Burmese Community
Invited to Smithsonian Folklife Festival
The Smithsonian Institute announced the showcasing of Asian Pacific Americans culture and Heritage at their 44th Annual Smithsonian Folklife Festival on the National Mall in Washington DC next year 2010. (June 23-27; June 30- July 4,)
The Burmese American community was invited to participate by the Smitsonian Institute.
as part of the larger Asian American community in Washington DC and other states of USA, A meeting was held on Saturday 14 November, 2009 at Daw Aye Aye Thant’s home, with the object of :forming a Planning Committee to coordinate and invite the larger Burmese community to participate and make presentations together in the 2010 Smithsonian FolkLife Festival in Washington DC.
Representatives from Burmese American Collective BAC, AungZay Institute, Myanmar Youth Association MYA, , U Thant Institute, Burmese Women Association attended, discussed the great opportunity to present the Burmese culture to the millions of American public, and formed a Planning Committee. The Thingyan Cultural Association was invited and later joined the Planning Committee.
The BAC representative on behalf of the Committee facilitated the teleconference call with the Smithsonian Institute representative Francey Lim Youngberg, Development Consultant, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program to clarify the procedures of the Burmese American community participation, financial matters and presentation of cultural events at the 2010 Folklife Festival.
AungZay Institute and partners in the Planning Committee, have started to reach out to their community groups to inform, gather support and encourage participation together in the proposed Cultural presentations at the FolkLife Festival in June-July 2010.
Two parallel events will be ongoing in November and December 2009 and in January up till June 2010
1) Fundraising events to raise funds ( to cover expenses for cultural event presentation )
2) Selection for presentation, unique cultural events ( see list of Preliminary Proposals )
Cultural events – Preliminary Proposals
1. Chinlone group sport .
2. Kabyalut dance group
3. Patwaing circular drum and Dobat drum dance
4. Visual arts exhibition- painting, photos, etc
5. Burmese Food – Vendor selection by Smithsonian Institute
6. National ethnic dress parade and dance
7. Thingyan Yein group dance
8. Ladies Dress and hairstyles through history
9. Traditional Story telling for children
November 16, 2009
DIRECT APPEAL TO BURMESE AMERICAN COMMUNITY
Francey Lim Youngberg
Development Consultant, Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Program
PLEASE DISSEMINATE WIDELY(list-serves, social networks,
etc.) ---sorry for any duplication
Dear friends and colleagues:
Thank you for your interest in the Smithsonian Folklife Festival 2010 featuring
Asian Pacific Americans, Mexico and Smithsonian Workers. We are grateful
for your enthusiasm and support. It's wonderful that the Burmese American
community came together to support this project.
As we discussed, the Smithsonian Center for Folklife and
Cultural Heritage for the first time in 44years will be focusing on APAs for
the 2010 Folklife Festival (June 23-July 4,2010). Although focusing on APAs
from the Greater Washington D.C. area, this event will represent the rich
cultural heritage of the over 15 million APAs that live in the U.S. The annual
festival attracts over a million visitors from around the country and the
world, another 6 million visit the website, and about 40 million people learn about it through
media coverage. Don't let this once-in-a -lifetime opportunity slip by because
our community can't raise the necessary funding.
Met Challenge of Raising $80,000 by November 1
The Smithsonian Center for Folklife will
pay about a million dollars towards the cost of a program such as the APA
celebration, and it usually asks the community being featured to contribute
another $450,000. Usually this money is raised by the Smithsonian Center
for Folklife through fundraising proposals written to foundations. This
year, however, because of the state of the economy, no foundation monies have
been forthcoming and corporate and individual donors have said that they
cannot even make a pledge until after January 1, 2010. So, the
Smithsonian APA Program and Phil Tajitsu Nash, who has been hired by the Center
for Folklife to be the Curator for the APA segment of the 2010 Festival, have
been tasked with raising funds to assist the Center for Folklife. The
Mayor's Office of Asian and Pacific Islander Affairs also has proven to be a
valuable partner by arranging meetings with over a dozen embassies so we can
ask them for assistance.
At a recent meeting held at the Smithsonian, a decision was made to either
postpone or scale back the Asian Pacific American focus of the 2010 Folklife
Festival unless substantial progress had been made towards the $450,000 by
October 31st. I'm pleased to report that we raised $82,708 by Nov. 3 so
we have shown them that OUR COMMUNITY CAN MEET THE CHALLENGE! The Center
for Folklife are moving forward with the festival so we can't let up on our
efforts.
We are very grateful to the following donors in the past month who made it
possible:
As of 11.2.09
Juanita Tamayo Lott (in memory of Robert Henry Lott) $10,000
Long Nguyen ($10,000 challenge grant)
Office of Hawaiian Affairs ($10,000)
AARP ($10,000)
Local entrepreneur (anonymous) ($10,000)
Bel and Ken Hong ($5,000)
Laotian American National Alliance ($5,000)
OCA NOVA and DC ($5,000)
OCA National ($5,000)
Yu Hua Tsou (Columbus, OH) ($5,000)
Asian Pacific American Bar Association- DC ($1,200)
Japanese American Veterans Association ($1,200)
Gerald and Nancy Yamada ($1,200)
Asian American Government Executives Network ($1,200)
Franklin Odo ($500)
Thai American Alliance ($310)
Online donations at www.apa.si.edu
TOTAL = 82,708
New Challenge of Raising $80,000 by December 31, 2009
We are hoping to raise another $80,000 by December
31, 2009. ALLDONATIONS ARE TAX DEDUCTIBLE TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE LAW.
We urge you to join the donors above by making the most generous
contribution or pledge that you can afford by December 31st, and pass along
this appeal to your family and friends. To read more, please see our
flyer ( http://tinyurl.com/yj96r9h) and list of sponsorship benefits ( http://tinyurl.com/ykn4332 ).
Contributions from domestic and foreign businesses,
individuals, foundations, trusts and nonprofit organizations are welcome.
This is a great marketing opportunity for businesses since the festival
attracts over a million people in ten days in the nation's capital.
ALL DONATIONS ARE TAXDEDUCTIBLE TO THE FULL EXTENT OF THE
LAW. The Smithsonian's tax-exempt ID number is 53-0206027.
Donations can be made in cash, checks, credit cards (great for mileage
cards) and stocks. Also, we can provide documentation if you have a
corporate matching program.
How to Help
1. Please spread the word to your
networks by forwarding this email and encouraging them to help. Your
endorsement is critical as you reach out to your networks.
2. When you get together for the holidays, ask your
family and friends to support this project.
3. Contribute as generously as you can. Donate
online at www.apa.si.edu/donate.aspand write
"Folklife Festival-Burmese American community" in the Comments box.
Or you also can write tax-deductible checks payable to Smithsonian APA
Program and mail to:
Smithsonian APA Program
Capital Gallery, Suite 7065, MRC: 516
P.O. Box 37012
Washington, DC 20013-7012
ATTN: Forklift Festival 2010
Write on memo section of the check: APA Folkilife-Burmese
American community
3. Encourage your nonprofit organizations to give as a group. We
accept donations nationwide. We have asked the major APA groups who
live-in this area (Japanese, Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino, Indian and Korean)
to raise about $35,000 from their various groups and the smaller groups to
raise between $15,000 to $20,000 for the Festival.
4. Encourage your contacts in the Burmese American
ethnic media to feature this story.
5. If you have gatherings, parties, etc, ask us to come
and speak to your group about supporting this project. Make your
events a fundraising event to benefit the Burmese American portion of the APA
Folklife Festival segment.
As we met the challenge in October, I am confident that
we can meet the additional $80,000 target goal by December 31, 2009.
This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Burmese Americans to
take pride in their culture and heritage and share it with the general public
on the National Mall in 2010. We know you can make the APA feature
in the 2010 Foklife Festival an event that we all can be proud of! Warm regards,
Francey Lim Youngberg
Development Consultant, Smithsonian Asian Pacific
American Program
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, 202-487-8160
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