A Forum in Support of Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Date: Thursday, May 27, 2021
Time: 7-8:30pm
Format: Zoom webinar
Admission: Free (advance registration required).
More info & to register: aapi2021.eventbrite.com

May is Asian Pacific American Heritage Month (APAHM), a time when we recognize the history and achievements of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Unfortunately, this year’s celebrations are marred by increasing rates of targeted violence against AAPI individuals during the COVID-19 pandemic. These actions are rooted in our nation’s history of periodic exclusion, discrimination, racism, and xenophobia which have long been juxtaposed with the vitality, promise, and mutual benefit endowed by our diversity of backgrounds and experiences.

Please join Baltimore Sister Cities and our partners in solidarity, community and celebration as we honor the invaluable contributions of AAPI communities in Baltimore and Maryland. During this panel discussion, we will explore what AAPI heritage means to all of us. How have AAPI communities contributed to Baltimore and American history? What are AAPI communities currently doing to contribute to culture, the arts, activism, and public service in our region? What new directions are they calling for?

Speakers include:

• Mayor Brandon M. Scott — Mayor of Baltimore city
• Linda Yuriko Kato, RSCJ, Ph.D. — Senior Consultant for Society of the Sacred Heart – U.S. Canada Province
• Christina Wong Poy — Administrative Director, Maryland Governor’s Commissions on Asian Pacific American Affairs and South Asian American Affairs
• Mark Chang — Delegate for District 32 Anne Arundel County, Maryland State House of Delegates
• Dana Petersen Moore — Baltimore City Chief Equity Officer and Director of Baltimore’s Office of Equity and Civil Rights
• Nerissa Paglinauan — Program Manager, Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University

Moderator: Teresa Leslie from Baltimore Sister Cities.

More info & to register: aapi2021.eventbrite.com

Event partners

Baltimore Sister Cities (BSC)
This webinar is organized by Baltimore Sister Cities in honor of its Asian sister city committees (Changwon, South Korea; Kawasaki, Japan; Xiamen, China).

Baltimore City Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs (MIMA)

Asian Arts & Culture Center at Towson University (AA&CC)

A Novelist’s Journey Across 20th Century Egypt: An Afternoon with Ambassador Tawfik

Location: Online
Admission: Free
Time: 1pm ET
Event page: calendar.prattlibrary.org/event/writers_live_ambassador_mohamad_tawfik

Join us for an afternoon with Ambassador Mohamad Tawfik as he discusses his work as a diplomat, novelist, and everything in between. 

Ambassador Mohamed Tawfik is a career diplomat and novelist who translates his own works into English.  Ambassador Tawfik was Egypt’s first Ambassador to the U.S after the revolution and took part in numerous negotiations on disarmament, labor, human rights and trade.  Educated at Cairo University and the Université de Paris, Tawfik has written several collections of short stories and three novels in Arabic. In 1997, an English selection of his shorts was published under the title The Day the Moon Fell. His novels form a trilogy, the last two books of which  – Murder in the Tower of Happiness (2007, AUC Press) and Candygirl (2012, AUC Press) – are also available in English. He generally publishes his works of fiction under the name M. M. Tawfik. A member of the Egyptian Writers Union, Pen International, the Geneva Writers Group and ACT Writers of Australia, he has conducted creative writing workshops in person and online. He is literary editor of arabworldbooks.com.

The event is moderated by Karen Leggett Abouraya, Co-Chair, Baltimore Luxor Alexandria Sister City Committee.

Organized by Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee (BLASCC) in conjunction with Enoch Free Pratt Library.