May is Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage month – and to celebrate, local businesses and bartenders are coming together next week for the first-ever AAPI Cocktail Week to recognize the talents of the local community.

“We really wanted to highlight the significant role of the AAPI bartenders in our hospitality industry,” says co-founder Thi Nguyen, who is also a bartender at Moon Rabbit. “We also want to showcase the influence of Asian spirit, Asian ingredient, Asian flavor, that make a huge impact in the cocktail industry right now.”

More than a dozen bars around the D.C. region, including Thip Khao, Compass Rose, and Ellie Bird, will be participating. The first event on Monday will be a live bartending competition at Maketto with deejaying from owner Erik Bruner-Yang. Bartenders will be given random ingredients and attendees will judge winners. There will also be mocktails for people who do not consume alcohol.

“It’s a little bit of everything for everyone,” says AAPI Cocktail Week co-founder Nalee Kim. “We really want the crowd to get involved in it and actually join the celebration.”

While Kim says they’re still working out the details for Thursday, the week’s line-up will also include cocktail classes at Moon Rabbit on Tuesday, Mahjong at Sparrow Room on Wednesday, and live karaoke at The Game DC on Friday. Meanwhile, people can visit participating bars for themed drinks throughout the week.

For Nguyen, that’s an opportunity to highlight her identity through important ingredients like lychee, pandan, and lemongrass.

“I think through drinks, either cocktail or mocktail, we can also showcase our culture and our heritage,” says Nguyen.

Aside from showcasing the talents of workers in the bar scene, the duo also wants to provide a platform for local organizations that are providing resources to the community. Proceeds from the events will benefit a local Asian youth empowerment organization, AALEAD, along with the DVRP, a domestic violence organization serving the AAPI community.

Krittika Ghosh, the executive director for DVRP, says their organization was excited to hear the week of events will support their programming.

“Our work at the DVRP is to support and mobilize Asian [and] Pacific Islanders to build safer communities by responding to harm and striving to end gender and power-based violence. And that only can occur through community engagement and support,” says Ghosh.

According to co-founders Nguyen and Kim, only 3.7% of bartenders in the United States identify as being AAPI. For Kim, who’s worked in the industry for about 20 years, that statistic is what prompted her to join with Nguyen to launch the week-long events. And with what she says is the growing influence of the AAPI community on the local hospitality industry, she says it feels like the next step forward.

“I love going into a restaurant and knowing that there are people who look like me just killing the game,” says Kim. “I think it does really help other people, who are in this industry, who are going to school for hospitality, to see that there are [AAPI] people on top doing something and then finding a way to give it back to the community.”

If the events are well-received, “fingers crossed,” says Kim, they hope to bring it back throughout the year.