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Check Out Kumi Alderman’s Story

Today we’d like to introduce you to Kumi Alderman.

Hi Kumi, can you start by introducing yourself? We’d love to learn more about how you got to where you are today?
The Knoxville Asian Festival has been making an impact since its inception at Krutch Park in 2014, with attendance increasing from 3,000 to 60,000 at World’s Fair Park in 2019, when the festival raised close to a million dollars in revenue for Knoxville. ACCT Founders are Leroy Kautz who is the owner of Wah Lum Kang Fu school, Christeen Silavong  Owner of Plum Tree restaurant and David Alderman.

The Asian cultural education that the festival provides in East Tennessee is important for raising cultural awareness and reducing insensitivity to differences between cultures, according to the Asian Culture Center of Tennessee. Cultural insensitivity can be seen in workplace discrimination, bullying, and within overtly insular communities.

“This inward-looking philosophy can prevent a community from becoming citizens of the World and miss the many opportunities present therein,” said Kumi Alderman, underscoring the need for diversity education in the Knoxville area. Alderman is the executive director of the festival.

With these goals in mind, the Asian Culture Center of Tennessee (ACCT) was founded at the same time as the festival in 2014. Alderman sees the festival as an outreach program for the center as well. She describes the program as a highly focused organization designed to develop cultural diversity and understanding within the community. Building on these intentions, the festival has grown each year and has increased tourism to Knoxville.

The outreach program was a natural extension of the festival, as requests rolled in from teachers and community members seeking Asian cultural education in their schools or businesses.

To begin to facilitate this curriculum, Alderman has created Outreach program to visit K-12 and Universities to teach Asian Cooking, Martial Arts, Crafts and Language. Alderman is trying to invite a native Japanese outreach program coordinator form Japan in 2023 for 2 years. JOI coordinators are native Japanese language speakers with strong English and intercultural communication skills, as well as experience living, working, or studying outside of Japan. These independent individuals are outgoing, flexible, creative, and eager to share their extensive knowledge of both traditional and popular Japanese culture, history, and more. During their two-year placement with your organization, JOI coordinators enhance the local community’s understanding of Japan by expanding outreach programming beyond the current capabilities of the hosting organizations. The program also helps to cultivate a new group of individuals in both Japan and the U.S. who will take leading roles in grassroots exchange. To support this program,  You can donate online. https://www.knoxasianfestival.com/register-now/

Multicultural education has many benefits for students in public schools, including helping young children to understand diversity and different cultural backgrounds, according to research. Cultural education helps to bring people together, and starting in schools is a great way to normalize the differences between cultures.

Of the 30,559 students at the University of Tennessee, about 3.7% are Asian, according to university data. Some students participate in the festival, but it’s an opportunity for students to interact with the Asian community in Knoxville outside of campus. The cultural center can deepen that opportunity.

Asian Festival visitors have risen almost 20-fold since it began in 2014. Exposure to other perspectives is transformative, as Alderman said has experienced in her own life.

Traveling and seeing different cultures had a tremendous impact on Alderman and she hopes that a program like this could increase people’s interest in traveling to other Asian countries, and inspire study abroad opportunities. The program plans to partner with K-12 schools in the area, universities, businesses, museums, and local governments.

Putting the pieces in place for these services will require qualified professionals, educators, and support from the community. “We are looking for the office space, coordinator host family, local program coordinator to partner with schools and universities,” Alderman said. “We would like to create the outreach program as an educational non-profit.”

The ACCT is the only organization of its kind in Knoxville and the surrounding areas. A physical space for the center would be ideal since there are not many cultural centers like this, particularly in the South. There are a few across the country, mostly housed in universities, and those have a positive impact on the inclusion and education of students, something Alderman hopes to encourage here.

Alderman has noticed that the support for the festival keeps growing along with requests for education within the schools. She hopes to show the public the positive impact that the festival has on all that attend, demonstrating the need for more events like this.

“ACCT is promoting a diverse and harmonious society that prepares today’s children to take the stage as true global citizens.”

Alderman also works closely with Leroy Kautz, a local teacher of Kung Fu who has studied various martial arts styles since the 70s and established the Wah Lum School in Knoxville for martial arts. They agree that the best way to get people involved in Asian culture is to immerse people in it. The festival achieves this by including performances from many Asian countries, food from those countries, and music.

Kautz and Alderman both stress the importance of engaging the senses when exploring a country or culture rather than just hearing stories. “I believe the festival having food is really bringing the smell of the country together. Giving you an actual taste, literally,” Kautz says.

This year’s event will also include a film festival at Central Cinema showing an educational Documentary and famous Asian movies the night before.

Alderman was a tour conductor based in Japan and traveled worldwide, a job that allowed her to open up to new people and their cultures. “When you travel, you eat the food and smell the country. And then you meet the people who act different because of their own culture. They are different color, different culture, but I found out people are the same in the heart,” Alderman said.

This revelation inspires the spirit of the festival. Alderman has used her knowledge to make the festival inclusive and fun for all ages and backgrounds. “I just said, well, you know, people, the way they are kind of apart is because they don’t know me, and they kind of back up,” Alderman says. “But the fun part of this job is that if I open up, I can learn from them and be friends with them.”

This year, the festival’s goal is to provide community and healing for all who attend.

“The idea of the festival is to unite people and promote friendship. The festival has this energy that when you walk through it and not only smell it, but you can hear the laughter and feel it too. It’s a wonderful thing,” Kautz said.

The festival will take place on Aug. 28 from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. at World’s Fair Park. We will have a passport program to travel 13 counties, Japanese Drummer from Disney World, Indonesia Anglulung which is made up of a number of bamboo tubes, Korean Fan Dancers, Indian traditional Dancers, 28 Authentic Food vendors,  For more information on the festival, visit www.knoxasianfestival.com.

Please register to get access to FREE Knox Asian Festival. https://www.knoxasianfestival.com/free-registration/ 

You can win a tasty bowl of Authentic Ramen from Ramen Bones food truck.  30 registered participants will be selected at random. https://www.ramenbones.net

Aug 27 is the Asian Film Festival at Central Cinema. Check schedule on http://www.centralcinema865.com.

We all face challenges, but looking back would you describe it as a relatively smooth road?
We were a very small nonprofit. We do not have much funding yet to reach our goal. We are still learning to make our nonprofit more sustainable.

We need a professional grant writer to grow our nonprofit or supporters. We have a dream to have our own place to manage after school program and outreach program. Donation is accepted at  https://www.knoxasianfestival.com/register-now/

Alright, so let’s switch gears a bit and talk business. What should we know about your work?
As Executive Director, my tasks are writing grants, contacting sponsors and explaining our mission, managing vendor applications, recruiting volunteers, planning for an emergency security plan, website management, promotion management (radio, social media, magazine), applying for beer permits, planning for traffic control, assign volunteers for each task, poster contest management, send the invitation letter to officials, plan for visitation to officials, invite food vendors, performing arts management, commercial vendors management, survey and report after the festival, and Asian film festival management.

I am very proud of my team who contribute their time. I have each Asian country leaders who manage their country’s representation. They are like my family. I really appreciate my husband and family, Country leaders, Volunteers, Sponsors, and Boards.

I think what sets me apart from others is my energy and flexibility. People say I can keep going like Energy Bunny. LOL.

So maybe we end by discussing what matters most to you and why?
Health (The most important thing for people. If you are not healthy, you can not make things happen).

Family and friends (They support me always. I really appreciate them).

Community (Where you live became your home. This community is very important to enjoy life together).

Contact Info:

Image Credits
Bill Foster

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