Mark your calendar - the second annual Belmont AAPI Fair is coming this May!

Local AAPI clubs, organizations, businesses and food vendors are invited to join us in creating a fair to showcase your group and celebrate AAPI Heritage Month. This year's AAPI Fair will also feature a speaker panel with some of our Belmont AAPI student essay winners. Please contact us at administrator@bcahbelmont.org for more information.

Date:  1:00 - 4:00 PM, Sunday, May 17, 2026

1:30 - 2:30 PM Speaker Panel & Winning AAPI Essays Book Launch

A limited number of the books will be given as a gift with a donation of $20 or more.

3:00 - 4:00 PM Performances

Location:  Belmont High School, 221 Concord Avenue, Belmont, MA

Interested in volunteering? Sign up here:

https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C044AAAAA2BAAFBC34-63951544-2026#/

High school students will earn community service hours.

Celebrating AAPI Heritage Month

Belmont Celebrates Asian American & Pacific Islander Heritage (BCAH) was founded in 2021 as a response to the Atlanta shootings and the death of six women of Asian descent during COVID. Created by a small group of parent volunteers, the mission was to showcase the positive impact of the AAPI community through activities such as a speaker series, AAPI book donations to Belmont Public Schools, chess events, and the AAPI Festival. The Essay Contest was created in 2023 to hear from the youths of Belmont.

This year, we are publishing a compilation of winning essays from 2023 through 2025, written by students in grades seven through 12. Their stories reflect the diversity of the AAPI community, the challenges they faced in supporting others, and the beauty they found in exploring their heritages. Their struggles are poignantly told as they come to accept their identities.

For AAPI Heritage Month of May, essays from the book will be published in The Belmont Voice. The first essay appears this week (page 10). The authors will also read their essays at the Belmont AAPI Fair on Sunday, May 17, from 1 to 4 p.m. at Belmont High School. All are welcome to come free of charge, and books will be available with a donation.

Gi Yoon-Huang

BCAH Co-Chair

BCAHBelmont.org