2025 Pride

API Middle Tennessee is committed to belonging and making inclusive spaces where people can be their authentic selves -- including our LGBTQ+ siblings. Here are some facts about the API LBGTQ+ community:

• There are over 685,000 API LGBTQ+ adults in the United States (UCLA Williams Institute, 2021)

• API LGBTQ+ adults have higher rates of unemployment, lower levels of income, and struggle with food insecurity (UCLA Williams Institute, 2021)

• 54% of API LGBTQ+ youth reported discrimination based on their race/ethnicity in the past year (Trevor Project, 2022)

• API LGBTQ youth who have social support from friends attempted suicide at lower rates compared to AAPI LGBTQ youth without this support (Trevor Project, 2022)

National Resources

• UCLA Williams Institute Report

• Trevor Project Report on AAPI LGBTQ+ Youth

• The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance Pacific Islander Alliance

• Asian Mental Health Collective

• PLFAG

Local Resources

• Tennessee Pride Chamber

• Tennessee Equality Project

• Oasis Center

• Wilco Iris

• Pride Community Center of the Tri-Cities

• Knox Pride

We believe that our collective well-being is only possible when we all feel safe and welcomed in our communities. If you want to be more involved, email our executive director -- joseph@apimidtn.org.

Apply for a Comcast RISE Grant!

This year, we're partnering with Comcast RISE, an initiative supporting the growth of small businesses and entrepreneurs committed to uplifting their local communities. The program is built to help businesses and their communities thrive with a focus on economic growth. To date, Comcast RISE has awarded 14,000 small businesses with over $140 million in monetary, marketing, and technology grants. We’re pleased to bring Comcast RISE back in 2025. This year, Comcast RISE will award 100 recipients in Nashville with a grant package that includes business consultation services, educational resources, a monetary grant, creative production, a media schedule, and a technology makeover. Comcast RISE is part of Project UP, Comcast’s comprehensive initiative to advance digital opportunity and help build a future of unlimited possibilities.

Program Details

100 awards total will be distributed as follows:

• $5,000 monetary grant

• Creative production, media, and technology makeovers

• Education resources

• Business consultation services

• Application period is May 1-31, 2025

• Grants will be awarded in August 2025

• Applications will be available online at ComcastRISE.com.

Program Eligibility

To be eligible, businesses must:

• Be established for 2 or more years

• Have 100 or less full-time or part-time employees

• Independently owned and operated

• Be located in the Nashville Metropolitan and/or Rutherford County

APPLY NOW!

---

Additional Application Resources

Comcast RISE Application Walkthrough

1-Page Information Sheets

• English

• Arabic

• Chinese

• Farsi

• Cambodian ភាសាខ្មែរ

• Hindi हिन्दी

• Japanese 日本語

• Korean 한글

• Laos ອັກສອນລາວ

• Vietnamese

• Samoan

The Second Pacific Family Art Show

Artists with Origins in the Asia-Pacific

Presented by API Middle Tennessee and Fido Café

RSVP

Artists with Origins in the Asia-Pacific will be exhibiting at Fido during the month of May in honor of Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month. The opening reception will be at Fido on May 3, 2025 from 5:30 to 9:00 PM and will feature many of the artists in the collection.

Asian/Pacific American Heritage Month became public law when Congress passed it in 1992. The month of May is designated Asian/Pacific American Heritage month to commemorate the first Japanese immigrants coming to the United States. During the month of May, we pay honor to the generation of Asian and Pacific islanders who added to the culture and history of the United States.

---

About the Artists

Heather Moulder

Heather Moulder is a graphic designer, printmaker, and piano player from Woodbury, TN. In 2011 she earned her BFA in graphic design from Middle Tennessee State University, and since then she has worked for Hatch Show Print designing and printing letterpress posters. Heather also serves as White Oak Program Coordinator at the Arts Center of Cannon County, where she helps manage their gallery spaces and coordinates their long-running White Oak Craft Fair. She creates her own work, freelance design projects, and the occasional song at her home studio, Lordymercy.

Sai Clayton

Sai Clayton (she/her) is a Nashville-based visual artist and curator. Clayton’s work situates self-portraiture and cultural icons as representations of transcultural paradoxes. Her recent exhibitions include: [Freeze Frame], OZ Arts (2025); neutral zone, The Forge (2024); Game of Two Halves, Electric Shed (2024); Switchyard 1, Zeitgeist Gallery (2024); Between Heaven and Earth, We Build Our Home, Memphis Urban Art Commission Gallery (2024); HĀFU, Random Sample (2023). Residencies include State Gallery, Stove Works, the Hamblet Artist-in-Residence at Vanderbilt University and Kimmel Harding Nelson. She is the Curatorial Director at COOP Gallery in Nashville, and the Programming Director at Arcade Arts Nashville. She was the 2021-22 Curatorial Fellow at the Frist Art Museum and holds a B.A. in Visual Arts from Middle Tennessee State University.

Suta Lee

Retired Professor of Painting at Austin Peay State University. MFA Cornell University. Suta Lee uses various media including oil, watercolor, pastel and graphite in his work. Currently he is working on a body of drawings using composite of multilayered images to convey the complexity of cross pollinations of cultures in our world.

Jerry Bedor Phillips

Jerry Bedor Phillips is an artist living and creating in Nashville, Tennessee. He makes work that investigates history from the perspective of the pacific islander diaspora – particularly his family and their connection to the history of the Republic of Palau – a small archipelago in Micronesia. He is the building manager, studio assistant, and gallery coordinator for the Vanderbilt University Department of Art and for Space 204, the contemporary gallery space located in the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Center. He received his Bachelor of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and drawing from Murray State University in 2007 and his Master of Fine Arts degree in printmaking and drawing from Bradley University in 2010.

Nozomi Takasu

Nozomi moved to the U.S. from Japan in 2010 to study music but later changed her major to Visual Art at Belmont University. She was excited to share her cultural influences in art classes and deeply appreciated learning about the Japanese impact on Western art. Fascinated by cultures from around the world, she enjoys incorporating cultural motifs into her artwork. Born and raised in Gifu, Japan, Nozomi grew up in an artistic and musical family. Her mother, a painter and illustrator, played a significant role in nurturing her creativity. In 2013, Nozomi and her mother began collaborating as "Takasu Design," creating cute bilingual greeting cards that combine language and illustration. Now, they have rebranded as "T Gardens," a mother-and-daughter venture that celebrates Japanese culture through art and design. They create unique handmade pieces such as jewelry, greeting cards, and accessories using traditional materials such as kimono fabric and washi paper, with themes centered around Japanese culture, nature, and traditional symbols. T Gardens is blossoming as they have been joining many events around TN. Now, their works can be found at the Frist Art Museum in Downtown Nashville.

Kelsey Miu

Kelsey Miu is a senior at Vanderbilt University, studying studio art and computer science. Growing up in Queens, New York, she was shaped by the borough’s cultural diversity and creative energy, influences that continue to inform her work today. Her earliest foundation came from learning gouache, watercolor, and charcoal with Ukrainian artist Liana Shemper, a childhood friend’s mother who introduced her to the possibilities of visual storytelling. At the same time, watching her own mother’s love for the arts and crafts sparked a deep appreciation for reusing materials and embracing creativity in everyday life. At Vanderbilt, she continues to explore these themes across mediums such as painting, sculpture, and printmaking. Her senior thesis is currently on view in Where’d All the Time Go at the E. Bronson Ingram Studio Arts Building at Vanderbilt University (through May 9th, 2025), and her prints are featured in Little Things at Bango Java at Belmont (through May 29th, 2025).  

Amy DeJesus

Amyliza (amy-lisa) de Jesus is a mom, social worker, music therapist, and songwriter.

Born and raised in Nashville, she studied classical piano at Blair School of Music and started songwriting in college. Over the years, she honed those skills as part of the Chicago-based bands The Patterson Project and Back 40. Through the Old Town School of Folk Music, she met Ann Torralba / “Little Miss Ann” - a Chicago kindie musician and fellow first-generation Filipina American - who introduced her to the world of children's music.  Soon after, she joined the Little Miss Ann Band (background vocals, keyboard, violin, & mandolin), and went on to collaborate with Ann on their award-winning album, Keep On.

Since returning to Nashville, Amyliza helps others find their voices through songwriting - currently with the Country Music Hall of Fame’s Words and Music Program, as well as Intersection’s Lullaby Project. She also plays with Old Town Troubadours - a duo with her husband, Andy Larkin, as well as Brighter Light Brigade - her collaborative family music projects, whose aim is to create songs and music that connect, heal, and inspire.

Isidora Miranda

Isidora Miranda is currently a musicology faculty at Vanderbilt University. Her research on music and theater in the Philippines has been supported by various grants and she has published an article entitled “Creative Authorship and the Filipina Diva Atang de la Rama” for the Journal of Musicological Research. She also serves as an associate editor for the Musika Jornal publication of the University of the Philippines’ Center for Ethnomusicology.  As a violinist, Isi has performed in a variety of ensembles including the Manila Symphony Orchestra, the Julstrom String Quartet, the klezmer act Gasn Duo, and Forró Fo Sho, playing Northeastern Brazilian dance music.

---

The gallery is part of API Middle Tennessee's Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month celebrations. To find more ways to participate by visiting apimidtn.org/apihm.