The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation (SBTHP) celebrates Santa Barbara’s Asian American heritage at Good Fortune on Saturday, May 31, 2014 from 6:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. at the historic social center of Santa Barbara – Casa de la Guerra. This event promises to be a celebratory evening of music, performance, and diverse Asian cuisines.

During the event guests will enjoy presentations honoring Santa Barbara’s Asian American history. Guests will enjoy a special performance by Sino West and taiko drumming by Togen Daiko.  Studio Nihon, a local Japanese catering and events company that offers services in Japanese food and arts, will serve sushi, offer a sake and green tea tasting, and teach guests how to make origami.

During the late-nineteenth and twentieth-centuries the area in and around the Santa Barbara Presidio was a unique and culturally rich neighborhood. Chinese and Japanese communities coexisted side by side, offering thriving businesses within buildings that are now historic landmarks. The Santa Barbara Trust for Historic Preservation honors and preserves this history in El Presidio de Santa Bárbara State Historic Park. In 2009 “Sharing Our Common Ground” explored Santa Barbara’s Asian Americans history with a three-part community lecture series. In the same year SBTHP established both an annual Asian American film series and a cultural festival.

Single tickets are $125.  Table sponsorships available. Good Fortune is just one of many ways SBTHP seeks to increase community awareness and raise funds to support its mission to preserve, restore, reconstruct and interpret historic sites in Santa Barbara County. Proceeds from this event will help to ensure the future longevity of SBTHP’s ongoing community outreach and efforts to preserve the county’s most significant historic sites. To purchase tickets contact SBTHP at (805) 965-0093.  For more information visit www.sbthp.org/goodfortune.