May is Asian American Pacific Islander Month.

We sat down with Zoya Arbus Lexington's second youth poet laureate, to talk about what the month means to her and how she shares her culture with others through her poetry.

I was born in India.

I was born specifically in the eastern part in Calcutta.

And the city and the state that I'm form is really, really values art.

It's like a really arts driven, writing driven, music driven city.

So that's just it's always been in my life.

I'm still very closely tied to my culture, to my home country.

It's dictated a lot of who I am and what I write about because of course, living in a predominantly white city, in a predominately white school, it's very easy to feel like the other people.

So that really impacts a lot of my writing and talking about that and bringing more awareness into that whole aspect of being in a predominantly white community.

I moved to Lexington about six, seven years ago, so it was immediately just felt a lot like home to meet a lot of people who are similar to me.

Similar minded grew up in a similar culture as me, so definitely felt like a slice away from home.

But I think one of the wonderful things about Lexington is its diversity, and it's definitely growing a lot more.

I think AAPI Month is just a wonderful month to celebrate all these wonderful cultures of, you know, Asian app, Asian-Americans, Pacific Islanders.

Of course, I'm biased.

I think every month should be celebrating our cultures.

But yes, it's just an important celebration, bringing awareness to different issues that's around my community and the other communities in the Asian and Pacific Islander realm.

Speaking personally as an Indian, I think there's a lot of support for our temple, a lot of support for our festivals.

That's definitely growing.

Of course, it's a work in progress and I understand that we are a much smaller community within the Lexington bigger community of Lexington, but I think it's definitely growing a lot outside of this month.

I think there's always been a pressure, especially with writing the to say certain things that, Oh, as an immigrant, as an Asian-American, you have to talk about certain issues.

So I think I'm kind of trying to turn that on its head by saying that, yes, of course I am all these things, but they don't define who I am.

So if I'm writing poetry, doesn't have to talk about my struggles.

I can talk about all the amazing things that I've learned with my culture, a lot of things I want to bring to other people.

So I think that there's always a pressure there, but it's a good kind of pressure.

There is a lot of up and coming Asian and Pacific Islander writers who are out there, and I think they just need their space to be, you know, exploring their arts and sharing their voices.

But I think it's growing a lot more, and I hope to see a lot more growth in the future.

When people talk about Asian American and Pacific Islander Month, they think about Eastern Asian.

That South Asians aren't considered Asian.

We are Asian.

If you look at the map, we are there.

And yeah, of course the diversity is the biggest thing.

I'd say as one of the most diverse countries.

You go from one place to another, you see all kinds of people.

So that's another thing to remember when you're talking about this month is that it doesn't just apply to one community or one type of person can apply to so many types of people.

And it's important to celebrate all of those API months go beyond the month of May.

I think it's very easy to just support and honor people around you who come from different cultures.

I think that comes in many ways educating yourself about cultures, making sure you say the right thing, do the right thing.

It's just basic human decency.

I think at the end of the day, in celebrating the cultures around you.

Tomorrow night, Let's get Happy is having a fashion show, art show and different performances by AAPI artists at the Central Library in Lexington at 5 p.m.. Let's Get Happy is an organization that puts on month long events for Asian-American Pacific Islander Month.

This is the second year for its month long events.