A night at the APASA Cultural Arts Expo
By: Ngai Yeung ‘23
After being away from campus for so long, my friends and I itched to attend USC events whenever we can. APASA’s Cultural Arts Expo is one of the organization’s flagship events. It’s also Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at USC, and we’re Asian, so of course my friends and I had to check it out. And so lured by the promise of free food, shows and fun booths, we descended into the TCC basement ballroom for the expo on Monday, April 4th, 2022.
The night kicked off with a cool lineup of performances. There was student Jeffrey Lee’s magic act, a performance by Vietta (Stephenie Lawrence) and East Asian a cappella team Trogons A Cappella. South Asian fusion a cappella team Asli Baat finished with two songs, including a mesmerizing rendition of Billie Eilish’s Happier Than Ever.
When the show ended and the lights came back up, dozens of students were already queuing for the highlight of the night: free food (just kidding). Not going to lie, I expected there to be more food than a single onigiri and a coke for each person. But it was from Little Tokyo’s famous Rice and Nori, and that place never disappoints.
Want seconds? We were given a worksheet — get signatures at all the booths to get merch or an additional piece of onigiri. At some booths, student artists sold their artwork. I recognized the familiar faces of BTS members at Audrey Ma (@niokke) and Sheela’s (@sheelastudios) booths, but I also learned about Tinikling, a traditional Philippine folk dance from the art at Angel Cagandahan’s booth. We even got to make our own prints at Sara Zhang’s (@norwegiawould) hands-on woodcut booth using her designs.
As for performance arts, there was another booth where you had to watch students’ magic routines before you could get a signature. Even though I didn’t end up buying anything, it was pretty inspiring to see my peers’ passion projects, and I found quite a few new art Instagrams to follow that night.
Aside from art booths, there were also APASA booths where we could pen our thoughts on sticky notes for all to see. It was pretty cool to see the whole array of diversity within the APASA community all on one board: people expressed that they were proud to be Chinese, or Filipinx, or Viet American, or 5’6. There was also a photobooth (replete with props) at another corner of the TCC ballroom.
One booth stood out from the rest. The Be The Match registry asked students to fill out a short survey and swab themselves in hopes of finding a match for 31-year-old USC grad student Caryn Hsu. Hsu was diagnosed with leukemia not long after moving to Los Angeles to attend USC, and is in urgent search of a bone marrow donor.
After an hour of checking out all the booths, we finally got our free merch (I got an APASA mug, my friends grabbed an APASA water bottle and a tote) and one extra onigiri. I couldn’t remember the last time I went to an expo, and this was not just a fun study break, but it was cool to meet other members of the APASA community too. Shout out to the folks at APASA for setting up such a neat space and amazing event!
Check out these other upcoming events happening at USC for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month:
USC Southern California Indo-Americans (USC SCIA) Culture Show | Apr 16 @6:30 p.m.
Yurika Wakamatsu- Mediated Roaming: Okuhara Seiko’s Plum Blossoms in Tsukigase Valley, 1896 | Apr 20 @4 p.m.
APIDA Talks - Anti-Blackness & Colorism | Apr 20 @6 p.m.
Ku’er Worlds: Queering Chinese American Identities in Art and Film | Apr 21 @7 p.m.
Eric C. Rath- The Story of Sushi: How a Fermented Dish Became a Global Fast Food | Apr 27 @4 p.m.
Asli Baat | Apr 24 @4:20 p.m.
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