Suffolk County Exec and Stony Brook University alumnus Steve Levy is pulling it all together as far as the Asian American community is concerned. He is in negotiations with Charles Wang, owner of the NY Islanders National Hockey team, to move the Isles to Suffolk. That might also mean Suffolk gets a pro-basketball team, Wang's favorite sport, if its far enough away from the city to be non-competitive.

In December 2005 Levy created the Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board and on Saturday, 4 February, in the H. Lee Dennison Building in Hauppauge, the county had its first official Lunar New Year Celebration, co-sponsored by HSBC. Members of the committee are Chairman Dr. Chung Chi Chou, and in alpha order, Akie Naito Gearns, Belinda Pagdanganan, Rev. Francis Sang, Dr. Panna Shah, Stella Shieh, Ritu Wackett, DaZhou Wang, and Dr. Jim Yih-Jin Young. The committee is part of the Office of Minority Affairs under Edwin Perez.

The Celebration drew a standing room only crowd for the performances that ended the day. Students from CCALI - Chinese Cultural Association of LI Chinese School performed and sang, danced, demonstrated Chinese yo-yo, and had a fashion show of traditional Chinese clothing. There was also singing, Chinese pipe playing, a magic show, and kung fu demonstrations by guest performers. *1

The performance segment began with an introduction by the Chair, Dr. Chou, and remarks by Edwin Perez and Steve Levy. The County Exec then brought all the members of the committee to the stage and officially swore them in - a fitting public touch to their first public event.

Suffolk County Asian American Advisory Board with Minority Affairs Director Edwin Perez and County Exec Steve Levy		Suffolk Co. Exec Steve Levy, Suffolk Co. Leg. Vivian Viloria Fischer, Charles B. Wang Center's Sunita Mukhi
Click on photos to enlarge

Throughout the day the Dennison building lobby was packed with displays, performances, and visitors. Lion dancers, students from Herrick's High School, thrilled young children, and two young women played the zither, a traditional Chinese string instrument like a horizontal harp.

The demonstrations included dough figure making with adorable dragons, paper cutting of different symbols and animals, especially double happiness, not only appropriate for the Lunar New Year but Valentine's Day, calligraphy of whatever a visitor asked to be written and an exhibition of the artist's brush paintings, Chinese knotting including roses for Valentine's Day and paper folding to make lanterns, exotic orchids, and a display of all that is involved in a traditional tea ceremony with cups of tea for all.

Chinese knotting & paper folding		Chinese tea ceremony		Double happiness  paper cut		Brush painting and calligraphy		Rare orchids		Dough figure making & cute dragons

There were also country displays from India, Korea, Japan, and the Philippines. At the Japan table everyone watched sushi being made from scratch - and then cut up for free samples.

India		Japan		Sushi		Korea		Philippines

And to top it all off, Good Taste Buffet of Commack donated a buffet of free food.

Suffolk's first Asian American event was a wonderful showcasing of the traditional cultural heritage of Asian Americans in Suffolk County. Throughout the year different Asian American cultures will be celebrated and if like this first one, they should be successful and entertaining.

Photos of all are at http://www.aasquared.org/gallery

Press Release on formation of Asian American Advisory Board:
http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol13/13N3SuffolkCoAsianAmAdvisoryBoard.shtml

Link to article on Islanders and Suffolk County: http://www.aaezine.org/articles/vol13/13N3SuffolkCoandCharlesWang.shtml

*1 Regretfully, photos from the performances are not available. Anyone who has them and will let the AA E-Zine put them online, please contact or send them to aaezine @ yahoo.com with the name of the photographer. If you have many, they can be directly uploaded to the Guest Gallery without a password, or sent to the Zine on CD. http://aasquared.org/gallery/GuestAlbum or AA E-Zine, PO Box 4093, Stony Brook, NY 11790.