By ABIGAIL CHUN, NIKKEI PROGRESSIVES

Nearly 70 people representing 17 of Little Tokyo’s community organizations made their way to Union Church at 3rd and San Pedro streets on March 1 to meet their new neighbors, API RISE (Asian and Pacific Islander Reentry & Inclusion Through Support & Empowerment).

Having recently relocated their offices from Chinatown to Little Tokyo, API RISE staff, volunteers, and community members attended, eager to introduce themselves and, in turn, learn about other Little Tokyo organizations. The celebration proved to be a night of connection as attendees mingled, laughed, and conversed with one another over plates of Spam musubi and homemade gyoza.

Founded in 2013, API RISE is dedicated to the empowerment of current and formerly incarcerated Asian and Pacific Islander individuals, “high-risk” youth and families, allies, supporters, and their communities. Through a combination of culturally sensitive direct support, education, power building, and policy advocacy, this L.A.-based organization has spent the past 10+ years championing and organizing API formerly incarcerated populations.

“Since 2014, we have supported 1,500 individuals and family members directly impacted by mass incarceration and detention,” shared Dara Yin, an API RISE staff member and former incarceree, “When they [incarcerated API individuals] get here, we walk alongside them. We make sure they have places to go.”

Though often invisibilized, the issue of API incarceration in the U.S. is very much a real and ongoing systemic issue. On average, the API community serves longer prison sentences than any other racial group. And while APIs may represent a small minority of the American incarcerated population, Southeast Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are incarcerated at much higher rates than average.

“A lot of people think that APIs don’t go to jail, that we are, for some reason, barred from trauma,” explained Dara, “But this happens. It’s a reality.”

Following their release from prison, formerly incarcerated APIs are often met with severe cultural stigma and isolation from their communities. This, paired with societal prejudice against incarcerated populations, an individual’s preexisting social and economic circumstances, and a variety of other obstacles including racism and trauma, can make the re-entry process a painful and difficult task.

For this reason, API RISE’s peer member support, social enterprise, and community care programs are vital, providing released API individuals with an accepting, inclusive support system while also changing API communities’ perceptions of incarceration and formerly incarcerated people through education.

Nikkei Progressives, the event’s hosts, first connected with API RISE five years ago during a concert organized in support of children and families separated at the southern border. Since then, both groups have supported each other’s programs and social events and have campaigned together for state legislation that would end the double punishment of those who have been released from prison, only to be picked up by ICE (Immigration, Customs & Enforcement) and put into immigrant detention.

As NP member June Hibino affirmed, “We look forward to building on the ties we’ve built so far, whether it’s continuing the fight against folks being doubly punished with deportation, or supporting affordable housing, community space, and legacy businesses in our historic Little Tokyo.”

Kayla Yamada, the co-host of the night, along with Mia Barnett, then presented API RISE with a maneki-neko gift, a cat figurine meant to bring good fortune to the organization.

“I hope API RISE knows that Little Tokyo is proud to have them here and grateful for their work towards inclusion and justice,” Yamada said. “Welcome to Little Tokyo!”

To learn more about API RISE’s ongoing projects, visit their website at https://www.api-rise.org/ and Instagram page (@apiriselosangeles). API RISE is seeking ongoing donations to maintain their staff and programming, fund ongoing policy efforts, and move towards the creation of an API RISE re-entry home.

The following organizations attended:

Little Tokyo Service Center Little Tokyo Historical Society Little Tokyo Community Council

Visual Communications

East West Players

Tuesday Night Project

Changing Tides

Artcore at Union Center

Union Church of Los Angeles New Breath Foundation Japanese American National Museum

Yo! Magazine

J-Town Action & Solidarity Centenary United Methodist Church Japanese American

Cultural & Community Center

Nikkei for Civil Rights and Redress

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