By Jeanie Pai
On February 25, 2024, members and supporters of APALA Northeast Chapter, CALA Northeast Chapter, and New York Public Library (NYPL) AANHPI Employee Resource Group (ERG) participated in the Lunar New Year Parade & Festival in Chinatown, Manhattan. It was our first time collaborating to march under the banner of “AANHPI Library Workers and Bibliophiles.” Approximately 40 participants gathered to represent our advocacy work in Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander voices and stories.
The day was festive with celebratory music, marching bands, and lion dancing. As the parade made its way through Chinatown, our group handed out stickers and bookmarks that state, “We ♥ AANHPI Voices & Stories.” The bookmarks also included recommended book titles and a link to an accompanying NYPL blog post, “Celebrating AANHPI Voices and Stories.”
While it was exciting to march with our cohort, the experience was further enhanced by our engagement with spectators. Throughout the route, we were greeted with loud cheers from library supporters in the crowd, which felt uplifting, particularly during a precarious time of book censorship and library budget cuts. The positive reception affirmed how vital libraries and books are to the community.
In the spirit of Lunar New Year, the parade was a great opportunity for AANHPI library workers and bibliophiles to publicly and visibly celebrate together. We were represented by colleagues from NYPL, BookOps, Penguin Random House, Stony Brook University, Pratt Institute, New York University, and Ethical Culture Fieldston School. A shout-out goes out to our furthest traveler and current CALA NE Chapter Vice President, Yuzhou Bai, of Williams College, who trekked from Williamstown, MA, on the morning of the parade!
The partnership was organized by members Cecelia Fiering, Library Information Assistant at NYPL, Miriam Tuliao, Senior Library Marketing Manager at Penguin Random House, Janet H. Clarke, Associate Dean of Research & User Engagement at Stony Brook University, Sunny Chung, Health Sciences Librarian at Stony Brook University, and Jeanie Pai, Program Specialist of Digital Imaging Services at NYPL.
Special thanks to NYPL’s DEIA, Internal Communications, and Creative Services teams for their support and collaboration.
Wishing everyone a wonderful Year of the Dragon!
Editing assistance by Noelle Cruz.