Pi Delta Psi Fraternity is holding a virtual AAPI Community Healing Event tonight to discuss the rise in violence against Asian American and Asian Pacific Islanders.
The event is open to all AAPI community members and allies and will be moderated by AAPI mental health professionals including Patrick Lin.
Lin, a mental wellness advocate and coach based in New York who uses gender-neutral pronouns, says participants will be able to process feelings after the shooting last week in Atlanta.
They say sometimes the best way to heal is to take time to rest before moving into advocacy.
“The world needs you. And we also need you to rest. I need the rest too. The work is tiring. It’s draining. It’s unpaid work. It’s sometimes unsustainable. So sometimes we just need to rest. Maybe that means sleeping, maybe that means meditating, maybe that means going out and eating or having a picnic with your friends.”
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Lin says they hope participants logging in from all parts of the country start to create networks for change.
“We just need to combine our strength, our numbers, our talents, our skills, our networks together. There’s also the Latin American community. There's also the Native American community. The queer community. If all of us come together, the solidarity work is a force to be reckoned with.”
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Two vigils will be held in Central Florida this week to mark the shooting that took the lives of eight people: an in-person vigil at UCF on Tuesday and a virtual vigil on Thursday.
Tonight's event takes place at 6 pm over Zoom.
