For Release: Thursday, May 28th, 2026
Contact: maggie@kgalb.org
Subject: Khmer Girls in Action Invites Community to 14th Annual Yellow Lounge Showcase Event happening on Saturday, June 27th, 2026.
WHAT
Khmer Girls in Action will host its 14th annual Yellow Lounge celebration of youth culture and talent. KGA youth leaders will uplift the experiences and perspectives of Southeast Asian youth growing up in Long Beach using writing, Khmer dance, and art.
Yellow Lounge is a community event that centers the healing of the Southeast Asian community, educates attendees about current issues, and inspires residents and voters to be civically engaged to make a positive change in our City.
Attendees can expect to learn about Long Beach’s Youth Power Participatory Budgeting process; Khmer Girls in Action’s new Youth Participatory Action Research survey, designed by youth, for youth; supporting an equitable city through the upcoming general election; and the impacts of deportations and family separations on the community.
WHEN
Saturday, June 17, 2026, 2PM – 5PM.
Doors Open at 2:00 PM, show starts at 3:00PM
WHERE
Youth Movement and Education Center
2217 E. 6th Street, Long Beach, CA 90814
WHO
For 29 years Khmer Girls in Action has invested in the leadership of Southeast Asian women and youth through political education, and culturally relevant leadership programs. KGA’s mission is to build a progressive and sustainable Long Beach community that works for gender, racial and economic justice led by Southeast Asian young women.
WHY
“I’m constantly telling people about our history or some of the struggles we are going through, because they don’t get to learn about it. [Teachers] don’t teach it in school I have to educate people about us, and that’s hard.” 1
With the current administration’s rampant threats and suppression of women, LGBTQ, immigrants, refugees and low-income people of color, the Cambodian and Southeast Asian communities that resettled in historically under resourced and over-policed districts are additionally burdened with grievances of deportation, family separation, intergenerational trauma, and poverty rates higher than the national average.2
The lack of disaggregated data denies the Southeast Asian community visibility and access to culturally-relevant resources for trauma-informed health care, higher education attainment, and economic stability.
With reports of both bullying and harassment3, as well as recommendations from AAPI youth to implement ethnic studies programs in California being on the rise4, Yellow Lounge serves as a platform to uplift the Southeast Asian youth voice that is not represented solely by the term “Asian American” nor in mainstream media.
Through storytelling, Yellow Lounge provides a space for the community to heal and activates the community to be civically engaged, showing that they are, as this year’s theme states, “Connected by the SEA, Here to Stay.”
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For photos, media and for media who wish to attend the event please contact Maggie Quan at maggie@kgalb.org.
1 Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (2019, June) Can You See Me? School Culture & Climate for California’s AAPI Youth. Retrieved from https://www.searac.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/06/School-Culture-Climate-for-CA-AAPI-Youth_Final.pdf
2 Asian Americans Advancing Justice (2013) A Community of Contrasts: Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in the Northeast. Retrieved from https://www.advancingjustice-la.org/sites/default/files/CommunityofContrasts_Northeast2013.pdf
3 Stop AAPI Hate (2023, November). Community Reports to Stop AAPI Hate: 2020-2022 Key Findings. Retrieved from https://stopaapihate.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/10/23-SAH-TaxonomyReport-KeyFindings-F.pdf
4 Southeast Asia Resource Action Center (2026, March) Rising Up: The Southeast Asian American Educational Journey. Retrieved from https://searac.org/wp-content/uploads/2026/03/Rising-Up_Executive-Summary.pdf
