CELEBRASIANQ seeks to bring together Asian Americans in the LGBTQ+ community with events that celebrate who they are in a space that inspires creativity, conversation and celebration.
CELEBRATION
Creating events in Los Angeles, CA to celebrate the experiences and people in the Asian American and LGBTQ+ community.
CONVERSATION
Hosting discussion panels and Q&A with innovative artists, writers, organizers and more.
COMMUNITY
A space for connection and conversation for people to meet, share, network and more.
Celebrating the Asian American LGBTQ+ Experience is an annual community event that brings together Asian American artists, writers, and creative industry professionals in the LGBTQ+ community in historic downtown Los Angeles as part of Lambda Litfest.
Community events like these are pivotal towards our understanding of ourselves and others, and offer a chance for people within the community to meet others, to validate their existence and to see that they are not alone in their experience. This celebration inspires and invigorates the culture of arts and creativity and also provides a way for people to connect and discover new creators and works to support.
Lambda Literary nurtures and advocates for LGBTQ writers, elevating the impact of their words to create community, preserve our legacies, and affirm the value of our stories and our lives. Lambda LitFest Los Angeles is a celebration of contemporary voices honoring and expanding on the rich, diverse tradition of LGBTQ writers and readers in the Southland.
Why does Asian American and queer representation matter? Growing up, I didn’t have a lot of Filipino people to look up to as far as queer history, queer knowledge or transgender awareness. So I decided I would do that for myself, and I knew there were a lot of community members who were doing amazing work and we just needed to witness one another. We need to archive our stories, our heartbreak, our struggles, our joy.
Kay Ulunday Barrett, poet, educator and activist
When we are not seen, we are not known. That sense of loneliness is overpowering. Rarely are all Asian ethnicity recognized. And just as rarely are all identities of queerness celebrated, especially within Asian American representation… To go from not seeing myself in the media and feeling as if my identifies were only meaningful as tokens to feeling seen and known? I still don’t have the words to describe the power and effect this experience created.
Maya Reddy, founder of The Gaysian Project
CELEBRASIANQ is raising funds to create this annual event and to establish the foundation for this organization to grow and curate more events, as well as support nonprofits doing pivotal work such as Lambda Literary, CAPE, The Trevor Project, and the Chinese American Museum.
Celebrating the Asian American LGBTQ+ Experience 