Over the last six months, I have been approached by friends to either create a blog or to write as a guest contributor to their blogs. However, I resisted because I was always preoccupied with writing preliminary exams, preparing lecture notes, or any other banal task common to a graduate student.  And to be frank, I wasn’t quite sure anyone was really interested in what I had to say outside of the classroom. So why the change of mind? ImaginAsian.

I have recently received so many inquiries via email from Asian Pacific Americans all over the country wanting to share their personal experiences, or hoping to initiate discussions about or related to the ImaginAsian art exhibit fundraiser that I’m overseeing, I figured it was easier to just blog about the exhibit experience as it progresses.

So what is ImaginAsian?

In celebration of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month 2010, I’m coordinating the ImaginAsian art exhibition to generate funding for materials and sources for Asian American Studies collections at the Purdue University and Indiana University libraries. The exhibition is intended to raise awareness and understanding of the Asian American community as articulated through a variety of art including photography, visual, and literary.

I’ve been working on this project since last summer, and now it’s coming down to the wire with a scant two months left until its debut. I have been absolutely amazed at the support from the APA community.  All the blog entries, Facebook friend requests, and contributions from APAs all over the country have been truly incredible.

Even if the exhibit does not generate a lot of funding, it is the greater good that matters most to me.  ImaginAsian shows me the potential that we have as a community to come together and participate in daily acts of social justice. It demonstrates the power of social networking and the amazing things that can result when people who are passionate about a cause actively support one another. Finally, through artistic mediums, ImaginAsian represents the fluidity of contemporary APA identity; offers different lenses of interpretation from which to gaze through; and enriches our perceptivity by revealing a rich diversity of experiences.

Over the next few blog posts, I’ll provide some more insight into exactly how ImaginAsian came to be, discuss its progress, and reflect on commUNITY- a traveling photography exhibition celebrating APAs in the Midwest that I produced last year with my partner, photographer William L Snyder.