I have volunteered and worked at several Smithsonian Folklife Festivals before, but I did not know what to anticipate when I went down to the Festival grounds on Sunday, July 1.

Chanmala Mali Phonpadith was one of three local Asian Pacific American small business owners invited to discuss "Business in the Community" at the Talkstory discussion stage on July 3

At the 2010 Smithsonian Folklife Festival, many visitors to the Family Activities tent at the Asian Pacific Americans program sat on comfortable cots made of sturdy wood frames with woven-rope webbing

Real-estate agents are not always regarded as cultural brokers, but a panel at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival's Asian Pacific Americans program on July 27 showed how much they can influence an immigrant's view of this country.

Anyone who has participated in a performance group has a general idea of what it is like to create the Smithsonian Folklife Festival

In the 2010 Folklife Festival book, the goal of the Asian Pacific Americans program is described in this way:

"Not East Versus West" is the theme for today's programming, reflecting our goal of ending the notion that people from Asia and the Pacific Islands are "perpetual foreigners" no matter how long they have lived in this country

"War and Peace" is the theme of today's Asian Pacific American programming.

Today is the Fourth of July, a day when our nation celebrates the Declaration of Independence from England that Thomas Jefferson and others approved in Philadelphia on July 4, 1776.

Immigrants as Innovators is today's theme, and indeed we will be having everything from traditional Malaysian music to Lao break-dancing.