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12 COURIER LIFE, MAY 3–9, 2019 B
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY: Assemblyman Peter Abbate, center, and state Sen. Andrew Gounardes,
right of center, joined members of the Brooklyn Community Improvement Association
at its Sunset Park offi ces on April 26 to announce plans to celebrate Asian Americans
and Pacifi c Islander Heritage Month in May. Photo by Trey Pentecost
Local pols announce
cultural celebration
in Sunset Park
Event honoring Asian American and Pacifi c Islander
Heritage Month coming to Leif Ericson Park
BY JULIANNE MCSHANE
They’re doing it for the culture.
Local politicians gathered in Sunset
Park on April 26 to announce plans
to celebrate Asian American and Pacifi
c Islander Heritage Month with a
daylong outdoor cultural celebration
next month.
The free May 19 event will highlight
the importance of honoring
Kings County’s various cultural communities,
according to state Sen. Andrew
Gounardes (D–Bay Ridge).
“Our diversity is our strength.
Events like these bring the community
together to celebrate the cultures, traditions,
and history that make southern
Brooklyn so special,” Gounardes
said.
Gounares joined Assemblyman Peter
Abbate (D–Bensonhurst) and members
of the Brooklyn Community Improvement
Association, a local do-good
group, at the organization’s offi ces
on 57th Street between Seventh and
Eighth avenues to announce the event,
which they will host with Councilman
Justin Brannan (D–Bay Ridge).
The festivities will take place at Leif
Ericson Park — located at 66th Street
and Eighth Avenue — from 11 a.m. to
3 p.m., and will feature a traditional
Chinese Lion dance, Tai chi and Taekwondo
demonstrations, and Korean
K-Pop performances, according to information
from Gounardes’s offi ce.
Brannan said the event will offer
CELEBRATING DIVERSITY: The pols announced
that the festivities will take place
May 19 at Leif Ericson Park.
Photo by Trey Pentecost
locals a chance to come together and
take part in Asian cultural traditions.
“We are excited to celebrate Asian
cultures and keep our community together,”
Brannan said.
Congress in 1992 designated May as
Asian and Pacifi c American Heritage
Month to commemorate the immigration
of the fi rst Japanese to the United
States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the
completion of the transcontinental
railroad — which stretched from Nebraska
to California and was built by
mostly Chinese immigrant workers —
on May 10, 1869.
Brooklyn Asian American and Pacifi
c Islander Heritage Month celebration
at Leif Ericson Park (66h Street at
Eighth Avenue in Sunset Park). May
19, 11 a.m. – 3 p.m. Free.
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