News
Job Posting: Membership Organizer
OPAWL is a grassroots community that organizes for social justice and elevates the voices, visibility, and progressive leadership of Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) women, nonbinary, and trans people in Ohio. By co-creating an organized and...
Some Local AAPI Groups Dissatisfied with “COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act”
ideastream's The Sound of Ideas, June 2, 2021 Excerpt: For some AAPI organizations and advocates, there’s an appreciation that the federal government recognizes the increase of racist acts toward AAPIs, but there’s also a feeling that this bill misses the mark on what...
Request for Proposals: Photography + Videography Storytelling Services
OPAWL is hiring creatives for our upcoming storytelling campaign, Love Has No Borders: A call for justice in our immigration system! OPAWL is seeking photographers and videographers to capture the stories of Asian, Black, and Latinx community members who will be...
Asian Americans address need for awareness, advocacy during this year’s Asian Festival
Columbus Dispatch, May 25, 2021 Excerpt from the article: As members of the Asian American community face an onrush of violent hate crimes, attacks that have increased since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Jona Hilario and others said sharing their experiences is...
Call to Action: Show up to Ensure Ohio Invests in Asian/AAPI Communities
Call to Action: Show up to Ensure Ohio Invests in AAPI Communities We need your help to keep pushing forward the solutions uplifted in OPAWL’s recent statewide letter campaign to Governor DeWine and state lawmakers! Words are important, but words are not enough. We...
Greater Cincinnati Celebrates Asian Pacific American Heritage Month
Cincinnati Public Radio, May 3, 2021 Greater Cincinnati is home to a number of thriving communities whose members have their origins in Asian and Pacific Island countries. All through May, organizations representing those communities will celebrate Asian Pacific...
Resilience Against Hate: The Rally to Stop the Violence Against Asian Americans
The Cleveland Observer, April 14, 2021 Excerpt from the article: OPAWL is one of the organizations providing resources for members of the AAPI who have faced these challenges. As OPAWL co-director Tessa Xuan said in her powerful speech: “As Asian, Asian-American, and...
Lt. Gov. Jon Husted’s coronavirus tweet left Asian Americans feeling disappointed in Ohio leadership
Cleveland.com, April 3, 2021 Excerpts from the article: Tessa Xuan, a Cleveland resident who is co-director of Ohio Progressive Asian Women’s Leadership, said Husted’s words are functionally equivalent to “China Virus,” a phrase which a vandal spray-painted on a...
Opinion: Actions, not empty words, needed to dismantle systems of oppression
Columbus Dispatch, March 28, 2021 Excerpt from an op-ed by OPAWL Leadership Council member Bhumika Patel: "The recent shootings in Atlanta and the meaningless loss of life the community has suffered leaves me heartbroken. I find even greater sorrow in how deeply...
Asian-American Women Lead ‘Stop Asian Hate’ March in Cleveland’s AsiaTown
ideastream, March 28, 2021 Excerpt from the article: The march came just a week after a mass shooting at three Atlanta-area spas in which eight people, six of them women of Asian descent, were killed. Their deaths were profound in a year in which racism and violence...