Thanks to Cathy Podell, more than 600 people from near and far have made their first curious visits to Asian and South Asian restaurants and other internationally flavored businesses along the western Bellaire Boulevard and Hillcroft Street corridors. Cathy Podell & friend What’s more, a significant number of the visitors hadn’t even known [...]
The Vietnamese Culture and Science Association has been one of Houston’s many community organization treasures since its founding in 1990 by Bao N. Nguyen. However, like with every lasting organization, change is afoot. While its original mission was to “preserve the Vietnamese culture while also fighting for democracy in Vietnam,” the Houston chapter — the [...]
The national spotlight is shining on a local community leader. Delores “Dee” Jones, business and community partnership coordinator for the Alief Independent School District, has received the 2022 Presidential Lifetime Achievement Award for Volunteer Service for community service and leadership in the International Management District community. It is the highest level of the President's Volunteer [...]
By Chinese New Year in January, a team of Houston Police Department officers will take local community relations to a new level: They’ll perform as the department’s first lion dance team. The officers will don the elaborate red, gold and black shimmering costumes that together magically transform them into a single dancing “lion.” By doing [...]
Armed with a $10,000 grant from the City of Houston Mayor’s Office of Cultural Affairs, Alief filmmaker Quoc Huynh is flexing his creative muscles by creating a romantic, action-comedy drama based in Houston's Chinatown and Little Saigon communities. The city’s grant program is administered by the Houston Arts Alliance and funded by a portion of [...]
For members of the Bangladeshi-American community in Houston, maintaining their cultural identity while living far from their native South Asian homeland is paramount. Now the community, through the Bangladesh Association of Houston, is close to completing a permanent, central place to gather and share in their heritage. The association was founded as a nonprofit in [...]
At the Houston Police Department’s Westside Command station, the Explorers program for residents ages 14 through 21 is making an even stronger difference in the community, especially as some of its members move up to become police officers, members of the military or college students majoring in related studies. The program, which receives funding from [...]
The fast-growing Chow Down in Chinatown-Houston group on Facebook hosted an unofficial fund-raising event recently to keep doing what it’s been doing since it came to life during the COVID-19 pandemic: promote local Asian-owned restaurants. Volunteers gathered at the Shanghai restaurant, 9116 Bellaire Blvd. in Diho Square, to sell Chow Down in Chinatown-Houston T-shirts. Proceeds will go [...]
One of the two sophisticated early childhood centers that the Alief Independent School District opened for this school year includes an International Management District experience room. Reflecting the colorful ethnic diversity of the district and the Alief area, the space includes mural-like images of a Mexican market and a Mexican folkloric dancer; a Chinese dragon, [...]
If they have access to shows on Netflix, residents of Alief and anyone else with connections to the area will get a chance to see the neighborhood reflected in a huge — and sometimes comical — way starting Wednesday, Aug. 24. The date marks the video streaming debut of a sort-of biographical comedy series called [...]
