because of you, we are creating our music now. just recently i was inducted to the grove encyclopedia of music. the professor called and said i want to induct you to this encyclopedia. you know what that means? it was an incredible honor, but being honored in my hometown in san francisco is especially important to me. i have done everything with brenda too. mostly bhaz mentioned brenda was part of this. >> i just want to say thank you. this was so wonderful, thank you. i was honored a couple days ago by claudia with

the apa awards. i just want to say, it is so awesome that asian are in the house. this is san francisco, this is the port of entry for asians. my family has been in san francisco for 125 years. any other grandfather was here in the 1800 and my grandmother was the lead are of the garment union. we are in the house, right? i think it's not that we are so cool or whatever, good job, but we stand on the shoulders of giants. look at you. we are all different colors. this is amazing. the jazz festival came out of many cultures. we had to work against redevelopment. this is how the jas festival

started. the music with do, the stories we do come out of real life. mark worked with the restaurant union. you know, the stories we do, the music we do comes out alive here in san francisco and to be honored for it is not just as the young brother said, over here, it's not really about us. it's about the people that we are representing and nowadays. the way history is being written is through music and stories and images on the internet and artist have been doing that for a long time. i would like to acknowledge kerry schulman vment she's been representing people of color in this city for a long time. we couldn't do it without your support and thank you so much and for us to

be acknowledged is a huge deal. we try to represent the heart and souls of people and to preserve it so it can be passed down to others. thank you so much. [ applause ] >> thank you and congratulations. i wanted to thank supervisor mar for doing

this. i'm setting up a new committee. i wanted to join supervisor mar and on the next election we'll get him to perform. legalities -- let's go to district 2. >> ladies and gentlemen, i have the great honor of introducing someone that supervisor mar just called out but for someone of my generation, we grew up watching her on television and she brought us the nightly news and someone that i have been honor today -- to get to know as someone that i'm so honored to get to know today. that's

emerald ye. emerald is known for channel 4 is now the chair of the asian pacific fund here in san francisco. i don't know if you remember but supervisor tang interned for you in college. she has a masters degree from columbia university. she began her tv career as a reporter in honolulu and joined in 84 and then for cnn in atlanta. she served for 19 years. i'm going to embarrass her with some of her journalism awards. she

received 9 emmy's. an excellence awards for consumer action, 3 awards from radio and television news from the directors association, the press and television association, american psychiatric association and national association for children and alcoholics and a national award for best feature. with the asian pacific fund which i think is relevant for today's honor is a founder to establish and proof the well being of all asians in the district area and provide service and awarding grants to more than 90 asian organizations. the communities honor from prenatal programs and the chair from the ucsf san

francisco and broadcast award committee. emerald's accomplishment professionally are incredible. it's been so amazing just to get to know you as someone who literally grew up watching you on tv but it's been a real pleasure getting to know you as a person, her children and incredible husband ron, their two boys have worked in my office last summer and hopefully next summer and you are just an amazing family and really proud to have you in the neighborhood and to count you as a friend and congratulations on this honor. [ applause ] >> thank you very much, supervisor ferrel. this is an honor. this is especially an

honor for me in the city of san francisco because my growing up years and development of my career was all over the map. i was born in princeton, my childhood in asian and we grew up in hawaii which was a huge melting pot and i went to school in new york and southeast to atlanta and then here in san francisco. it's here in san francisco that i really feel that i found myself as an asian american and that's where i own my asian heritage. we have such a dynamic vibrant community, a confident one and that along with the acceptions and the support of the bay area community. it's been a wonderful, this is where i have spent most of my life so it's really wonderful to be honored in city hall in san francisco.

i have had a great career and met really outstanding interns like kate, she was a stand out. but i also found this incredible mixed chapter where i can do work to help the asian community. as to why the asian pacific fund exist because say tiny percent of charitable dollars goes towards asian needs in the bay area and the needs are vast and deep and on going. there is extreme poverty, there is barriers to finishing high school, there is a lack of access to health care, chronic health problems and pretty high suicide race among our population. our first step was to connect asian

philanthropist. i want to thank you for this existence and there is a coincidence of an event put on the fourth floor called asians in america. we have thousands of kids who submit essays and other artwork and there are many others like myself who came here and proud of our asian heritage. there are thousand of asian american kids still struggling with self identity and issues that inflict their community. i was up there a few minutes before this to make sure the exhibit is there and i read some of the

essays. one of them jumped out at me. i hope you will go up there. one was from a little boy who was seven years old. the week he wrote the essay his father died of liver cancer. what the theme of that concept is what i would do as president and i think what you will read about all these young americans about what they would do as president is very interesting. i would like to thank you for this wonderful lovely show case of igs issues and personalities. thank you. [ applause ]

>> thank you. with that why don't we go to our southeast neighborhood represented by supervisor cohen. >> okay. today ladies and gentlemen i'm honored to recognize a fantastic gentleman, he goes by san a. c'mon up. today for asian pacific heritage month we are going to be honoring this young youthful man. he is a friend of mine. i have been friends with him for four years. first in the asian community when he was

playing his you you -- he'll be graduating next thursday. san an is a son of a person in the community. he plays music before plays sports and he is a very talented and gifted musician. thank you for joining us today. i want to invite you all to listen to a few of his beautiful melodies. he brought his you you -- instrument.♪

>> [ applause ] . he's deeply rooted in the samoan culture. he represented island pride everywhere he goes. it's just a privilege to stand before you in this chamber as my friend and to recognize you. why don't you give us a couple of brief moments of your thoughts. >> i'm just very grateful to be here and i want to thank you

for that and i want to thank my dad because this wouldn't be happening without him. it's just an honor and i'm very grateful. >> this you very much. ladies and gentlemen, son a. >> [ applause ] thank you for that amazing

performance. with that, why don't we go to the west side represented in district seven by norman yee. >> thank you, it's been an amazing afternoon. i feel like i'm walking down memory lane here. i have been around for so long and feel that everybody that has been introduced has touched my life, starting with galileo and the workshop in the beginning to the asian american jazz festival and remembering mark was just a dynamo even at that young age a long time ago and taking classes with brenda and dancing and the street fares. i organized street fares in the 70s and always supporting issues in chinatown

and for several years, she basically adopted my two daughters, i have the photos of her and my daughters for years before she decided to have her own to all the rest of the people. right now i get to introduce another giant in our community. it's an honor to recognize a highly respected member of the san francisco and a dear friend of mine who happens to live in district seven for the asian heritage month. irene riley. please step up now. i promise i won't ask you to sing. irene's name is well-known in the asian american community for her community service and for her leadership in the civic arena she has served in many asian

pacific american issues and leaderships for roles in this community. prior to irene's retirement from here career in finances, she managed programs in washington, idaho and hawaii that cl you had the development of affordable housing specialized lending to community based organizations and promoting art groups. i met irene while she was in the position of the 90s while i was director of youth services. i had so impressed with her acts -- abilities to get things done that i asked her to join

our board and once she was on our board she made a huge impact to our community. however, you wouldn't know that she was retired by her constant presence in the community. in fact only a few weeks ago, irene hosted a neighborhood meeting so i can listen to their concerns. she is a cochair of the type sister community and vascular center and serves on the board of directors on the -- senior services and previously a commissioner on the housing authority. irene is a former prz president of the chinese

newcombers president, alliance club and have been very active on the chinese cultural center board and there she again, once again was a mover and shaker for many of the activities at the chinese cultural center. her leadership, as you see her leadership goes beyond art. it's been a range of issues for her community to improve our lives. her leadership achievement and dedication to the asian pacific american causes never cease to amaze me. after all she has accomplished in the asian pacific american community with her work, i look forward to seeing what else she has in store for us. thank you, thank you, please join me in

welcoming irene riley for honoring her today for the asian pacific month from the board of supervisors. [ applause ] >> thank you supervisor yee and president chiu and supervisors. president chiu, why couldn't you start from this side? >> that's what we did last week. >> after all these wonderful speeches, i'm speechless. anyway, it's a real honor to be recognized today to be with all of these elite honorees and especially special to be recognized by supervisor yee.

like supervisor yee i have a long career in the financial services field and work with many non-profit organizations as supervisor yee mentioned. i remember that my first volunteer work was spending all my saturday during the tax season helping low income families for their attack returns which is a very good experience and helped me understand some of the challenges and issues these families encounter. when i retired from bank of america after 34 years i chose to be acts -- active in perfect service. i serve in the housing commission and work closely with the wonderful staff with the small business assistance center. i'm very pleased and excited to see

mayor lee, supervisor yee and the board of supervisors introducing many excellent programs to help the small businesses in san francisco such as at the merging business loan fund announced by the mayor recently. all of us together can make a big difference in the life of san francisco residents and businesses. i look forward to working with you to contribute to these efforts. thank you again. [ applause ]

>> thank you commissioner. with that our last presentation but certainly not the least and i want to thank and welcome our newest asian american colleagues supervisor katie tang. >> thank you. as you saw a lot of great honorees today. today i want to honor jackson. before this i want to show a very short clip.

[film]♪ >> all right. jackson, would you like to come here. today i'm honoring ha yan. every year her new performances draws from jazz, modern ballet to reflect our multicultural community.

chung nay dance troop. she's also passionate about sharing chinese culture with the next generation through dance. her teaching style is engaging and her students love the multicultural dance elements in fused in her training performance. she has taught chinese dance in san francisco and is a stanford university dance teacher and was involved in the production of fire and silk and the dance performance for her cure against tumors. today as we are honoring our apa contributors to the community and honoring achievements in the performing arts in my honor to present this certificate to ha yan

jackson. >> thank you very much. good afternoon. i'm so surprised and so excited about this special gift. i'm just following my speech. thank you for the award. chinese dance was established in 2007 in san francisco to promote the development of devicement and appreciation of chinese dance and cult you ure in the san

francisco bay area. we have been performing in many many communities in san francisco and in the bay area for the last six year. from four years old to 70 years old. i have been supported by many dancers, parents and the communities at sunset studios and i'm grateful of my dancers. and thing -- thankful for the asian community. thank you. i owe you

support. thank you. [ applause ]