Celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian will celebrate Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander Heritage Month this May with interactive events, family activities and film screenings. All programs are free unless otherwise indicated. A full list of programming, online resources and collection spotlights are available.

Featured Event

IlluminAsia: 2024 Arts and Culture Festival Dedicated to Well-Being in the Asian American Community
Friday–Sunday, May 10–12; times listed below
National Museum of Asian Art
During the three-day festival, the museum will host pop-ups, performances, discussions and other programs that draw upon the role of the museum as a space of gathering, learning and contemplation to honor and celebrate the cultures of the Middle East, Asia and America’s Asian American communities. This year’s festival is focused on expanding dialogue around and awareness of mental health and wellness in Asian diasporic experiences. At Asia After Dark on Friday 5–9 p.m., visitors can unwind with a sound bath, journaling and more. Saturday’s Care Fair and Vendor Market from noon to 6:30 p.m. will offer empowerment workshops, food vendors, panel discussions and a silent disco. And, Mother’s Day will be celebrated on Sunday, noon–3 p.m., with family activities like drop-in paper flower-making. 

Programs

Book to Screen: Viet Thanh Nguyen on Adapting The Sympathizer
Wednesday, May 1; 7:30 p.m.–9 p.m.
National Museum of Asian Art, Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art
The National Museum of Asian Art and the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center will present a discussion with author Viet Thanh Nguyen on his Pulitzer Prize-winning novel The Sympathizer. Through clips from the series and readings from the novel, Nguyen will talk about the difficulties and rewards of adapting his work for the HBO series starring Park Chan-wook, Robert Downey Jr. and Sandra Oh, in addition to other topics. Tickets are required.

Aloha Days Family Festival
May 18–19; 11 a.m.–5 p.m.
National Museum of the American Indian’s Heye Center, New York City
Saturday and Sunday, May 18–19, the National Museum of the American Indian’s Heye Center in New York City will present Aloha Days Family Festival, celebrating Hawaiian culture and traditions. At the two-day festival, visitors of all ages can participate in hands-on activities—including coconut-leaf weaving, lei making and kapa, bark-cloth making—and watch short films about ocean safety. Visitors can also learn the history behind and enjoy hula performances by Hālau Nohona Hawai’i. 

Virtual Tours | Art Across Asian Cultures
May 2, 8, 14, 16, 21 and 23; 1 p.m.–2 p.m. ET 
Throughout the month, the National Museum of Asian Art will offer docent-led virtual tours to explore highlights of the museum’s collections that showcase the richness and diversity of Asian art. Online participants will view a selection of collection objects from the Islamic world, the ancient Near East, East Asia, South Asia, Southeast Asia and the United States. Participants can select a date and register for the Zoom tour.

Films

Monthly Matinees: Japanese Classics
After Life
Wednesday, May 8; 2–4 p.m.
National Museum of Asian Art, Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art
On the first Wednesday of every month, the National Museum of Asian Art screens a classic Japanese film in the Meyer Auditorium. After Life is a 1998 film that explores the human experience, memory and the afterlife through a fantasy where the recently deceased can select a single moment from their life to be converted to film and taken with them. (Japanese with English subtitles)

Movie Music Matchups
Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life
Sunday, May 5; 2–3:15 p.m.
Part of a series pairing silent films with live music, the 1924 film Grass: A Nation’s Battle for Life documents the migration of the Bakhtiari people to what is now Iran and will have live musical accompaniment by Iranian American musician Kamyar Arsani, a master of the traditional Iranian drum frame Daf. Pre-registration is encouraged but not required.

Right Now, Wrong Then
Friday, May 17; 7–9:10 p.m.
National Museum of Asian Art, Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art
The “twice-told” film Right Now, Wrong Then presents the rise and fall of a relationship between Ham Chun-soo and Kim Min-hee, and then begins again, showing variations of what could have been. Pre-registration (up to four tickets per person per film) is encouraged but not required. Seating is available on a first-come, first-served basis for patrons without tickets. (Korean with English subtitles)

The Woman Who Ran
Sunday, May 19; 1:30–3 p.m.
National Museum of Asian Art, Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art
The Woman Who Ran follows Gamhee through three separate encounters with her friends in a story that weaves together the universal dramas—small and large—faced by women, and it explores the interconnected nature of people’s interactions with seemingly unrelated people. Pre-registration (up to four tickets per person per film) is encouraged but not required. (Korean with English subtitles)

Woman Is the Future of Man
Sunday, May 19; 3:30–5 p.m.
National Museum of Asian Art, Meyer Auditorium in the Freer Gallery of Art
Woman Is the Future of Man is an emotionally poignant comedy in which two lifelong friends, a filmmaker and a teacher, attempt to track down the woman they both once pursued romantically. Pre-registration (up to four tickets per person per film) is encouraged but not required. (Korean with English subtitles)

Video Series | Come Through–Asian Pacific American Voices at the Smithsonian  
Every Wednesday in May
Virtual, National Museum of American History
This five-episode series, hosted by actor and musician Gillian Jackson Han, will take viewers to different Smithsonian museums to explore Asian American stories. Each episode will feature a Smithsonian expert and explore collections objects, like Eric Nam’s K-pop album at the National Museum of American History, and a meteorite at the National Museum of Natural History discovered in Utah’s desert by two Japanese America men in an incarceration camp during World War II. Watch the videos here.

Exhibitions

Do Ho Suh: Public Figures
National Museum of Asian Art’s Freer Plaza
Visitors can view the contemporary Korean artist Do Ho Suh’s monumental sculpture “Public Figures.” Commissioned to celebrate the museum’s centennial anniversary in 2023, “Public Figures” is the first new sculpture displayed outside the museum in three decades. Suh designed the stone plinth to be supported by many small figures mid-stride—reimagining the role of public monuments to honor achievement through collective effort, rather than heroic individualism.

Russell Rotunda Photo Exhibition
May 6–19; open to public Monday–Friday, 7 a.m.–7 p.m.
Russell Senate Office Building, 2 Constitution Ave. N.E.
Two photo exhibitions, sponsored by the Office of Sen. Mazie K. Hirono in collaboration with the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, will be presented in the rotunda of the Russell Senate building. The first installation, May 6–12, will feature 10 Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders, drawn from APAC’s book We Are Here: 30 Inspiring Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Who Have Shaped the United States. The second installation, May 13–19, will highlight 10 Asian Americans with portraits from the National Portrait Gallery. 

# # #

SI-150-2024