APAHA will be celebrating the Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month in May with our annual APAHA festival. The festival will be held on Saturday May 18, 2013 at Houston Community College (HCC) parking lot at 5601 West Loop South from 10:00 AM to 5:00 PM.

APAHA annual festival reaches many in the community. We hope that you will consider sponsoring a table or food booth/truck (for a token cost of $100) and join us to celebrate the month of May and carry out our mission – “to promote Asian/Pacific American accomplishments and heritages through awareness, education and celebration.”

For more information about the Festival or APAHA, please contact Charlene Chuang, Festival’s Chair, at charlenecchuang@gmail.com. (832) 865-5811; or Theresa Tran, Executive Director, at ed@apaha.org, (713)-784-1112. For sponsorship opportunities and event details, visit our website: www.apaha.org or click on link below.

Sponsorship opportunties
Event details

Friday, April 26th, come celebrate our city at Discovery Green! Enjoy live performances and some of Houston’s iconic Houstonians – like Houston Greeters’ Honorary Board Member, Dr. Stephen Klineberg, speaking with the Kinder Institute for Urban Research on “The Changing Faces of Houston.” Free to the public. All are welcome. For more information, click on the link: Changing Faces of Houston
 

I write first and foremost to invite you to attend a free performance of J. Offenbach’s French-language operetta, La Vie Parisienne, staged by the Franco-American Vocal Academy (FAVA) and taking place at the Miller Outdoor Theater this June 8 at 8:30pm. FAVA is a registered non-profit organization affiliated with the Butler School of Music of the University of Texas whose mission is to discover, educate and inspire promising vocal talent. The June 8 performance will showcase some of the best young vocal talent to have come through FAVA’s ranks.
 
Additionally, we are seeking business sponsors to help raise funds to offset costs associated with FAVA’s ongoing outreach project “Opera Without Fences”. Created in 2012, Opera Without Fences aims to bring live opera to various communities of Texas, while at the same time giving professional experience and exposure to young talented American singers.
 
Sponsors will be given blocks of VIP seats, name and/or logo recognition on the program (over 1,000 print copies) and on FAVA’s website, and various other benefits depending on the level of support. Among other things, your contribution will help:
 
•Foster Franco-American relations in the arts and commerce
•Further FAVA’s mission to discover, educate, and inspire promising vocal talent
•Bring free opera to the greater Houston community and beyond
•Support young vocal talent with scholarship funding
 
This is the second year FAVA is selected to perform at the Miller Outdoor Theater.
Whether or not you are able to sponsor FAVA this season, we would still like to offer your business reserved seating to the June 8 performance of La Vie Parisienne. Please email us at favaopera@gmail.com if interested.
 
Thank you for supporting the arts in Texas.
 
Sincerely,
 
Barbara Carroll De Obeso
Producer
 
About the operetta: “La Vie Parisienne” by Jacques Offenbach, is a spoof of the cultural melting pot, which is Paris: from modest shoemakers to barons and rich Brazilians. The captivating and exciting rhythms of Offenbach’s music propel the twists and turns of the charming plot. High-jinks and Can-Can’s assure a memorable evening.
 
About FAVA: The various programs of the Franco-American Vocal Academy strive to develop the complete singer, providing the tools to compete in this most difficult of professions: immersion in the various cultures, Italian vocal technique, traditions of the operatic repertoire, art song interpretation, stage training, expert knowledge of interaction patterns in the operatic milieu. Website: http://favaopera.org

Every first Saturday at 3:00pm, beginning in April, the Meenakshi Temple Greet is open to the public. The Meenakshi Temple is located at 17130 McLean Rd., in Pearland. Please make your reservation at least 48 hours in advance by contacting Mr. Sesh Bala at seshbala@hotmail.com.

A campaign to attract visitors to Houston has undergone a makeover, shifting from celebrities to people who are celebrated locally for achievement in the arts and cuisine.
 
The campaign, which got under way in February, comes on the heels of a campaign with the theme “My Houston,” which has run for the last five years. The “My Houston” campaign features famous sons and daughters of the city, among them George Foreman, Beyoncé Knowles, Carl Lewis, Lyle Lovett, Jim Parsons, the rock bank ZZ Top and Chandra Wilson.
 
The new campaign, which carries the theme “Houston is …,” presents groups of chefs, restaurateurs, artists, singers, dancers, museum curators, musicians, actors and designers. Each group appears in print and online ads with these headlines: “Houston is tasty,” “Houston is hip” and “Houston is inspired.”
 
Read more here.