His murder, for which his attackers were merely fined $3,000, galvanized the Asian American civil rights movement.

What is perhaps even more outrageous than the Atlanta attack itself is the tepid overall response from the federal government, local law enforcement, the mainstream news media and the general public – all who still refuse to acknowledge the violence for what it is. Asian Americans are having to continually justify why the killing spree was unambiguously a hate crime against working-class Asian women – enraging, exhausting emotional labor that only compounds the indignity and injustice they are facing in a time of exquisite crisis.

As a Han Chinese woman of Hong Kong ancestry, as a journalist with a decade of professional experience, as an international graduate student in America, and as a journalism and creative nonfiction instructor at the University of Pittsburgh, I have been numb with fury by the culture of complicit complacence toward anti-Asianism.

More at PublicSource.org.

"Salon Conversation with Cathy Park Hong," March 24 at Carnegie Mellon University.

Carnegie Mellon University's Miller Institute for Creative Art will present "Salon Conversation with Cathy Park Hong" on March 24.

Questions for Cathy Park Hong can be emailed in advance of the event at miller-ica@andrew.cmu.edu

This conversation between facilitator Dana Bishop-Root and writer Cathy Park Hong, will continue the Miller ICA salon series of conversations with individuals who imagine and actualize possibility on the other side of the pandemic portal.

Cathy Park Hong’s book of creative nonfiction, Minor Feelings, was published in Spring 2020 by One World/Random House (US) and Profile Books (UK). Minor Feelings is a ruthlessly honest, emotionally charged, and utterly original exploration of Asian American consciousness and the struggle to be human. The book has garnered praise from literary legends such as Claudia Rankine who said, “Cathy Park Hong’s brilliant, penetrating and unforgettable Minor Feelings is what was missing on our shelf of classics....To read this book is to become more human.”

Cathy Park Hong is also the author of poetry collections Engine Empire, published in 2012 by W.W. Norton, Dance Dance Revolution, chosen by Adrienne Rich for the Barnard Women Poets Prize, and Translating Mo'um. Hong is the recipient of the Windham-Campbell Prize, the Guggenheim Fellowship, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship. Her prose and poetry have been published in the New York Times, New Republic, the Guardian, Paris Review, Poetry, and elsewhere. She is the poetry editor of the New Republic and is a full professor at Rutgers-Newark University.

Dana Bishop-Root lives in gratitude, is guided by relationships, listening deep and expansive possibilities with an ever present commitment to justice. She is the Director of Education and Public Programs at the Carnegie Museum of Art, a founding member of General Sisters, Transformazium and a huge advocate for the Braddock Carnegie Library Association.

The online event runs from 7:30 to 8:30 pm and registration is required.

UPPDA Coffee Hour: Addressing Anti-Asian Racism at Pitt, March 26.

The University of Pittsburgh Post Doctoral Association (UPPDA) will host "UPPDA Coffee Hour: Addressing Anti-Asian Racism at Pitt" on March 26.

At the University of Pittsburgh, we are dedicated towards supporting Asian postdocs and faculty during this difficult time. UPPDA will be hosting a Coffee Hour this Friday, March 26th at 5PM, dedicated to addressing anti-Asian racism at Pittsburgh and in our society. Daniel Jacobson López, Chair of Diversity and Inclusion, will be available to respond to any inquiries and communications regarding this imperative matter. Daniel is a trained anti-bias facilitator with the Anti-Defamation League and Licensed Social Worker.

The onilne event runs from 5:00 to 6:00 pm and advance registration is required.

"Pittsburgh Rally for Solidarity," March 24 on Flagstaff Hill.

"Pittsburgh Rally for Solidarity" is scheduled for Wednesday, March 24, starting at Flagstaff Hill and moving to Schenley Plaza in Oakland.

Meet at Flagstaff Hill (Across from Phipps Conservatory) 3:00pm
3:00pm Sign Making
4:00pm Rally Begins
4:15pm Speakers
4:45pm March to Schenley Plaza
(8 mins of silence for the 8 victims)
5:30pm Closing Remarks

Community members in Allegheny County: join us in solidarity with organizers from marginalized communities as we continue their legacies and uphold their work. Violence against Asian/Asian Americans is not new, and it is rooted in the same state-sanctioned sources of harm that impact all of our communities, including racism, xenophobia, sexism, police, white supremacy, cisheteropatriarchy.

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) organizing COVID vaccine sign-ups for local seniors, offers Korean-language support.

The local branch of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) is organizing COVID vaccine sign-ups for local Korean speakers 65 and older, as well as those 16 to 64 who qualify, in addition to providing support for Chinese-speakers.

"Combatting Anti-Asian Violence Amidst COVID-19: Perspectives from Local and National APIA Organizers," March 15 at Pitt.

The University of Pittsburgh will present "Combatting Anti-Asian Violence Amidst COVID-19: Perspectives from Local and National APIA Organizers" on March 15.

Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Asians and Asian Americans have been scapegoated as bringing and carrying disease across the country. This rhetoric is not new. In this timely and critical panel, hear from local and national Asian American activists about how Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities are combatting targeted hate violence, how to be in solidarity with victims of racism & xenophobia, and what forms of justice our communities are fighting for. This event is co-sponsored by the Department of Sociology, the Global Hub, and the Asian Studies Center at the University of Pittsburgh. We thank our panelists, Sam Huynh (AQUARIUS), Judy Suh (APALA Pittsburgh), Tiffany Diane Tso (AAFC), and Randy Duque (PCHR) for their time and expertise in contributing to such an important conversation.

The online event starts at 4:00 pm and registration is required.

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) organizing COVID vaccine sign-ups for local seniors, offers Chinese-language support.

The Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA) is organizing COVID vaccine sign-ups for local Chinese speakers 65 and older. From its Facebook page, with other languages to come soon:

**COVID-19 Vaccine sign-up for people 65 years and older. Info in other languages coming soon!** 申請COVID-19疫苗接種: http://bit.ly/37rzeu6
匹茲堡大學醫學中心(UPMC)目前致力於協助年滿65歲或以上人士接種2019新型冠狀病毒疫苗 (2/17/2021資訊)，亞太裔美國勞工聯盟匹茲堡分部 (APALA Pittsburgh) 在和匹茲堡大學醫學中心(UPMC)合作，協助年滿65歲或以上的民眾申請，您所提供的資訊只會和UPMC分享，UPMC將與年滿65歲或以上的申請者聯絡以確認申請者符合資格。
這個表格是針對年滿65歲或以上人士，年齡介於16-64之間且有特定醫療狀況的民眾可能符合賓州疫苗接種的資格，但並不符合本次的申請資格。
凡居住或工作在賓州的人士，疫苗費用全免。您無需任何醫療保險即可預約。
線上申請: http://bit.ly/37rzeu6
無法填寫線上表格的民眾，可以打 412-532-8517，我們的志工會在電話上協助你登記，若無人接聽請留言或傳短訊。
如有任何问题或需要协助填写表格，请發短信或留言至 412-532-8517 或来信 apalapgh@gmail.com。如您對接種疫苗有任何疑問，請諮詢您的醫療保健提供者。

September screenings of 2019 Chinese documentary Our Time Machine (时光机) cancelled due to Rangos Giant Cinema's closure.

The 2019 Chinese documentary Our Time Machine (时光机) was to play online via Carnegie Science Center's Rangos Giant Cinema from September 11 but it, and other upcoming events, are cancelled due to the cinema's closure for the foreseeable future.

The Rangos Giant Cinema is closed indefinitely due to the challenging circumstances created by the COVID-19 pandemic.

It will still be available online via dozens of other theaters nationwide from September 11 through 25.

Replay of "A Conversation Too Long Ignored: How COVID-19, Xenophobia and Systemic Racism Disenfranchise the Marginalized Communities of Pittsburgh" from Pitt Diversity Forum 2020 now available.

This year's installment of the annual Pitt Diversity Forum, titled Advancing Social Justice: A Call To Action, featured a number of topics related to Asian-America and xenophobia on July 29. A replay of the livestream of "A Conversation Too Long Ignored: How COVID-19, Xenophobia and Systemic Racism Disenfranchise the Marginalized Communities of Pittsburgh" with Marian M. Lien, Josiah Gilliam, and James Cook is now available:

Topics on Asian-America, xenophobia at Pitt Diversity Forum 2020, July 28 to 30.

This year's installment of the annual Pitt Diversity Forum, titled Advancing Social Justice: A Call To Action, will feature a number of topics related to Asian-America and xenophobia. It is open to the Pitt community and runs from July 28 to 30. Particularly relevant topics include, on July 29:

A Conversation Too Long Ignored: How COVID-19, Xenophobia and Systemic Racism Disenfranchise the Marginalized Communities of Pittsburgh (Livestream)
Marian M. Lien, Josiah Gilliam, and James Cook

As the pandemic escalated with cases, it also intensified daily impacts of systemic racism on Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC). Facilitators at this workshop will discuss local perspectives of how racist and xenophobic incidents including physical and verbal assaults have dramatically increased against the Asian and Asian American populations, and how the pandemic has negatively affected the BIPOC communities who were already experiencing limited access to health care, paid sick leave, economic insecurity, and higher rates of underlying conditions such as diabetes, heart disease and respiratory illnesses that make COVID-10 infections deadly. They will share organizational and community action plans, as well as creating alliances, partnerships, and coalitions to reach a racial equity vision.

Applications for APALA Pittsburgh COVID-19 cash assistance available in English and Chinese (so far).

The Asian Pacific American Labor Association Pittsburgh branchhas opened applications for a COVID-19 cash assistance program for those unable to receive stimulus funds earlier in the year. Application information is available in English and Chinese.

Are you in financial stress because of COVID? Were you ineligible to receive the federal stimulus money? APALA Pittsburgh is taking applications for COVID-19 cash relief! Anyone in Southwestern PA who did not qualify for a federal COVID-19 Economic Impact Payment earlier this year is eligible to apply.

Apply online: http://bit.ly/3ib891K

The application form is currently available in English and Simplified Chinese. We may be adding Vietnamese and Korea. Let us know if you need other language support.

If you have any questions, please DM us, text or leave a voicemail at 412-532-8517, or email apalapgh@gmail.com.

Pittsburgh Magazine profiles Brian Deutsch, of Panda Supermarket and University of Pittsburgh, on working through the pandemic.

The June 2020 Pittsburgh Magazine profiles Brian Deutsch, of Panda Supermarket and the University of Pittsburgh, on working through the pandemic.

The juxtaposition in his employment — one allowing work from home and the other requiring face-to-face contact with coworkers and customers — has also drawn his attention to the divide between those with the luxury to self-quarantine and work from home and those who must continue to work. “I hope that as we move towards reopening and getting back to more familiar routines that we stop and think, how can we make these routines serve us and serve our communities better because like I said, going back to normal isn’t a good thing,” Deutsch says. “So I hope we take some time to figure out how we want our new lives to look.”

Station Square's Kiku Japanese Restaurant reopens, but reservations are required.

Kiku Japanese Restaurant, routinely named among the best sushi places in the city, has reopened for in-person diners, though reservations are required and seating restrictions are in place. Their Facebook page has detailed their new policies and procedures; in short, they are requiring online reservations for guests.