227 passing in california, which only to really redefine the program requirements for english learners. in that preposition and the only want to use enlish as the only medium for instruction for the immigrant students. and san francisco regardless of the preposition 227 and still be able until now to offer bilingual education because our district is choose to exercise our right in under the federal law of the la uconn cent decree. that's why we are able to provide the bilingual programs in the district. >> today the ssufg has 15,000 students who speak one of 72 languaging other than english. the district offers heavy 2 way

emersion programs in cantonese, spanish, mandarin and korean. now we have language enrichment programs. the ap i education coalition still stresses the need for language access for more waves of immigrants such as southeast asians and pacific islanders. >> it takes 7 years for a student to build the english proefficiency. we don't want student's education disrupted. so educational system is our core and responsibility to make sure that that bilingual needs are being met so the educational process is not interrupted. the lau decision impacted schools across the country. for more than 1800 chinese-american children considered in 1973.

the decision has also know cited in many language access cases including voter information and ballot information. thanks to those who pursued the la ukase in the 77's students can be multili multilingual. individual bilingualeducation. org. kerny street workshops began as a community teaching space inside the international hotel. after the evictions they relocated but kept their name and community spirit. during the 80's and 90's ksw curated the american jazz

festiv festiv festival. it's gallery feature artists and host of the annual ground breaking festival. they remain within the community. kerny street is still home with people can express what it means to be asian american. >> we are celebrating or 35th anniversary. in august we were founded in 1972. there are 3 founders. there was not a lot of original art work coming out of china town they wanted to provide incentives for development and create expressions they opened in in the international hotel in manila town and the first the programming was a lot of workshop and silk screening and sewing, music and visual arts and different kinds of

performance. in the 70's ksw was involved in the actions going to the actions and when they were being evicted from the hotel they were protesting and it was that kind of action. it's evolved a lot from that from the 70's but there's all the artists we worked with all have a very specific political viewpoint. i think that -- a space for artists to express those views creatively and invite community dialogue. >> in 91 mark ezu launched the asian american jazz festival, ksw sponsored the event. >> the asian american jazz festival continued ksw's mission

poets found their voices. ksw recognized a new generation of asian americans. the next initiative was laurened in 1998 to promote emerging artists under 35. that year they took a chance to see if san francisco was ready for a new asian american art's festival. >> hundreds of people came more than expected. there was a community need for the space for emerging artists and audiences to see it. one of the good thing about ksw because we work with emerging artists a lot of people don't think of themselves as artists until they become involved with ksw. whether it's a reading at a workshop or if they are in the festival for emerging artists.

a lot of people say they never started thinking of themselves as an artist until they perform indeed that festival. the feedback i get when i talk to people is that they have a unique sense of home when they come here and also of feeling they are part of a very rare community that's strong and giving and rich. not everybody will have material that's about asian americans. not everybody will have work where you look at it and say that's an identity piece exploring their family and history. what we are trying to do is create a space for asian american artists and community members to come together and think about what it means to be asian american and how there is not a strict definition of that but it's changing and expanding and also relevant it's relevant

to all of national issues. and human issues personal issues. >> these conversations are taking place at a unique time in kerny street's history. original ksw measures are interacting be artists. ksw's community acrosses in generatio generations. >> it's great to see the things asian american artists are doing now different from what we were doing we were doing murals and different art. others come in and they this is not asian american i don't understand what i'm looking at there is a range of people's reactions it's a different space, it's a lot of different artists and there are new generations involved. i hope they will be radically different in 20 years.

ksw's mission and to promote art. it's difficult to quantify but i think that it definitely connects people and we place an emphasis on building the community and connecting with organizations through the program. i guess it's successful in that sense. i know people feel at home here. >> to learn more visit kernystreet. org. >> in each of these stores we witnessed how the asian pacific american community come together for a cause. some of the movements that began in san francisco have had a lasting impact nationwide. join us in our celebration. celebrate heritage, celebrate unity.

♪ ♪ [applause] >> ok. that was really beautiful.

we would like to welcome you to the third annual statewide celebration and recognition of asian-pacific islander american heritage month. this event is hosted by the mayor. i will tell you a little bit more. it is a non-profit, non- partisan. since 2001, our focus has been on educating the public on public policy. and fostering the future leaders from our minority communities to serve at federal, state, and local levels. the mission is to empower patients and pacific islander americans in civic and public affairs to education, active participation, and leadership development.

>> civic engagement, leadership development, and community servthe theme of tonight's evens a celebration of the achievements and accomplishments of asian-americans in the state of california and our nation. >> ok'ing. -- ok. i would like to introduce our host for this evening. very well known as the first asian-american mayor in san francisco history. mayor lee championed balancing the budget to keep san francisco safe, solvents, and successful. he reformed city pensions. his focus is on economic development, job creation, and building san francisco's future.

a great job, especially for helping out families. we want to keep families here. i also wanted to mention a little bit of his past. he was born in 1952 in the beacon hill neighborhood of seattle, washington. his parents immigrated to the u.s. from china and the 1930's. his father fought in world war ii and worked as a cook. he passed away when the mayor was 15. his mother was a seamstress and a waitress. mayor lee has five siblings, he graduated from college in maine, he also went to uc- berkeley law school and finished in 1978. he and his wife have two daughters. i also want to mention, prior to

becoming mayor, one of the key points in his contributions to the community is after he completed law school, he worked as a managing attorney for the san francisco asian law caucus, where he was an advocate for affordable housing and the rights of immigrants and renters. mayor lee -- [applause] >> thank you. welcome to city hall. the people's city hall, san francisco. i want you all to note that that was such a wonderful rendition of our national anthem. please give another applause to

the millennium -- melanie and her daughter. i am so excited about all of you and seen so many of you from all over our state. come to city hall anin san francisco, welcome. i would like to welcome the former secretary of transportation. [applause] thank you for being here. thank you, john, thank you. our board of supervisors comment david chiu, thank you very much. david campos, thank you for

being here. he is our adopted asian brother. we have so many of our state representatives here. so many of you are here. i have spent all night announcing your names, but they did not give me the full list. i will say thank you on behalf of our city. from sacramento, los angeles, from all the communities in between, thank you for coming to our fantastic city to celebrate our asian-pacific heritage month. it is my pleasure to also provide you with a warm welcome and thank you for somebody who worked on this idea to bring everybody here to san francisco, my very good friend. thank you. where are you?

when we first talked about this, we said there had to be the place where everybody felt comfortable. there had to be a place where we could feel the excitement of all very different asian american groups. we had to have a place where something wonderful had been accomplished. a leadership change, one that we never thought in our lifetimes. by the way, as you know, i never thought in our lifetimes we would see an african-american president of the united states. what a wonderful location, that is something to celebrate. he has been here many times, president obama. the very surprised we had of being able to celebrate the first asian mayor of san francisco. it was not my doing, it was all of the people of san francisco saying it is about time we celebrate. thank you to the people of san

[applause] i have a very short message. what did i have felt very strongly in my first elected year, but also during my tenure as interim mayor. we have a great deal of celebrate. we also have a great challenge in front of us. there are so many of our asian american friends, iranian friends, friends from the philippines, friends from our japanese-american community, are chinese-american community, waiting for the opportunity to come together to celebrate our diversity, but also to signal to our european friends, our latino france, we are ready to help lead this state. and helped change the conversation and not only

celebrate diversity, but use diversity for our strength. that is our strength. i want to signal to you, let's come together, let's use this opportunity to make sure we can celebrate our strength throughout the state. i also want to welcome carmen chu. thank you for joining us. we can really celebrate and we can bring this state for because i know -- he does not want to be alone in san francisco suggesting change. nobody wants to be alone. all of us can contribute to a more positive outlook on life. guess what -- when we look at where we came from, when we look at the parents that brought us

here, the generations before us, we learned a great lesson. we learned lessons they faced, there were struggling to get past the barriers of discrimination. past the barriers of economic privilege, past the barriers of the new immigrants to this country. they forged ahead. some of us aren't new generations, the generation of kids i want to -- some of us are new generations. make sure they have a big opportunity in san francisco. we hope you do not have those barriers that our parents did. we hope that you do not run into the road blocks that we had to struggle for. we hope that our lawsuits, are street advocacy, -- our street advocacy, and all the places we struggled with in our generations, that you never have to go through.

the only way we can do that is to make sure the door is always open to everybody else. that is our promise, we have to keep that, we have to keep our education strong, we have to keep our economic foundation strong, we have to keep our opportunities strong. thank you. i am honored. let us celebrate. on behalf of the city and county of san francisco, i officially declare this to be asian pacific heritage month in san francisco and the state of california. welcome. [applause] >> i am going to make one correction. he said president obama is the first african-american president. president obama crew up in hawaii.

-- grew up in hawaii. it makes him an honorary asian- american. he is the first asian-american president as well. tonight's events would not be possible without our community partners. a group that helped make all this happened, i am going to read them all. the asian business alliance, asian law alliance, the asian pacific american leadership institute, chinese-american cultural association, chinese american political association, citizens for better community, culture to culture, why in the chamber of commerce of northern care of -- kawai and chamber of commerce of northern california, northern california

chinese athletic association, national association of american professionals, national federation of independent business, national federation of filipino americans, the filipino chamber of commerce, around of applause for all of our community partners, please. that was a lot. [applause] >> i am so glad he had to do that. our next speaker is u.s. congressmen. he is representing the 15th congressional district of california in the u.s. house of representatives. in congress, he is a member of the powerful house appropriations and budget committee.

share of the democratic caucuses, new media working group, house democratic senior went, and the original author of the equity and excellence commission now housed in the u.s. department of education. his district includes silicon valley, the birthplace of technology. mike has dedicated his life to public service and is lauded for his work on education, civil- rights national service, immigration, transportation, the environment, and high-tech issues. >> he is also the greatest karaoke sing their -- singer and all of congress. -- in all of congress. [applause] >> he just told me i had five

minutes. what do you think of this program? [applause] it is about time. i want to thank francis and fong. i think this is the very first statewide heritage month held with the mayor of san francisco. let me say something about heritage month in san francisco and your mayor. in the old days, you remember san francisco was known for passing all of these anti- chinese ordinances to limit the movement, the productivity of chinese in the city. we know two things. change happens.

maybe the state of california is the state of golden opportunities, where we have a chinese-american mayor of san francisco. 35 years ago, congress members passed similar resolutions in both house and the senate to formally recognize the first 10 days of may as asian-pacific heritage week. one year later, president jimmy carter signed into law a joint resolution to officially designate the annual celebration. 11 years later, president george bush extended the weeklong celebration to an entire month. you know and i know that our mothers say that every day is

asian pacific american day. i want to recognize all of the milestones the api has made in the state of california and in the entire country. the caucus has a record of 42 members in the asian caucus in congress. one of their very first things we want to say is it was a young man who was the first member -- we want to make note of that. the reestablishment of the white house initiative by president obama was another accomplishment. president obama's cabinets has dr. steven chu.

the very first asian-american -- as ambassador to the republic of china. we have a lot of accomplishments. it was not that accident, my friends. everyone of you know that you work hard. all these things are done on purpose. i want to let you know that we also can boast twice as many asian-americans on federal benches. those of us to understand the impact of the supreme court and what it can do or on june, we know that having asian-americans on the federal bench is a line up for appointments to the supreme court. thank you very much for this opportunity. i want to say that silicon valley is the birthplace of

high-tech. silicon valley is the birthplace of norm. five minutes? thank you very much. [applause] >> thank you, congressmen. we would have extended the five minutes if we got a karaoke's song. >> this event would have not been possible by the financial contributions of our sponsors. we want to thank chevron corp., wells fargo, mcdonald's, academy of arts university, at&t, southwest airlines. if you have not entered their raffled yet, do so later tonight.

comcast, walmart, verizon, moon star restaurant. >> we go from the greatest karaoke's singer in the house of congress to the self-proclaimed worst karaoke singing in public office. i would like to introduce california state controller, serving his second term. he takes a hard-line and took immediate action to weed out waste, fraud, and abuse of public funds. and to amend the state's finances more transparent and accountable to the public -- and to make the state's finances more transparent and accountable to the public. [applause] >>