Various live performances were offered throughout the day on Saturday, May 31 at Zhou B Arts Center for AANHPI Festival. | Photo by Julia Williams

Julia Williams

Editor-in-Chief

On the last day of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage month — May 1 through May 31 — local nonprofit Hella Good Deeds and Columbus Park’s Café Cà Phê (916 E. Fifth St.) hosted Kansas City’s fifth AANHPI Heritage Festival for the first time at Zhou B Arts Center, 1801 18th St. 

From 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday, May 31, over 75 local business vendors from food trucks to nonprofits and artists set up booths around the outside and inside of Zhou B Arts Center — an exhibition space for all artists of all backgrounds — within the 18th and Vine District to focus on “the Art of Being AANHPI.”

Throughout the day, a $12 ticket got attendees entrance to the festival. This included visiting the event’s 77 vendors with food truck row and clothing merchants as well as various artists from a tattoo studio to ceramicists, jewelry makers and live stage performances that welcomed audience participation, as live music hummed in the background from a DJ and a live band. Nonprofits including Yukari KC — a Japanese connectivity organization — were in attendance on Saturday and offered various cultural children’s games and activities for entertainment and education.

Behind the Festival 

Lacey McPhail — First National Bank of Omaha (FNBO, 1620 Dodge St. Omaha, Neb.) development lead in fraud and dispute — volunteered on Saturday as FNBO served as a sponsor for the event and assisted Hella Good Deeds and Café Cà Phê with obtaining food truck row.

McPhail shared that FNBO began discussing AANHPI Festival and a sponsor partnership in October 2024 as this event — and Hella Good Deeds — fits into FNBO’s mission to empower the community, uplift struggling businesses and showcase heritage experience in Kansas City.

“It was a kismet experience,” McPhail said in reference to assisting in funding this event. 

When she sent an email to Béty Lê Shackelford — Hella Good Deeds founder and executive director — and Morgan Schulte — FNBO vice president of commercial banking — she said she had no idea it would lead to FNBO sponsoring the event’s food truck row.

“I’m so happy with the ability of a little email and that it was taken seriously,” McPhail said in an interview, Saturday. “Morgan and Bety made it possible by building a relationship [between FNBO and Hella Good Deeds] and laying the groundwork.”

On Saturday morning, while speaking with McPhail, she shared that 778 tickets were sold for the AANHPI Festival. However, tickets were on sale throughout the day and event coordinators projected between 1,000 to 1,500 participants total between 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. 

“It’s so exciting to be here, to support friends and to have a great time,” McPhail said. 

First Generation Vietnamese American Artist 

Of the vendors who put up tables to sell their work on Saturday was Kenny Nguyen and his business “Ken” — a local Kansas City ceramicist and artist. 

Nguyen said he found out about the AANHPI Festival at Zhou B Arts Center through a collaboration with Café Cà Phê.

“This [collaboration and vendor opportunity] wouldn’t have been possible without them,” he said in an interview, Saturday. “As a first generation Vietnamese-American. I’m happy to be here and share the love of ceramics.”

Nguyen said he has worked as a creator and self-taught ceramicist on and off for around five years. However, for the past seven months, he has worked to build his pieces on a professional level. 

A few of the items for sale at Ken’s booth on Saturday included matcha bowls, rice cooker incense pots, garlic dishes, persimmon jars and matcha whisk holders, according to a Café Cà Phê social media post, among other items. 

“Just seeing everyone, celebrating AANHPI month and having fun,” Nguyen shared was his favorite aspect of the event.

For All Ages 

Admission for children five-years-old and under was free throughout the day and Yukari KC — along with additional nonprofit organizations — offered activities of varying entertainment.

Madoka Koguchi, co-executive director and founder of Yukari KC, shared that the two main activities Yukari KC demonstrated —  Kabuto origami and Koi Nobori — are traditionally practiced by children during the month of May in Japan. However, she shared that either activity can be completed by adults and children, alike. 

Yukari KC is a new organization, which Koguchi and the organization’s other Co-Executive Director and Founder Chikara Hibino started in January with a mission to create spaces within the Kansas City metro for the Japanese community. 

“Asian Americans have a hard time taking up space. We want to create spaces where Japanese [individuals] feel at home,” Koguchi said in an interview, Saturday. 

Yukari KC will host Kansas City’s second-annual Japanese Summer Festival “Natsu Matsuri KC” at the end of August. 

“We want to host more events for the community to meet up and offer people an opportunity to reconnect with the Japanese side of their roots,” Koguchi said.

For additional information on Yukari KC and its upcoming events — including Natsu Matsuri KC — visit: https://www.yukarikc.org/.