GenAPA performs for tsunami relief

Eleventh-hour preparations and last-minute polishing put a sheen on months of hard work today as the Generation Asian Pacific American multicultural show prepares for this year’s debut. The pan-Asian celebration will donate all proceeds to the tsunami relief effort. It’s an act of social consciousness that, according to co-chair and LSA senior Tae-Kyung Kim, is particularly fitting with the group’s goals of bridging communities and expanding worldviews.“The unique thing about GenAPA,” said Kim, “is that the main focus of our group and our participants isn’t to have a great show … but the main goal is the journey our participants take.” In particular, members are required to accumulate a certain number of community building points to perform in the show. Point-earning events are meant to help participants reach out to both other members of the APA community as well as other groups they might not normally have the chance to interact with. “This year, for example, we’ve done so much work with La Voz Latina” Kim said, “our goal was not just community building within the APA community, but community building outside of that because we felt we couldn’t grow as an APA community without the University community.” The show seeks to promote openness and collaboration, and core members say they hope that the general student population will come to learn more about Asian issues and cultural diversity within the community. “We have students from all over Asia participating in the show, and there are specific acts that are geared towards specific areas in Asia,” Kim said. “As for the show’s entertainment, I think that it’s an infusion of our heritage with our present life, and how we see ourselves as Asian-Americans,” Kim said. “We open with hip hop because we feel it’s something that doesn’t exclude any Asian communities, but actually brings us together.”Acts and Auditions co-chair Rimi Saha, an LSA senior, echoed these sentiments. “I joined GenAPA because I knew that it was different from all the other cultural shows in that it illustrated how the different communities within the APA community can come together and put on this amazing show and yet build bonds and relationships with other people that wouldn’t necessarily happen otherwise. And I’m just really proud of it.”Both Saha and Kim expressed the necessity of maintaining the bonds forged by the tsunami tragedy, and hope that people watching the show will be enlightened and empowered, as well as entertained.