Rarely do we get the chance or the idea to do some straight-up reporting, but the start of Asian Pacific Islander Awareness Month here at Columbia merits this type of spotlight. In Lerner C555 earlier tonight, Helen Zia and Ishle Park regaled us with songs and insight for the opening ceremony of APAAM.

Park sang songs of unity and ancestry, telling at one time a story of her meeting a North Korean man who captured this essence of human soul and spirit that she conveyed through her performance. Zia spoke of issues of contemporary political atmosphere, emphasizing the ways the age we are in now connects with the civil rights struggles taking place during her college years. With the events of this year and the issues and struggles that persist, there were few ways her speech could have been more relevant to the mission and objectives of this month.

So check out more of the events on the calendar, and celebrate this month while it's around. If you missed this ceremony, don't let it happen again, lest you totally want to miss out.

(If it was weird to read this post, we don't do a lot of plain event summaries.)