Laughter and connection spread throughout the Birmingham Museum of Art Feb. 21 as thousands flocked for the annual East Asian Cultural Festival. The event featured performances from dance academies across Alabama, a live DJ with arts and crafts, and free food samples from local vendors.
The event comes in a long line of free Family Festivals designed to celebrate the cultural range of families in the Birmingham area. The museum also hosts days for Holi, Juneteenth and Latin heritage. Manager of Public Programs and Partnerships Joan Inman explains the significance of providing these learning hubs.
“I think that things like this are always important, but especially with everything going on in the world,” Inman said. “I think it’s important for us to host all of our heritage festivals and support the diverse community we have here in Birmingham, because that’s what makes the museum so great.”
Inman is no stranger to organizing large scale educational initiatives. Her background in organizing educational programs at UAB helped prepare her to take on this role. She plays a pivotal part in organizing all of the events. The Hawaii native is half Korean and half Norwegian.
“I have done probably 10+ years of arts engagement programming from ages newborn to senior,” Inman said.
Many hands were needed for everything to come together. Special interest groups like the Japanese-Alabama society, and the Korean student association at UAB set up booths to teach the public about their organizations contributions and future events. Chinese calligraphy and face painting were also offered as hands-on activities for those of all ages to enjoy.
“My community partners and my connections are my life’s work,” Inman said. “That bank of people is kind of like your resume. A lot of those were built from personal relationships, either from past programs that I’ve collaborated with or if it’s just being in the arts community and knowing people and being involved in the same kind of projects.”
Shades Cahaba nurse Alyssa Long attended the festivities with her son.
“Over Christmas break, we kind of went down a rabbit hole of getting to learn about the Japanese culture, and we went to the Asian market in Homewood,” Long said. “I saw this on their event calendar and I thought, ‘What a fun way to maybe just explore a little bit more about other cultures’.”
She believes that these cultural celebrations are important for widening her son’s horizons.
“I love cultures in general,” Long said. “We have explored going to the Day of the Dead festival for many years. Cultures are just something that I love to learn about.”
From mochi to matcha cookies to wedding cake, the free samples tents had several offerings for curious palates. Food trucks Cafe Beboy and Wasabi Juan’s also sat prominently at the front of the museum entrance to provide a wider selection of Filipino and Japanese cuisine.
Participants had the option to access an hour-long presentation showcasing Asian art forms in the museum’s Steiner auditorium. Striking opera performances, vibrant dance troupes and controlled martial arts demonstrations created the perfect atmosphere to give viewers a glimpse at the depth of history making up the Asian Diaspora. Both the 1:30 and 3:30 performances were sold out before the festival officially began.
Senior Cristina Trimble managed to snag a ticket after seeing an ad on Instagram. The showing left a profound impact on her.
“Seeing this is life changing, it got me really emotional to see everyone clap along,” Trimble said. “It was beautiful. I’d love to go again.”
Trimble is Vietnamese-American, and one of the roughly 3% of Asian students that attend Homewood, according to Niche. She believes that festivals like these are important to help others feel proud of where they’ve come from.
“There’s not much Asian representation in Alabama,” Trimble said. “I think something so important about this was seeing different age representation because, especially the elderly, they don’t get many chances to experience their culture here. It really reminded me of my mom and how she says she misses her country a lot, and seeing all the older people be able to represent their country made me really emotional.”
The next festival will celebrate Holi, the Indian festival of throwing colors, on April 11. For more information visit www.artsbma.org.
