Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month

May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! The term Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia, Micronesia, and Polynesia. Pacific Islander and Asian Americans of all ethnicities and cultures come together to celebrate their heritage through many activities such as dancing, sharing traditional meals, and observing and appreciating their rich history.

Read on to find some events, links, and resources you can use to celebrate the AAPI community, this month and every month, in your library!


Events & Professional Development for Libraries
- Click the program title for details and registration info

Events/Program Title Date/Time/Location Sponsored by
Including AAPI Voices in Civil Rights and History Thursday, May 5 @ 4:30pm via Zoom Presented by Make Us Visible NJ, in collaboration with New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)
MentorNJ AAPI Meetup Thursday, May 12 @ 10am via Zoom MentorNJ
Let’s Do It! Anti-Racist Pedagogy in the Classroom Thursday, May 12 @ 4:30pm via Zoom Presented by Make Us Visible NJ, in collaboration with New Jersey Education Association (NJEA)
Panel Discussion with Make Us Visible NJ

Event Flyer in PDF 

Thursday, May 12 @ 7pm via Zoom Bergenfield PL, East Brunswick PL, Hoboken PL, Livingston PL, Maplewood Memorial Lib, Newark PL, Not In Our Town Princeton, Pennsauken PL, Ridgewood PL, Trenton Free PL and Union City PL, NJLA D&O Section, NJASL, LibraryLinkNJ, MentorNJ


Resources & Book Lists

What Link Information
Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month: May 2022 Webpage Facts for Features on the US Census Bureau
AAPI Events around the nation Flyer AAPI events put together by APALA (Asian Pacific American Librarians Association) --- The Hoboken Public Library's program is featured!
The Asian American Education Project
Ongoing Workshops for Educators
Website The Asian American Education Project offers free, ongoing virtual workshops that showcase its curriculum with the intent of helping educators more easily adapt all or part of the curriculum into their existing practice.
Booklists: AAPI Literature Books and Curriculum Resources Books GoogleDoc This resources curated and provided by Make Us Visible NJ Find links to the lists on this Google Doc.
K-12 AAPI Curriculum Resources GoogleDoc This resource curated and provided by Make Us Visible NJ Find links to the resources on this Google Doc.
Researching 19th Century Chinese Immigrants to the United States Webpage This resource curated and provided by the New Jersey State Library.
Free Professional Development Workshops & Toolkits Webpage The Asian American Education Project
Asian Americans Film Series Streaming service provided by PBS
A People's History of Asian Americans Film Series Streaming service provided by PBS
Asian/Pacific Heritage Month Website This Web portal is a collaborative project of the Library of Congress and the National Archives and Records Administration, National Endowment for the Humanities, National Gallery of Art, National Park Service, Smithsonian Institution and United States Holocaust Memorial Museum.
The APA Heritage Foundation's 2022 Celebration Guide Website The celebration theme this year is Forging Community Bonds. Explore Asian American & Pacific Islander films, foods, and culture through a wide range of activities, events, and programs in the month of May. The APA Heritage Foundation works with their Official Celebration Partners the Asian Art Museum, the Center for Asian American Media (CAAM) and the San Francisco Public Library to compile an online Celebration Guide with a list of events taking place in May.


Infographics & Visualizations

From LibraryLinkNJ for Any Libraries to Use!
Flyers in PDF

From US Census Bureau

A More Diverse Nation[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]

Asian and Pacific Islander Population in the United States[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]
[Source: U.S. Census Bureau]