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VAYLA incubates AAPI leaders for a more just tomorrow.

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Our Mission

VAYLA incubates AAPI leaders for a more just tomorrow. VAYLA exists as an embodiment and commitment to activating tomorrow’s AAPI leaders in New Orleans and beyond. We engender leadership to address social inequities facing our community while anchored in an anti-racist, Queer, Feminist lens. At the forefront of these issues we focus on environmental justice, reproductive justice, and civic engagement initiatives.

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News

Apr 1, 2022

AAPI Womxn Leading VAYLA | Womxn Cộng Đồng AAPI Dẫn Đầu VAYLA

Community, As we radically envision our shared futures during such uncertain times, I reflect on our Ancestors and community expansion through a multitude of climate crises and displacement trauma we … Continued

News

Feb 1, 2022

No Mud. No Lotus.

“If you know how to make good use of the mud, you can grow beautiful lotuses.” -Thích Nhất Hạnh This Lunar New year we honor elder Thích Nhất Hạnh, whose … Continued

Press Release

May 31, 2021

Farewell to APAHM not AAPIs by Our Executive Director

For Immediate Release: May 31, 2021 Contact: Ellen Lu, Program Coordinator, contacts@vayla-no.org New Orleans, Louisiana – As we close out Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, we emphasize the importance of … Continued

Resources

Find in-language materials on combating racism, information on COVID-19 safety, or report a hate crime or incident.

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VAYLA New Orleans

1 week ago

“People sometimes assume ancestorship is reserved for those of biological relation, but a queered or cripped understanding of ancestorship holds that, such as in flesh, our deepest relationships are with people we choose to be connected to and honor day after day.” - Stacey Park Milbern

At a time when our hard-earned rights are being undermined, we look back to the activism that inspires and sustains us, activism that will never be quieted.

Our ancestors are those who paved the path for each of us to live more fully, more authentically than they were able to in the world they inherited. Stacey Park Milbern emphasized remembering and learning from them, just as they continue to learn, laugh, cry, hurt, rage with us. Sustaining this lineage is what makes it possible for there to be 685,000 AAPI folks who identify as LGBTQ+ in America today, when a century ago, queer Asian visibility was largely reduced to morally deviant caricatures in popular media, such as characters like Fu Manchu. Historians who privilege heterosexuality and whiteness are more likely to render queer Asians in America as irrelevant and invisible in America’s past. It is our responsibility to hold onto their stories and achievements in order to etch their contributions into LGBTQ+ history, AAPI history, and American history.

We look to some of the queer AAPI activists in our current and recent history–those who are breaking down walls in their everyday activism, or through the legacies they leave behind. These are folks who have struggled with navigating a queer space that was too white, an AAPI space that was too heteronormative, and tossed those categories away to define their own identities––proud, loud, and unapologetic.

#PrideMonth #Pride2022 #CelebratePride #Pride #QTBIPOC #LGBT #AAPI #QueerAsian #TransRights #TransLivesMatter #DisabilityAwareness #DisabilityAwarenessMonth ... See MoreSee Less

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