Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month. From special virtual events, delicious food spots, museum exhibits and more, Minneapolis has many different ways to celebrate and learn about Asian culture all month long.
Places to Visit
Minneapolis Institute of Art
Mia's diverse collection displays plenty of art created by the AAPI community as well as Asian artists from around the world. Their curators work hard to find works that are reflective of all communities. Check out their Collection of Asian Art, which include works from China, South and Southeast Asia, Japan and Korean. They currently have a few exhibits exploring Asian culture including:
- The Three Perfections: Image, Poem, and Calligraphy in Chinese Painting
Exhibit lasts until December 4, 2022
- Yee I-Lann: Picturing Power
Exhibit lasts until November 13, 2022
- Amano Kazumi: Prints from the Kimm-Grufferman Collection
Exhibit lasts until May 29, 2022
Midtown Global Market
As a hub for showcasing food and shopping from Minneapolis' diverse communities, Midtown Global Market not only offers a wide variety of Asian cuisine including, Intown Sushi, Pham’s Rice Bowl, and Sabbai Cuisine, but it also is home to a unique Tibetan shop, Tibet Arts & Gifts, filled with rare clothing, accessories and home decor from the Himalayas.
Como Park and Conservatory
At Como Park and Conservatory's Ordway Gardens you will find Minnesota's only top-curated Japanese plant collection. Within the garden is a Bonsai tree collection that honors Japanese art. The Charlotte Partridge Ordway Japanese Garden was created by renowned landscape designer, Masami Matsuda from Nagasaki. His creation serves to honor Japanese design principals using Minnesota plants and trees.
Weisman Art Museum
A permanent collection at the Weisman, Traditional Korean Furniture, includes about 200 examples of Choson dynasty furniture, 80 Silla dynasty stoneware pieces, close to 150 folk paintings and wooden bowls and utensils, in addition to other folk arts and crafts. The collection represents many types of wood, decorative material, and joinery techniques.
South Korean born artist, Megan Rye's multi-part public art project Foundling: 100 Days will be on display this month. The exhibition will be on view in the Carlson Gallery until May 2022. Comprised of one hundred painted and photographed portraits, Foundling is based in Rye’s own and her fellow international adoptees’ referral photographs.
Hmongtown Marketplace
An indoor and outdoor marketplace with over 125 stalls and shops, including 11 restaurants. Here you can browse all types of products from food and fresh produce, to clothing, home items, and accessories. The marketplace has grown to become a commonplace for Hmong Americans and given them a familiar sense of home with the community.
Walker Art Center
The Walker Art Center is one of the most visited modern and contemporary art museums in the country. Its exhibits bring together collections of art from communities and creators across the globe. Here are some current exhibits featuring Asian artists and pieces:
With more than 100 works on view, this exhibit is organized by five familiar themes: portraiture, the interior scene, landscape, still life, and abstraction.
Included in this exhibit are a recently acquired grouping of photographs by Twin Cities photographer Pao Houa Her (US, b. Laos) who is known for her photographs of the Hmong community and through her work examines themes of migration, displacement, and diasporic cultures.
Yoko Ono's Cut Piece is also on view as a part of Five Ways In in Gallery 5.
Shen Xin: Brine Lake (A New Body)
For their first US museum solo exhibition, Twin Cities–based artist Shen Xin (b. 1990, Chengdu) debuts a new video and sound installation following its 2021 premiere at the Gwangju Biennale in South Korea. Brine Lake (A New Body) (2020) meditates on the intersections between extractive economies, migrant populations, statelessness, and transnational identities.
United Noodles
United Noodles is a pan-Asian grocery store located in the Seward neighborhood of Minneapolis. Here you can pick up and discover new ingredients and products from China, Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia, Vietnam, the Philippines, India, Sri Lanka, Hawaii and more. If you get thirsty during your visit, check out Machi Machi a boba tea shop that opened within the market earlier this year. Try one of their many mixed drinks with their signature cream cheese foam.
University of Minnesota Campus: Dinkytown, Stadium Village, and West Bank
The University of Minnesota campus is surrounded by pockets of Asian culture powered by food, the people who prepare it, and those who enjoy it. Within walking distance from campus, you’ll find restaurants, food halls, boba shops, bakeries, and cafés representing Korean, Vietnamese, Chinese, Indian, Hmong, Thai, Japanese, and Polynesian cuisines. These places represent a piece of home for the more than 4,000 Asian students, many of which are international. The array of authentic flavors offers the opportunity to learn more about generations and traditions of the AAPI community in Minneapolis.
Events
May 16, 2022
7:00pm
Hook & Ladder Theater
Join an evening featuring acclaimed poet, translator, and editor Jeffrey Yang presenting his latest poetry collection, Line and Light (Graywolf Press). Yang will be joined by Minneapolis poet Anni Liu as she celebrates her debut book Border Vista (Persea Books), which intimately narrates the experience of being undocumented in America.
May 21, 2022
11:00am
Minnesota History Center
Join Dale Minami for a recounting of how a fraud on the United States Supreme Court resulted in the upholding of the conviction of Fred Korematsu and the incarceration program of Japanese Americans during World War II. Forty years later, a group of young attorneys were able to overturn the conviction but history is repeating itself today.
