Though COVID cases are still circulating, Portlanders are getting outdoors this summer and gathering for large-scale events and neighborhood festivals. July 17 brings a new addition to the season’s calendar. Tiger Tiger: A Celebration of Our AAPI Community, will, as the name suggests, focus on Asian American and Pacific Islander culture, performance, food and more.
“I think there’s a real hunger for this kind of event,” says Joe Kye, a Portland-based musician and storyteller who’s the lead organizer of Tiger Tiger. Celebrating the AAPI community feels especially important now, Kye says, in the wake of a rising number of anti-Asian hate crimes, including an incident on July 2 in Portland, in which a man allegedly assaulted a father and daughter in an anti-Asian bias crime.
“I’ve been really floored by the enthusiasm of all of the different community partners who have stepped forward” to support Tiger Tiger, Kye says. “It’s mind-boggling to me how quickly it’s come together.”
The event is funded by the City of Portland’s Community Healing Arts Initiative, Portland Parks & Recreation, APANO, Korean American Coalition, Chinese American Citizens’ Alliance, Japanese American Citizens League, Portland Chinatown Museum, and Utopia PDX.
Tiger Tiger runs 4-9 p.m. on Sunday, July 17, at Fernhill Park, 6010 N.E. 37th Ave. Presented in partnership with Portland Parks Summer Free For All Concert Series, the event will feature AAPI organizations and creators.
Portland-based musician and storyteller Joe Kye is the lead organizer behind Tiger Tiger: A Celebration of Our AAPI Community. (Photo: Ben Sellon, styled by Margo Latka)
The schedule includes musical performances by such artists as the Los Angeles electro-pop band, SURRIJA, and the Portland-based June Magnolia band, as well as the chief organizer’s band, Joe Kye & the Givers. There will also be poetry and stories from Ami Patel and Kevin Aipopo.
Though Tiger Tiger is free, attendees can also purchase food from AAPI chefs, including Richard and Sophia Le (Matta PDX), Ethan and Geri Leung (Baon Kainan), Lisa Nguyen (HeyDayPDX), and Tryzen Patricio and Candace Lachesis (GrindWitTryz).
Kye says the idea for Tiger Tiger dates back to last fall, when he had received a grant from the city of Portland for an event that got canceled because of COVID. Building on his past experience working with Portland Parks & Recreation summer concerts series, Kye decided to put together an all AAPI-led concert, which “morphed into what it’s become now, an AAPI bonanza, highlighting a lot of Asian American Pacific Islander stories.”
While there are local events dedicated to specific nationalities and ethnic heritage-based organizations, Kye says, he hasn’t seen something like Tiger Tiger, with its broad inclusion of many AAPI communities.
“The goal is to make this an annual event,” Kye says, and to encourage conversations about what it means to be a member of the AAPI community in America today. “How can we collaborate, and share stories that make us similar, and different?” he says.
Kye moved with his family from South Korea when he was 6, and he spent time in Seattle when his father was working toward a PhD in history at the University of Washington. After attending Yale University, Kye taught high school in the Seattle area, then departed for a full-time career in music. A vocalist who also plays the violin, using digital effects and a looping technique to create music that incorporates indie-rock, jazz, pop and classical influences, Kye has opened for such diverse names as Yo-Yo Ma, Hari Kondabalu and Senator Bernie Sanders.
Of Portland, where he moved in 2016, Kye says that, “generally speaking, it’s a welcoming place, though everyone can do better, including Portland.” While people may try to be supportive, Kye says they sometimes lack the context and knowledge of AAPI culture that helps everyone engage in a way that transcends stereotypes.
“To me, that’s why this event is so important,” Kye says. “There are many different events that are about celebrating traditions and heritage. This is about capturing the Asian American experience, and asking what does it mean to straddle that line, and have part of your identity in each of those cultures.”
There’s no way to capture the full diversity of AAPI cultures in a one-day festival, Kye says. “It’s impossible. Really, the goal of the event is for all attendees, whoever you are, when you see ‘AAPI,’ to think about it as a term that is constantly in conversation, and evolving, as opposed to locked in the past.”
— Kristi Turnquist
kturnquist@oregonian.com 503-221-8227 @Kristiturnquist
