05/07/2026
Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month! AAPI Month celebrates the contributions, cultures, and lives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. One organization that has been instrumental in supporting local Asian Pacific Islander communities is the Asian American Resource Workshop (AARW). Founded in 1979 and originally based in Boston’s Chinatown, AARW is one of Boston’s first pan-Asian organizations, dedicated to political education, creative celebration, and issue-based organizing.
AARW runs various programs focused on housing justice, deportation defence, youth leadership, and the arts. The organization hosted Boston’s first exhibition of Asian American artists in 1979, and has since launched multiple workshops on Asian American history and identity. In 1982, AARW sponsored the Asian American International Film Festival, which has evolved into the Boston Asian American Film Festival that runs annually to this day. AARW also played a key role in the Coalition to Protect Parcel C for Chinatown in 1993, the fight against Liberty Place in 2001, and the protests against the demolition of the Gaiety Theater in 2005.
AARW collaborated with Northeastern University in 2006, hosting their Asian American International Film Festival in Shillman Hall. Northeastern’s Asian American Center notes, “sometimes light, sometimes funny, sometimes tragic[...] films provide another medium for learning about the Asian American community.”
To learn more about AARW and Boston’s Asian American history, check out Northeastern University Archives and Special Collections’ History Portal at https://asianamericanhistory.library.northeastern.edu/.
