api/a love letter project

I want to direct your attention to this recently launched endeavor called the API/A Love Letter Project, a collection of essays and letters written by community members "poeticizing their hopes and dreams for the future of the social circles they come from." Here's some background on how this got started:

I think what started this whole idea of "the love letter" was seeing my first-generation Thai immigrant parents give up their initial aspirations and dreams to only to struggle daily in a self-run Thai restaurant in the United States. For decades they both worked from dawn to dusk in a family business which helps support the academic and personal ambitions of their children while simultaneously putting theirs on hold. However, this project is not solely for my parents, but for parents of other API/A children; for those same children who reach out for more; for refugees and immigrants; for people who believe they are forgotten while trapped within human trafficking; for nail shop owners/workers; the military wives; the Bay Area Filipino pop bands; postal workers; politicians; teachers; activists; and for you and for me.

Along with understanding my parents' struggle, the notions of love letter writing came to fruition when I entered Asian/American Studies at San Francisco State University. Being in AAS, I have seen my fair share of displaced anger and resentment. I have seen how destructive as well as cyclical anger has become for the API/A community as well as other communities of color. However, the point behind the API/A Love Letter Project is to visualize that we do not always have to be lost our anger and/or disillusionment—noting that we don't have to lose. In lieu of this, I would hope that the API/A Love Letter Project helps to trace the forgotten memory and the discarded dreams individuals and groups left behind while fighting for "something" more.

And so I reach out to you. Whether API/A or not, I reach out to you to hear your words and share your dreams and hopes for your community. Although it is still in its infant stages and under construction, I hope that maybe all of you will consider writing as well as donating something in the near future which illustrates your hunger, love, passion, optimism, and hopes for your community's future and development. The point would be to evoke camaraderie amongst ourselves and our contemporaries; bridging the gaps and stories which lie in-between us.

I've been reading through some of the "love letters" they've posted, and there's a lot there that rings true to my own experience, and probably yours too. To submit your own story (or questions and comments), email 4APIALove@gmail.com. And for more information, go here, or visit the Facebook page here.