APANO’s Monthly Member Meetings are Back!

Last month, APANO restarted its Portland Monthly Member Meetings to great success! Our first meeting since 2015, hosted at the delicious Cambodian Mekong Bistro, more than 30 folks and APANO staff came together to find ways to respond to this political moment together.

At this meeting, we asked ourselves if we -- as the Asian Pacific Islander Community -- were making enough progress and being heard on the issues that affect our lives. We celebrated our organization’s political and advocacy successes in the last year of hardships, and committed to taking action as a community to build power for our API communities -- so we can decide for ourselves what winning a more just and equitable world can look like. As a member-led, social justice organization, we believe that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in Oregon can improve the well-being of our families and communities when we control the mic and amplify the voices of those most affected by poor decisions made for us, about us, but without us.

At our September meeting, many of our newest APANO members spoke about finding a community of passionate APIs. We shared our universal commitment to immigrant rights and the importance of getting politically and civically involved, and actively advocating in ways that may have felt frightening before, but is necessary now more than ever.

Our Monthly Member Meetings are just the beginning of a conversation, one that will continue on every 3rd Thursday of each month from 6:00-8:00 pm. On Thursday, October 19th [6:00-8:00 pm; Doors open 5:30 pm at Canton Grill (2610 SE 82nd Ave, Portland, OR 97266)] we’ll ask ourselves “How did we get here? Where do we go from here?” We will explore our most common and deeply felt connections shared in the API Community to shape how we talk about our own communities, aspirations, and experiences in this struggle for political and social power. We must own and write our API narratives and stories, or else others will write them for us.

APANO members have felt the call to action and are gathering outside our Member Meetings to talk about concrete next steps to get involved in APANO’s Political Advocacy. If you’re interested in hearing more, please reach out to our Field Organizer, Robin Ye, at robin@apano.org

Come learn with us!