Celebrating 20 years, CelebrAsian builds connections, reinforces its mission: 'You belong'
Victoria Alfano can't talk about CelebrAsian — Iowa's largest cultural festival, held at the end of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month — without mentioning her mother. In fact, everything the 20-year-old from Clive associates with the two-day event and her Japanese heritage stems from her.
Alfano, who is biracial, says her mother taught her the dance routine she's performed for years at CelebrAsian. For most of her childhood, Alfano graced the stage in colorful kimonos that she inherited from her grandmother and moved to the beat of taiko drums, her body lengthening as she raised her hued ougi folding fan.
With every step, Alfano evoked memories of her mother's past, traditions that now rested in her hands.
"She definitely influenced me," said Alfano, whose mother was born and raised in Sendai, a city in Japan roughly four hours north of Tokyo. "That's what shaped my identity. (It's) because of her."
For many Asian Americans like Alfano, CelebrAsian is more than just an event held over Memorial Day weekend that kicks off Des Moines' summer festival season. Now in its 20th year, the event — this Friday and Saturday in the Western Gateway Park downtown — has become the linchpin for families to share age-old customs, national costumes and ethnic dishes with people yearning for home or looking to find community or simply seeking to learn from others.
More: New bookstore in West Des Moines looks to create a 'safe space where everybody feels seen'
Its longevity has coincided with a surge in the Asian and Pacific Islander population in Iowa. That's an increase of nearly 57,000 people in Iowa who identify as Asian or Pacific Islander from 2000 to 2021, to reach a total of 94,417, according to the State Data Center of Iowa. The population is projected to more than double to nearly 196,000 residents by 2060, the agency said.
CelebrAsian is "for those of us that may never be able to travel in our lifetime, for those of us that have adopted kids, for those of us that lived and worked in Asia and miss it, or for those us that were refugees that will never go back home," said Nu Huynh, executive director of Iowa Asian Alliance, the nonprofit that hosts CelebrAsian. "It's an emotional connection for them whether it's nostalgic, joy or educational."
"Just seeing everyone come together is very beautiful to me," added Alfano, who volunteers at the festival's Japanese cultural tent.
'We do belong': CelebrAsian is the 'tool' that brings people together
That sentiment is part of the reason why Kim Poam Logan said she launched CelebrAsian two decades ago and the nonprofit Iowa Asian Alliance that hosts it.
"Part of the mission of this organization is to instill an appreciation and celebration of our contribution and our heritage and to instill that pride in our young people, on our children," said Logan, who in 2002 co-founded the organization and led it for the first six years. "When they see a massive Asian American heritage festival, they can feel good, and they see themselves."
The latter for Logan is even more personal.
Logan and her family were among the hundreds of Cambodian refugees who resettled in Iowa in the 1980s after the communist Khmer Rouge regime killed more than 1 million people from 1975 to 1979. She remembered her family first fled to Thailand and lived in a refugee camp for a year before a church in Oskaloosa sponsored their arrival in the U.S.
While Logan recalled feeling supported by congregation members, she said she still struggled to fit in. She was a young Cambodian girl living in rural Iowa. The only time she was surrounded by other Cambodian refugees was when her family traveled to Des Moines to attend weddings or celebrate holidays such as Khmer New Year.
"That was really our connection. That was all we had," Logan, 52, said. "Other than that, we really didn't come together."
More: How innovative training has overcome child care barriers for Iowa refugees: ‘It’s amazing’
Logan said she knew that pockets of Asian communities existed in Iowa, but the chance to make a change came years later when she landed a job at the Greater Des Moines Partnership. While there, Logan said she started fielding questions from callers searching for resources for Asians and asking about Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, which is celebrated annually in May.
New to the job and the city, Logan said she didn't understand why people sought her for answers.
But then it all clicked: "It's because I was (an) Asian American working in this company," she said, laughing. "They probably thought I was the 'local Asian in-house expert,' and I wasn't. I didn't really know a lot of people."
That situation inspired Logan to do some digging to see what organizations served local Asian Americans. From there, she rallied her close friends to create the Iowa Asian Alliance and eventually built its signature event, CelebrAsian. Logan said the organization saw CelebrAsian as the "tool" that would bring people together — a mission that remains vital to the organization's foundation.
"What we really ultimately want to show is that we do fit in, and we do belong," she said. "We are welcome here, and we have a role and responsibility to help people find us and connect with us."
CelebrAsian provides Iowa's AAPI community representation, visibility
Over the years, the alliance has grown to host other events, including the annual Pho King Cook-Off in December and AsianFest in September, which is similar to CelebrAsian but held in eastern Iowa. The organization also runs Cultural EducAsian, an outreach program for area schools, libraries and other institutions aimed to promote diversity, host workshops and bring awareness to resources like the Iowa Asian Alliance.
"We could do greater things," Huynh said. "We can have greater impact."
For Trevy Augustin, that means using CelebrAsian to help Iowans understand the Pacific Islands. Augustin, an executive officer for the state's Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs, said she's been participating in the cultural festival for the last two years and is often parked at a tent, answering questions about the islands and their people.
"Not a lot of us are familiar with Polynesia and Micronesia and Melanesia," Augustin said of the three island regions, adding she uses maps that show those areas to help attendees see exactly where they're located.
More than 6,300 Iowans say they are native Hawaiian or other Pacific Islanders, according to the State Data Center of Iowa. Though that makes up only 0.2% of the state's total population, Augustin said she's seen growth in that community in recent years and has sought to connect with individuals. That work, she says, is personal.
Augustin, who grew up in Guam and later relocated to Illinois, said her parents are originally from Pohnpei and Kosrae, two island states that are part of the Federated States of Micronesia.
"We weren't actually always around other Micronesians. I just wasn't exposed to my heritage for a while," said Augustin, 29, who added that she learned more about her family's home country in college. She said she found two professors at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign who are Micronesian and pieced together her own understanding of her cultural identity from there.
That's why she sees CelebrAsian and other events like it as crucial, especially for people seeking representation and visibility.
"You belong, even if you don't feel like it and even if we exist in a political climate that makes you feel that way," Augustin said. "We matter. We come from people that care and value kindness historically, and it's OK to practice that."
The AAPI community in Iowa
Some facts about the AAPI community in Iowa, according to the State Data Center of Iowa:
36.1% of Iowa’s foreign-born population in 2021 were born in Asia.
About 11,054 foreign-born people in Iowa are from India, the second-leading country for people born outside of the United States after Mexico.
The number of native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders in Iowa grew 526.8% from 2000 to 2021. The number of Asian people in Iowa grew 140.5% from 2000 to 2021. Iowa as a state grew 9.4%.
Polk County has the largest population of Asians, and Dubuque County has the largest population of Pacific Islanders. The highest proportion of Asian (11%) and native Hawaiian and other Pacific Islanders (2.4%) live in Buena Vista County.
The median age of Iowa’s Asian population in 2021 was 32.1 years, while the median age for the state of Iowa was 38.5.
If you go to CelebrAsian
When: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday
Where: Western Gateway Park, 1205 Locust St.
Cost: Free, though expect to pay for food and drinks
What to do: Visit each country's village to learn about its culture, try the food and browse a unique selection of gifts. Purchase food and drinks from area Asian businesses, see a martial arts demonstration or a fashion show, and watch a performance from the Des Moines Breakerz.
Where to park: Meters and parking garages are available for a fee downtown. The Nationwide ramp at 12th and Locust streets will offer free parking.
Schedule: A full schedule and map are available online at www.iowaasianalliance.com.
F. Amanda Tugade covers social justice issues for the Des Moines Register. Email her at ftugade@dmreg.com or follow her on Twitter @writefelissa.
This article originally appeared on Des Moines Register: CelebrAsian's 20th year is this weekend: How it started and what to do
