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ARTS & ENTERTAINMENT
THURSDAY, JANUARY 23, 2025
Tully ushers in Year of the Snake By Saturn Williams A&E & OPINION EDITOR
The Tully Community Branch Library slithered into the Lunar New Year season with its holiday festival on Friday as patrons celebrated the Year of the Snake alongside the library’s 20th anniversary. The library opened for the Tully community on Jan. 22, 2005, according to the San José Public Library history timeline. The celebration began with speeches from Jill Bourne, the San José City Librarian as families chattered and bustled around the library’s Community Room. “Not only are we celebrating the 20th birthday of this young, beautiful library, but also Lunar New Year, so we get to have double the fun,” Bourne said. Located three miles south of campus, the library is one of the six facilities opened because of the $211.8 million from Measure O, according to the same Public Library history timeline. This measure was the biggest library funding proposals of of the 2000 year, according to a November 2000 American Library Association press release. Multiple attendees recalled their memories of the space when it was constructed and opened, including Betty Duong, Santa Clara County supervisor for District 2. “The libraries are incredible and cherished resources in our community, I just can’t ever overstate that,” Duong said. “(The) Tully library was our de facto Vietnamese community center space for many, many years.” The Tully library offers a boon of resources for the East Asian community in the area, evidenced by its over 16,000 Vietnamese and Chinese language materials, according to the San José Public Library catalog. “They’re here for good reason because this is the heart of Little Saigon,” Duong said. Little Saigon is the
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PHOTO COURTESY OF SAN JOSE PUBLIC LIBRARY
Traditional Vietnamese dancers from Viêt Steps perform a variation of Múa Dân Gian for Tully Community Branch Library.
epicenter of San José’s substantial Vietnamese population, one of the largest of any city outside of Vietnam, according to Pew Research enumerations in 2019. Today, the library is integrated with a Family Learning Center, which provides materials and classes for English language learning, navigating citizenship, digital literacy and more, according to the San José Public Library website. Bien Doan, San José’s District 7 councilmember spoke to constituents at the hybrid Lunar New Year and anniversary celebration. “It is the year of the snake,” Doan said. “We recognize the symbol of wisdom, the adaptability, that the transformation qualities reflect the resilience and the strength of our Vietnamese community right here in San José.” D o an’s p arents immigrated to the U.S. after the Vietnam War, the catalyst for America’s initial Vietnamese population boom, according to the councilmember’s biography on the City of San José website. Kim Chu, the Tully Branch librarian who
organized the 20th Anniversary and Lunar New Year Festival, appreciated the appearance of the community’s representatives at the event on Friday. “That’s really important for community leaders to come out and touch base and see the resources that are offered, the resources that are needed, and just hearing feedback from the people they serve,” Chu said. The day of the Lunar New Year this year is observed on January 29, 2025, with around 2 billion people celebrating the renewal of the Chinese calendar globally, according to a University of California San Francisco web page. Chu celebrated alongside their new community on Friday while wearing their áo dài, the national dress of Vietnam. “It’s my cultural heritage, so for me, it's about connecting with family,” Chu said. “But since I’m in San José and I'm a little far from my family, it's been an experience for me to connect with others from my community, figuring out who my community is up here and being able to celebrate that with people.”
While children lined up on one side of the library to get their names scribed in calligraphy and vibrant portraits painted on their faces, families gathered for an hour of local youth performances on the other side of the building.
dancing. “Being, you know, of Southeast Asian and East Indian heritage as well, watching your future generations kind of live the culture, I think is beautiful in itself,” Khangura said. With the library’s five
artists closed out the performances. “A lot of the Folklorico kids, the coordinator told me that they live down the street, so they've grown up in this area,” Chu said. “They’re part of this neighborhood, so it feels really special to have them come and perform with us.” Chu also said Friday’s event is the last they will organize for the Tully library as they prepare to transfer to another branch. “I think during any Kim Chu process of putting an event Tully Community Branch Library librarian together, it can be a little overwhelming with just all of the moving pieces that need to come together,” Chu said. “But I could not One of those who most popular language have done it without the gathered for the materials being English, support of my staff.” performances was Rashi Spanish, Vietnamese, As the Year of the Khangura, Director of Chinese and German, Chu Snake begins, new Happier Aging at Nurse said the location attracts a administrations begin on Next Door and a local diverse array of patrons. both the local and national home care provider. “Even though it is a levels. “A lot of our Lunar New Year event, (we “We have a lot of work demographics are are) making sure that we ahead of us in terms of Vietnamese and Chinese, have everyone from the protecting our immigrant and so we want to be able community to participate,” communities, making sure to come here and support Chu added. that Santa Clara County them as they celebrate,” Folklórico skirts remains a welcoming Khangura said. whipped through the air community honoring Viêt Steps took the and colorful lion facades that immigrant heritage,” stage first, twirling fans danced down the aisles as Duong said. and paper flowers as the Vietnamese American they showcased multiple Services Center youth Follow Saturn on forms of Múa Dân Gian, folklórico dancers and Instagram @saturn.sjsu Vietnamese traditional Evergreen Wushu martial
It’s my cultural heritage, so for me, it's about connecting with family...