AAPI Futures - Building our Los Angeles

DTLA AAPI Alliance is building a connected, visible and enduring AAPI cultural presence in Downtown Los Angeles, with a long-term vision for a world-class cultural center rooted in community, arts, partnership and civic belonging. AAPI FUTURES proposes that the youth program become one of the first ways that cultural center exists - before a permanent building is constructed.

The program combines architecture, documentary storytelling, historical inquiry, creative production, entrepreneurship and youth-led design. Its distinguishing principle is that children and teenagers are not treated only as audiences for adult-defined cultural content. They are researchers, makers, storytellers, designers, advisors and, for older youth, paid contributors.

The program is informed by Mina Chow's documented professional practice as an architect, educator and documentary filmmaker whose work examines Los Angeles, public memory and underrecognized contributions to architectural and cultural history. The proposal translates those professional tools into a youth-centered methodology: observe first, listen carefully, investigate…