Dear WAMily,
All of us at WAM want to acknowledge our heart break at the home-grown terrorism and murder this week in Atlanta, and our outrage at the continued violence directed towards Asian-Americans.
According to a report released Tuesday by the STOP AAPI Hate Initiative, there have been nearly 3,800 documented cases of anti-Asian hate incidents nationwide over the last year, and a majority of the victims were women.
We must all commit, once again, to doing everything we can to dig out the root of hate, once and for all.
If you have not yet signed the Not In Our County pledge, we encourage you to check it out and get involved.
You can join us in supporting the Asian-American Pacific Islander Community Fund, a national effort to address the urgent issues that face the AAPI community as well as broader, systemic problems, at gofund.me/08aaaa58.
Our friends at PAAL (Parent Artist Advocacy League) have provided these resources for parents and caregivers specifically.
To our Asian American and Pacific Islander WAMily members, please take excellent care of yourself. If needed, this article shares a list of therapist databases, organizations, Instagram accounts, and for other mental health resources specifically for the AAPI community.
In solidarity,
Kristen van Ginhoven
Producing Artistic Director
“Life doesn’t have to be this unfair, it can be better. Maybe not for me, I can’t change the past. But I can certainly help somebody else in the future so they don’t have to go through what I did.”
– Patsy Mastu Takemoto Mink on PBS in 2008
(Patsy Takemoto Mink is featured in LETTERS TO KAMALA)