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<\/p>\nTAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Tampa\u2019s biggest Asian American Pacific Islander cultural event took place Saturday.<\/p>\n
The Mayor\u2019s Asian American Pacific Islander Council hosted the Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Festival at Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park with food, drinks and performances.<\/p>\n
What You Need To Know<\/p>\n
The Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Festival returned to Curtis Hixon Waterfront Park
\nIt was hosted by\u00a0The Mayor\u2019s Asian American Pacific Islander Council\u00a0
\n
The council took the festival over four years ago and it has doubled in size
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Eighteen countries were represented at this celebration of AAPI culture and heritage<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s a way for me to connect with my culture and I believe that this is also a way for other Asian Americans to connect with their culture,\u201d said Karina Jahrling, dancer.<\/p>\n
Karina Jahrling is Filipina and she performed a Filipino folk dance that\u2019s been passed down for generations. The now 18-year-old has been dancing since she was five.\u00a0<\/p>\n
\u201cGrowing up, I didn’t see a lot of people like me. Our culture wasn’t really shown in the world, especially here in America,\u201d Jahrling said.<\/p>\n
That kind of representation is growing at the festival. The Tampa mayor\u2019s Asian American Pacific Islander Council took over the festival four years ago. At the time, 10 countries were represented, and that has now grown to 18.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
(Spectrum News\/Randy Levine)<\/p>\n
\u201cWe seek out representatives from each Asian country and then some. So, we want to make sure that there is equal opportunity for you to represent your country,\u201d said Mariben Andersen, chair of the Tampa Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Festival.<\/p>\n
The number of vendors also more than doubled. There were 40 vendors originally and on Saturday, there was about a hundred showing off food, drinks and crafts.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s about you being your authentic self and that we all belong to the Tampa Bay community and everyone is welcome. This is a family event,\u201d Andersen said.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s a family event that\u2019s grown to show many different cultures, including Jahrling\u2019s.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis festival is a landmark, it shows we are striving for more representation, showing how our culture is being brought into America,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
While there were many different cultures present, Andersen said it\u2019s about coming together to celebrate as one community.<\/p>\n
Andersen said there are openings on the council. The positions are appointed roles.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"TAMPA, Fla. \u2014\u00a0Tampa\u2019s biggest Asian American Pacific Islander cultural event took place Saturday. The Mayor\u2019s Asian American Pacific…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":210057,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[767,1011,1013,274,770,276,1190,2200,115,135,137,136,278,2032,1374,835],"class_list":["post-210056","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tampa","tag-app-community","tag-app-human-interest","tag-app-latest-human-interest-stories","tag-app-top-stories","tag-community-news","tag-hillsborough-county","tag-human-interest","tag-instagram-bn9","tag-news","tag-tampa","tag-tampa-headlines","tag-tampa-news","tag-top-stories","tag-trending-topics","tag-tyler-oneill","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210056","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=210056"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/210056\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/210057"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=210056"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=210056"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=210056"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}