Asian American Resource Center - City of Austin

08/28/2026

💫 Color Arc Productions returns to the AARC to present Romeo and Katrina: 2026 Live Script Reading on Saturday, September 26 from 3 to 5pm!

Romeo and Katrina, a musical set four years after Hurricane Katrina devastated the city of New Orleans, crosses the Mississippi River to bridge two lovers from Westbank and Eastbank New Orleans: Romeo Tran and Katrina "Trina" Batiste. Romeo and Trina's relationship grows amidst the backdrop of New Orleans' post-Katrina recovery and the Saints' storied ascent to Superbowl glory.

Script by Christine Hoang; musical accompaniment by Tyler Mabry; cast and crew talkback moderated by director Mikala Gibson.

This event is free and open to the public. Learn more and RSVP 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

This project is supported in part by an Elevate Grant of Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment.

Alt text: Graphic with a purple border with gold swirls and a picture of a fence with gold fleur de lis in front of a home in New Orleans. Text has details about Romeo and Katrina: 2026 Live Script Reading at the AARC. City of Austin logo is in bottom right corner.

08/28/2026

📢 Calling established and emerging artists in ceramics! Applications for the Dougherty Arts Center's 2027 Ceramic Artist Residency Program are open until Friday, September 4 at 11:59pm. Learn more and apply 👉 https://doughertyartscenter.submittable.com/submit

The Dougherty Arts Center (DAC) is an award-winning cultural arts center in the heart of Austin, TX.

08/24/2026

👋 Meet Pradhitha Boppana, our second guest speaker for Being and Belonging, happening at the AARC TOMORROW, August 25 from 6 to 8pm! Pradhitha and fellow guest speaker Jenn Xia will be guiding us in a discussion on The Future of Asian America.

Pradhitha is a le***an telugu poet and community member residing on the indigenous land of the Jumanos, Coahuiltecan, Nʉmʉnʉʉ Sookobitʉ (Comanche), Ndé Kónitsąąíí ]Gokíyaa (Lipan Apache), and Tonkawa people. 🏳️‍🌈

🗨 What draws you to community-based work?
What first led me to community based work was trying to preserve a community based lgbtq center at my university and care for my friends impacted by state violence.

Community based work continually asks me to question and challenge my fears of belonging and beliefs of worth and deservingness. Community based work also challenges me to imagine outside of the worldview I was brought up with. Community based work shows me a kind of care that is rooted in a shared responsibility for each other's wellbeing. Community based work introduces me to the belief that we can all have something to offer and that we don't require permission to initiate our agency. Community based work teaches me the framework of collective decision making. Through community based work, I learn about the breadth of possibility.

Being and Belonging is an educational pop up series exploring Asian American history, culture, and arts. This series is free and open to everyone ages 18+. Light refreshments provided! Learn more and join the waitlist 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

Alt text: 1) Picture of Pradhitha and four friends standing in front of trees and hanging paper lanterns. They are wearing face masks and looking at the camera smiling. 2) Graphic with a quote from Pradhitha.

08/21/2026

👋 Welcome back to the Asian American Resource Center for part 2 of our tour of rentable spaces! Come along with our staff to check out our conference room, classrooms, and one of our free community rooms.

✏ We have four 300 square feet classrooms available for rent. Each classroom can seat approximately 16 to 20 people and includes tables and chairs, a ceiling mounted projector, screen, dry-erase board, and HDMI connection.

💻 Our conference room overlooks the zen garden and can seat up to 22 people. It is equipped with conference chairs and tables and state of the art equipment including a conference telephone, TV and soundbar, HDMI connection, and more.

🫶 We offer two free community rooms for non-commercial, informational, educational, cultural, and civic needs. Community room 8 can seat up to 40 people and features tile flooring, hand washing sink, TV, and whiteboard. Community room 1 can seat up to 20 people and features a whiteboard and TV. All rooms include tables and chairs.

Learn more and reserve a space at the AARC 👉 bit.ly/AARCRentals

Alt text: Video game-themed video of AARC staff standing outside of the AARC waving to the camera and walking into the building. Video cuts to staff walking and pointing to features of a classroom, conference room, and community room. Bubbles above staff have pixelated text with information about each space.

08/20/2026

👋 Introducing one of our guest speakers for our next Being and Belonging session on Tuesday, August 25... Jenn Xia!

🌸 Jenn (she/her) is a Chinese-American artist who believes in art and interpersonal relationships as a pathway to explore how we can make life more loving. She believes in beauty as a practice, not merely in creating something beautiful to look at, but in making life worth living. In her free time, you can find her cafe-crawling her way through Austin and pausing to look at pretty foliage and shadows on the sidewalk.

🗨 What draws you to do community-based work?
What pulls me towards community-based work is really not knowing any other way to live life. So many people have nurtured me, opened their lives up to me and shown me a tender hand and that has made my life something I want to be part of. Every conversation I have with a curious child, every time my partner and I open our doors to a meal for a friend, every seed I plant, is an invitation to do the same. To be in each other's lives and to be better for it.

Being and Belonging is an educational pop up series exploring Asian American history, culture, and arts. This series is free and open to everyone ages 18+. Light refreshments provided! Learn more and join the waitlist 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

Alt text: 1) Graphic with a picture of Jenn standing in front of a stack of books and a calendar on the wall. She's crossing her hands in front of her and smirking at the camera. Text reads Being and Belonging, Asian American History Pop Up: The Future of Asian America, August 25 2026 from 6 to 8pm. 2) Quote from Jenn on a baby blue background. 3) A collage of two pictures - one of Jenn with three friends, all smiling at the camera, and another of Jenn standing behind a table with her art.

08/19/2026

📣‼️ Attention FY27 ACME Grant applicants! Last night ACME identified a technical issue in the online application system, confirmed by Submittable's engineering team. To ensure all applicants have a fair opportunity to submit, for any applicant that was unable to submit an application due to this error, ACME has extended the deadline to TODAY, August 19 at 6:59pm!

See the original post from Austin Arts, Culture, Music and Entertainment to learn more 👇

08/17/2026

Our final session of Being and Belonging is coming up at the AARC on Tuesday, August 25 from 6 to 8pm! Spots are full, but the waitlist is open. If you RSVP'd and can no longer attend, please cancel through Eventbrite to make room for people on the waitlist.

🔎 For this final session, we will not only look back at the history of Asian Americans in the United States – we will also look forward. What kind of future do we envision for our community, and how do we get there? Led by guest facilitators Jenn Xia and Pradhitha Boppana, participants will be prompted to collaboratively imagine the world they want to build for Asian America through artmaking and reflection.

Being and Belonging is an educational pop up series exploring Asian American history, culture, and arts. This series is free and open to everyone ages 18+. Light refreshments provided! Learn more and join the waitlist 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

Alt text: Graphic with squares in light blue, beige, orange, pink, and black with geometric shapes and silhouettes of people. Text reads Being and Belonging, Asian American History Pop Up: The Future of Asian America, August 25 from 6 to 8pm. City of Austin logo is in top left corner.

08/14/2026

🎉 Tones Fest is TOMORROW - Saturday, August 15 - from 1 to 4pm at the AARC! Here's what you need to know ahead of time 👇 We can't wait to see you there!

🎶 What is Tones Fest?
Tones Fest is an all-azn music and maker festival celebrating Austin-based AAPI creatives, featuring musical performances, a makers market, and craft station. This year is the fifth and final Tones Fest!

🎶 Performance Schedule
1:30pm Zak P
2:15pm Hexpartner
3:00pm francene rouelle

🚐 Where do I park?
The AARC has a free onsite parking lot with limited spots. If the AARC lot is full, you can park for free at the overflow lot next door at 1520 Rutherford Lane. By bus, there are nearby stops for bus lines 10 and 325. Please do not park across the street at the church or at other unauthorized lots.

🍙 Will there be food available?
Snacks and chai will be available for purchase from Austin Chai Wala. We will have limited free snacks available on a first come, first served basis.

✏ What free activities will be available?
There will be a craft and zine-making station with local artists Sarah Doan and Nathan Dinh.

✨ What vendors will be at the makers market?
lian.soy
Okasan Vintage
Kindfolk Apothecary
Chindi Chores
Moti Jewelry
Sasa Indigo
Win_P Press
An Made Ceramics

This event is free and open to the public. Learn more and RSVP 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

Alt text: Five slides with white backgrounds and colorful polka dots, music notes, and illustrated dancing characters.

08/13/2026

🎶 We're just a couple of days away from Tones Fest - THIS Saturday, August 15 from 1 to 4pm! In addition to live music and a makers market, we will have a zine- making station with instructors Sarah Doan and Nathan Dinh, where you can tap into your creativity and leave Tones with your very own (tiny) publication!

✏ Get to know Sarah

🗨 What do you hope participants will get out of making zines with you?
I want participants to put aside perfectionism and rediscover the simple process of creativity and making something by hand. I hope people leave with a physical reminder that their perspective is uniquely their own, valuable, and worth sharing (if they choose to). Community is something I'm incredibly passionate about, and there is something magical about sharing a space and realizing that our lived experiences are worthy of being published.

✏ Get to know Nathan

🗨 What do you love about zine making?
Zine making is a great way to express your interests that is easily shared with others! Every zine is unique to the person that made it, which makes them fun to collect!

Tones Fest is free and open to the public. Learn more and RSVP 👉 bit.ly/AARCEventbrite

Alt text: White graphic with green and pink polka dots and pictures of Sarah and Nathan. Text reads zine-making with Sarah and Nathan. Tones Fest. Asian American Resource Center.

08/13/2026

‼️Join Austin Equity and Inclusion and CAIR for a Bystander Intervention Training, happening TODAY at the AARC from 3 to 4pm! These trainings are designed to equip residents with practical tools to recognize, disrupt, and safely respond to identity-based harassment. Learn more and register 👉 bit.ly/StopHate2026

Can't make today's session? There will be more opportunities to participate throughout August and September. Follow Austin Equity and Inclusion or visit their website to learn more 👉 austintexas.gov/oei