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ON SCENE: Next Generation Voices host AAPI Festival at Smoky Hill High
Next Generation Voices host AAPI Festival at Smoky Hill High School
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In celebration of Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month, student leaders with the Smoky Hill High School organization Next Generation Voices (NGV) hosted an AAPI Festival on May 4. With more than 350 attendees, Aurora City Councilmember Alison Coombs commended NGV for their efforts organizing the festival.
NGV leader Maya Roberson said, “Smoky Hill is a majority minority school, so having clubs like ours help encourage other ethnic groups to embrace their individuality. The presence of familiarity, during events like the AAPI Festival, brings a stronger sense of belonging and strengthens the bond that we have with each other at school.”
The National Martial Arts Studio performed a lion dance, which was quite a spectacle. Christina Heinicke, a rising senior at the school said, “All other events paused once they started as everyone was focused on the dancers.”
Heinicke and Roberson presented a dragon ribbon performance. Vallencia Lasut and Christabelle Deeng taught people how to play krupuk so they could experience Indonesian culture.
While most attendees were fellow students, Heinicke said, “Our outreach team did an amazing job reaching out to other schools in the Aurora and Cherry Creek School districts to attend.”
She added, “This event was important to me as I moved to Colorado from Texas, where I was privileged to be surrounded by my own culture and able to celebrate holidays, mainly the Lunar New Year.”
“The Asian community here is significantly smaller than what I was used, so seeing my culture represented again in such a large space was an extremely emotional experience. Representation is important, especially in communities where some groups of people may not be as visible. Seeing the lion dancers perform brought me tears of joy.”
Food for the festival was catered by Angry Chicken and family restaurants of the students. However, most of the food was homemade with love by NGV members.
“Sharing a slice of different cultures really introduces people to a whole new world that they may have never been exposed to, if not for festivals and events like NGV holds,” said Heinicke.
