On October 23, the International Examiner’s annual Community Voice Awards (CVA) exceeded fundraising goals and saw record-breaking attendance, while honoring this year’s six recipients, who are ANHPIA community leaders.
More than 280 community members attended the CVAs – held this year for the first time at Diamond Bay Restaurant – to show their support for local ANHPIA journalism.
The event included a special announcement: Travis Quezon, a former Examiner board member (2022-2025) and editor (2013-2017) will serve as the publication’s next editor in chief, starting November 17.
The theme of this year’s CVA, “Rooted & Rising,” is about being “grounded in shared values and history,” but still rising by “uplifting each other,” said CVA Event Manager Le-Vy Nguyen.
At the Examiner, the theme speaks to the newspaper’s deep roots and culture in activism, as well as how staff and writers “stay grounded in journalistic values” but continue to “adapt and continue to tell the stories in a rapidly evolving media landscape,” Nguyen said.
The theme was especially significant in light of rising national tensions from the Trump administration and an overall “height of fascism,” a sentiment shared across speakers and community members in the room.
Tony Ngo, author of the Examiner’s From Dirt, Grows Lotuses column, also spoke on the attacks on the freedom of press from the Trump administration and urged the audience to support community journalism now more than ever.
“This America [is one] that my parents could have never imagined when they immigrated here,” Ngo said.
Stanley Shikuma, who received the CVA’s Lifetime Achievement Award, mirrored this message in his acceptance speech. Shikuma is deeply involved in fighting against current deportation and detention policies as a leader of Tsuru for Solidarity. He is also part of Seattle Kokon Taiko, who opened the evening’s festivities.
Shikuma heavily criticized attacks on Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) from the political right, saying there is a reason why “those who oppose it always use the initials and never spell it out.”
“Because who is opposed to diversity?” Shikuma said. “Who is opposed to equity? Who could be opposed to inclusion?”
One of his first jobs when he moved to Seattle in 1981 was at the Examiner, and he said it will be the young people involved in the same activism that will create change in the world.
Maria Abando, Leadership in Community Awardee, and Nurhaliza Mohamath, Tatsuo Nakata Leadership Awardee, represent the young people Shikuma praised. Their work to strengthen community amplifies what it means to be rooted and rising.
“I belong to a collective legacy of those whose existence is resistance,” said Mohamath, who is a food justice worker that grew up in a Cham family of restaurateurs.
Abando works full-time at the University of Washington Women’s Center, and is also a self-taught artist, collaborator, and organizer.
The Examiner also recognized Ken Mochizuki for Leadership in Journalism. A writer, actor, and journalist, Mochizuki passed away from cancer in September. His brother James Mochizuki said a few words in his honor.
“Thank you to the community that supported Ken through many decades and through [the] final days of his life,” Mochizuki said. “Thank you to the International Examiner for this recognition.”
Another significant force honored at the CVAs was Thanh-Nga “Tanya” Nguyễn, for Leadership in Business. Nguyễn is the “legendary owner” of Chu Minh Tofu restaurant and “force behind the Egg Rolls,” according to the Examiner’s interim Editor-in-Chief Vee Hua.
Nguyễn has provided free meals to those in need every Sunday since 2019. At the event, she showed off a t-shirt with a cartoon illustration honoring her parents, saying “my father handmade the tools and my mother built the flavor and together they created a beautiful tofu recipe.”
Leadership in Arts & Culture Awardee Ping Foong, who recently curated an Ai WeiWei retrospective at Seattle Art Museum, could not be in attendance. She recorded a message to thank the Examiner and the community.
The night showed a true testament to the value of the Examiner to the people of the CID.
“What stood out the most was the sense of intergenerational connection,” Event Manager Nguyen said. “It reminded me why community storytelling matters. It reinforced how vital it is to keep community journalism alive.”
