Asian, Pacific Islander, Desi American Heritage Month
What is APIDA Heritage Month?
In 1978, Congress passed a Congressional Resolution for Asian and Pacific Islander Americans to be celebrated during the first week in May. It was the anniversary of the first wave of Japanese immigrants to the U.S. as well as the completion of the transcontinental railroad, which was predominantly built by Chinese Americans. In 1992, the celebration was extended through the entire month of May.
Here at the University of Maryland, we hold APIDA Heritage Month (APIDAHM) during April instead of May to ensure that our APIDA community gets a full month to celebrate their culture and heritage before summer break begins. 2026 will mark the 34th year that APIDAHM has been a nationally recognized month-long affirmation of the experiences and contributions of APIDA communities. Learn more about APIDAHM 2026 as well as our past Heritage Month themes below!
Program and Event Calendar
Waves that Move Us
For some, the wave is at the center of Asian, Pacific Islander, and Desi American culture, identity, history, and heritage. We are products of the currents of migration that bring us together just as the oceans keep us apart. At its simplest form, a wave is water that is subjected to a force, an orbital dance between push and pull. From the gravitational pull of the moon to a hand making ripples on the surface of water, waves teach us that each action contributes to a larger movement, for each wave builds on the one before.
The waves that move us make us braver. So, when we stand in the shadow of a tsunami that threatens to swallow us whole, we must face it headstrong. Sound the alarms. Unmoor the boats. Find the paddles. The strongest resistance is one made by collective force. Let everyone know: we are moving beyond “sink or swim.” Refuse to leave each other behind. Grasp each other’s hands and make a chain. Hoist one another out of the floodwater. Seek higher ground. From here, we can see that even the greatest and most insurmountable of waves will fall.
As the tides keep flowing, we decide how to adapt and learn. The waves that move us make us stronger. Teach each other how to swim. Celebrate surviving the worst. Lend a hand in strengthening our homes and schools. Set forth, and be part of the waves of change.
Week 1
🗓️Date: April 3
🕕Time: 7:30 - 11 PM
📍Location: Grand Ballroom, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Basant Ki Kaahani (The Story of Spring) is a cultural "Mock Shaadi" event that captures the nostalgia and energy of a traditional Pakistani spring festival. Rather than just a mock wedding, it is a themed celebration centered around the heritage of Basant. The event focuses on the arrival of spring, symbolized by the iconic yellow dress code, marigold decor, and the historic kite-flying traditions of the Punjab region.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umdpsa.
🗓️Date: April 4
🕕Time: 5 - 9 PM
📍Location: Grand Ballroom, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Philippine Culture Night, or PCN, is known as the culmination of all things FCA. This event combines all the separate aspects of our organization into one large production that is written, directed, and performed by our very own members. Focusing on topics that relate to us as Filipino Americans, this play showcases our experiences through our own personal lenses. With both cultural and modern dance performances weaved in as well, this event truly encapsulates all of the pieces that make up FCA.
This event is being sponsored by SECU, Katipunan The Filipino Association of Maryland, Manila Mart & Cafe, and Raising Cane's Chicken Fingers.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @fca_umcp.
🗓️Date: April 5
🕕Time: 12 - 1:30 PM
📍Location: American University Washington College of Law, 4300 Nebraska Ave NW, Washington, DC 20016
Meet at the College Park metro station at 10:45am and journey to American University Washington College of Law (AUWCL) with other UMD pre-law students. Once there, you will be given a one-hour tour of AUWCL by the South Asian Law Student Association. Afterwards, there will be a half an hour personalized Q&A session.
This event is being sponsored by Janelle Wong.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @aaplsumd.
Week 2
🗓️Date: April 10
🕕Time: 11 AM - 3 PM
📍Location: Front of Edward St. John Learning and Teaching Center Building
Lassi on the Lawn / Chai on the Mall is a dedicated fundraiser hosted by the Pakistani Student Association to support the Indus Hospital & Health Network (IHNN). We invite the community to enjoy traditional refreshments, with 100% of the proceeds going directly toward providing free, high-quality healthcare to underserved populations in Pakistan.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umdpsa.
🗓️Date: April 10
🕕Time: 5:30 - 8:30 PM
📍Location: McKeldin Mall
Join us as we celebrate the New Year with the South Indian Club at UMD! This event is all about bringing our community together through food, games, and fun activities to kick off the year right. We will be serving authentic South Indian food, including Chicken Biryani, Veg Biryani, Paneer Pakora and there will also be plenty of activities throughout the event such as bracelet making, chalk art, coloring, bubbles, and more, along with fun group games like tug of war. Come with your friends, meet new people, and celebrate the New Year with us!
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umdsicc.
🗓️Date: April 11
🕕Time: 9 AM - 7 PM
📍Location: Ritchie Coliseum
This major annual public gathering brings together collegiate teams across the East Coast and local non-collegiate teams to compete. In 2025, Terp Lions became the first collegiate troupe from a public university to compete and win the competition. As tradition dictates, the reigning champion hosts the competition the following year, and we are proud to host it here at UMD! This event is symbolic for us as a student organization as it highlights nearly two years of hard work dedicated to promoting lion dance across UMD's campus while building a strong club community.
This event is open to the public! Anyone interested in spectating can fill out a Spectator form here: https://forms.gle/6C8AsCeV2LvuAHWJ9
This event is being sponsored by Dragon Lion Gear, Asian American Studies Department, Chinese Department, Unity Center, Choy Wun Lion Dance Troupe, KB Cubed LLC, and HoneyPig KBBQ.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @terplionsumd.
Week 3
🗓️Date: April 15
🕕Time: 1 - 2 PM
📍Location: George Washington University Law School, 2000 H St NW, Washington, DC 20052
Meet at the College Park metro station at 11:45am and journey to the George Washington University Law School with other UMD pre-law students. Once there, you will be given a tour led by the Admissions Office.
This event is being sponsored by Janelle Wong.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @aaplsumd.
🗓️Date: April 15
🕕Time: 4 - 5:30 PM
📍Location: Taliaferro Hall 2110 (Berlin Room)
Please join the Center for Global Migration Studies in a discussion of Willow Lung-Amam’s The Right to Suburbia: Combating Gentrification on the Urban Edge (UC Press 2024). Tanya Golash-Boza (University of California, Washington DC program) will provide comments.
In this talk, Dr. Lung Amam will discuss her new book, The Right to Suburbia: Combating Gentrification on the Urban Edge. The book investigates how marginalized communities, including African American, Asian American, and Latinx immigrants in the suburbs of Washington, DC—one of the most intensely gentrifying metropolitan regions in the United States—have battled the uneven costs and benefits of redevelopment. Revealing the far-reaching impacts of state-led redevelopment, The Right to Suburbia shows how patterns of unequal, racialized development and displacement are being produced and reproduced in suburbs—and how communities are fighting back.
This event is being sponsored by the UMD Asian American Studies Program & Department of History.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @globalmigration.
🗓️Date: April 17
🕕Time: 6 - 7:45 PM
📍Location: Carroll Room, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
A celebration of 10 years of the Sri Lankan Student Association at the University of Maryland. We will be serving mocktails and small snacks while reminiscing past events and looking forward to the future. Please RSVP with the following link: https://forms.gle/MjXV8z6tbdWSNGHF9
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umdslsa.
🗓️Date: April 18
🕕Time: 11 AM - 1 PM
📍Location: Studio A, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Join the UMD Stamp Gallery and the ARTiculate Narratives Project to discover how to extract vibrant color from native Swahili plants and transform them into powerful paintings that preserve cultural identity through creative expression. Mix and paint your own watercolor masterpiece using natural materials.
This event is being sponsored by Arts for All, Do Good Mini-Grant, Pepsi Grant, and UMD Stamp Gallery.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @stampgalleryumd.
🗓️Date: April 18
🕕Time: 6 - 10 PM
📍Location: McKeldin Mall
Taiwanese Night Market with over 1000 attendees every year. It includes many games, prizes, performances, and vendors for people to stop by.
This event is being sponsored by Indomie, Covry, Eastland Food, Redbull, FAPA, Jumbo Jumbo, Honey Pig, TECRO, and Foolicious.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umcptasa.
Week 4
🗓️Date: April 23
🕕Time: 7 - 8 PM
📍Location: Virtual
Attend a virtual Q&A Session with the George Washington University Law School South Asian Law Student Association and Asian Pacific American Law Student Association to get a candid take on the law school experience from the perspective of Asian American students.
This event is being sponsored by Janelle Wong.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @aaplsumd.
Week 5
🗓️Date: April 30
🕕Time: 12:30 - 1:15 PM
📍Location: Susquehanna Hall 3105
Join AAST for a Lunch and Learn with Charita Castro and Gem Daus in conversation with AAST Director, Janelle Wong. Discover how they launched careers in the public service. Our guests will share insights from their work in health, labor, and other policy areas, offering a unique look at Asian American experiences in the public sector. This event is supported by the Juanita Tamayo Lott Endowment in Asian American Studies. RSVP: go.umd.edu/LunchLearnApr30
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @aastumd.
🗓️Date: April 30
🕕Time: 2 - 3:15 PM
📍Location: UMD Campus Pantry
Students in AAST250: Asian American Foodways will be leading an interactive cooking demo that highlights an Asian American dish. Its assemblage in real time will also invite conversation for historical and cultural connections that demonstrate its significance to the Asian American community as well. Food donations to the Campus Pantry will be also be accepted.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @aastumd.
🗓️Date: April 30
🕕Time: 10 PM - 2 AM
📍Location: Phantom Lounge, 1327 Connecticut Ave NW, Washington, DC 20036
We are excited to be collaborating with Arrambam to bring the college communities in the DMV area together for a very special experience with everyone’s favorite Tamil, Telugu, and Malayalam (and more south indian) songs for a night like no other! This event will take place at the Phantom Lounge in Washington DC and is and 18+ event. Tickets can be found in the tree link @umdsicc on instagram, but here is the link as well: https://posh.vip/e/the-college-formal-vol1-2?t=s.
This event is being sponsored by Arrambam.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @umdsicc.
Week 6
🗓️Date: May 6
🕕Time: 9 AM - 4:45 PM
📍Location: Nanticoke Room, Adele H. Stamp Student Union
Join IEHS and CGMS/UMD as we launch the podcast "250 Years of Immigrant Stories" targeting the 250th anniversary of the US. Through narratives of featured immigrants, this podcast explores varying experiences of immigration, settlement, and the emergence of immigration regulation over time. Our launch conference includes three panels: "Futures of Migration Studies"; "Podcasting"; and a public history panel "Storytelling and Empowerment." Please join us in person or online by registering at go.umd.edu/250immigrantstories
This event is being sponsored by the Department of History; Immigration and Ethnic History Society; and Asian American Studies Program.
📱For more events and updates, follow us at @globalmigration.
Hosted by MICA
Date & Time: April 10 | Tour starts at 3PM - UMD contingent will leave College Park Metro at 2PM
Location: National Museum of American History
Co-Sponsor: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Join us for a guided tour of the How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories exhibition, which explores the overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California from the 1910s to the 1970s through twenty-six steamer trunks found in 2005, three of which are on display in the gallery. Attendees can also join us to explore other exhibitions in the galleries – come see what moves you!
RSVP TBA
Date & Time: April 15 from 12:00-1:30PM
Location: MICA/LCSL Conference Room
Co-Sponsor: Asian American Studies Program
Dr. Janelle Wong will discuss the state of Asian American Studies and diversity.
RSVP TBA
Date & Time: April 19, 6:00 – 9:00 p.m.
Location: Grand Ballroom
Co-Sponsor: Asian American Student Union (AASU)
Unity Gala is an end-of-the-year formal honoring all APIDA communities here at UMD. We invite you to a free celebration where heritage meets high fashion.This year's theme, "Our Woven Threads," honors the garments that carry our stories, from the ancient Silk Road to modern-day activism. Our attire is more than a look, it is a visible representation of our pride and a form of resistance against erasure.
Dress Code: Formal / Cultural Attire. Let your threads tell your story.
RSVP form
Date & Time: April 22 from 12:00-1:30PM
Location: MICA/LCSL Conference Room
Co-Sponsor: Asian American Studies Program
Dr. William Ming Liu will discuss the struggle to create co-curricular opportunities for APIDA students during the 1990s.
RSVP TBA
Date & Time: April 24 | Tour starts at 3PM - UMD contingent will leave College Park Metro at 2PM
Location: National Museum of American History
Co-Sponsor: Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
Join us for a guided tour of the How Can You Forget Me: Filipino American Stories exhibition, which explores the overlooked history of a trailblazing Filipino community in California from the 1910s to the 1970s through twenty-six steamer trunks found in 2005, three of which are on display in the gallery. Attendees can also join us to explore other exhibitions in the galleries – come see what moves you!
RSVP TBA