The Colorado Dragon Boat Festival (CDBF), which celebrates and promotes the cultures and histories of about 20 Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in Denver, is held on July 30 and 31 at Sloan’s Lake, Colorado.
Approximately 43 percent of the City and County of Denver attends the free, family-friendly event. Twenty different food vendors from about 20 different AAPI cultures, including Indian, Laotian, and Mongolian, will be at the festival.
While children can go to Dragonland, where they can learn to fold origami, make paper lanterns, or listen to Asian fairytales and children’s stories to be read by the community’s elders, adults can visit the Gateway to Asia area, which is showcasing Japan this year.
According to Erin Yoshimura, Executive Director of the CDBF, Japanese-American history in the state of Colorado is not very well-known. In fact, many Coloradoans do not know about Camp Amache, a WWII Japanese-American internment camp located in southeast Colorado.
“Many people don’t know that Japanese-Americans have a long and rich history in Colorado and that many were forcibly removed from the west coast and incarcerated in concentration camps,” she said. “We will have former internees speak about their experience and show photos from the camps.”
Yoshimura added that bits of the internment camp will even be featured at the festival.
“Because it’s too far to drive there, we’re bringing the camp to the festival,” she said. “Festival guests can see artifacts that were discovered on a recent dig and speak to docents about life behind barbed wire.”
To pay further tribute to Japan, the festival is also hosting a multi-media mural project based on street or urban arts, comic arts, and mixed media. Attendees are invited to contribute to the project themselves by giving theme ideas, embellishments, and paintings based on Japanese culture.
Due to the marginalization, stereotyping, and general lack of visibility of Asian Americans in mainstream media, Yoshimura said that cultural festivals like the CDBF are important in reinforcing cultural identity and pride.
“The lack of visibility of Asian-Americans often causes people to see Asians through the lens of centuries-old stereotypes and reinforces AAPIs' status as foreigners even when they're fifth- and sixth- generation American-born citizens,” she said. “The main purpose for starting this event was to educate and celebrate AAPI culture and its people who are too often invisible or inaccurately portrayed by mainstream media.”
To learn more about the Japanese Obon dance, the Cultural Unity stage, and the international dragon boat race, all featured at the CDBF on July 30 and 31, visit www.cdbf.com.
The 11th annual Colorado Dragon Boat Festival will be held on Saturday, July 30 and Sunday, July 31 at Sloan’s Lake, Colorado.
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