Past AAPI Affinity Events
2021-2022
School Year
May 2022
The MKA AAPI Affinity Group hosted its first tri-campus movie night! We hosted an AAPI dinner and watched the film Turning Red.
May 16 - Alana gave a student share where you can watch here.
2022-2023 School Year
January 31, 2023
We invited Lianah Sta. Ana to speak—an Asian American artist of Filipino descent and 2022 graduate of Columbia University. Her works include the role of Kim Alternate in the 2017 revival of Miss Saigon, the understudy for Dawn in the second national tour of Waitress, and HBO Max’s serials The Time Traveler’s Wife and Search Party.
May 2023
For AAPI Heritage Month 2023, we hosted two movie nights!
First, we had an Upper School movie night where we watched Everything Everywhere All at Once (2022). The movie was nominated for 11 Academy Awards and won 7, topping all movies nominated in 2022. The film contains Michelle Yeoh, who is of Malaysian descent and was the first Asian actress to win an Academy Award for best leading actress. Additionally, her co-star, Ke Huy Quan, who is of Han Chinese ancestry from the Hoa ethnic minority group of Vietnam, was the second Asian actor to win the Oscar for best-supporting actor. The film has become a major milestone for Asian representation in film, and we hope you will all join us to celebrate its success.
Then, we had another tri-campus movie night + dinner, where we watched Spirited Away. The 2001 film was the first anime feature to win an Oscar for Best Animated Film and paved the way for the popularity of anime films in Western culture. We enjoyed Asian cuisine while watching this nostalgic classic.
May 16 – Alana (‘24), Sani Bansal (‘26), and Emma (‘24) presented student shares.
All posters from 2021-2023 designed by Emma Choy (‘24)
2023-2024 School Year
May 2024
In May of 2024, we again hosted an upper school movie night, this time showing the 2023 film Past Lives.
Later, we hosted our annual AAPI Movie Night, this time featuring the 2002 film Lilo and Stitch to highlight Pacific Islander stories under the AAPI umbrella. We served various asian cuisines, snacks, and drinks. We hosted a craft table to color in coloring book pages, create shell bracelets, or get a Pacific Islander-inspired temporary tattoo. Lastly, we had a cultural dress competition for members of our community to showcase outfits from their heritages. All profits gained at the event were donated to the Maui Wildfire Relief Fund toward the efforts in Lahaina.
Past Lives poster designed by Emma Choy (‘24)
Lilo and Stitch posters designed by Chelsea Lee (‘26)