Members of the local Asian American community are organizing a candlelight vigil on Friday for the eight people, mostly of Asian descent, who were killed in shootings in Georgia on March 16.

The vigil will be held on the Arizona state Capitol lawn at 6:30 p.m. on Friday, March 19. The purpose, organizer Leezah Sun said, will be to mourn, heal and mobilize against issues like the rising hate crimes against the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.

The vigil will have live music, speakers and a candlelight ceremony during sunset. Community activists of other ethnic groups plan to speak in solidarity.

Sun, a community activist and former candidate for the Arizona state House of Representatives in Legislative District 19 in 2020, said the mass shooting “was a tipping point for our community, the AAPI community.”

A gunman opened fire in three massage parlors in Atlanta, killing eight people, mostly women of Asian descent.

The shootings happened amid a rise of anti-Asian hate and violence.

More than 3,000 incidents of anti-Asian hate, including 43 in Arizona, have been reported since March 19, 2020, according to the Stop AAPI Hate Campaign.

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‘We want our community to heal together’

When Sun saw people asking for a vigil on social media, she said, “And I’m here thinking, ‘Yeah, where is it? I want to attend.’”

It dawned on her that she could plan it with her friends.

May Tiwamangkala, another member of the group, said, “Me and a few others in an Asian American-focused group came together and started organizing this. We were chatting for two days straight all day long and pretty much got this vigil going.” 

“It was just an idea from a place of healing, and we want our community to heal together, and also share the cross-cultural experiences and issues with other community and groups and ethnicities,” Sun explained.

Tiwamangkala said she wants to pay respect to the victims and raise awareness for the fear Asian Americans feel in everyday life, from thinking about the neighborhoods they walk into feeling unaccepted. 

Coming together lets the country know that “Enough is enough, and our culture is just as (much of a) part of America as any other,” she said. 

Organizers hope to strengthen Asian community’s connections

In Arizona, Tiwamangkala mentioned the closure of the Chinese Cultural Center in Phoenix as a loss of a physical space for the AAPI community to gather.

Sun wants the vigil to be a launchpad for the Arizona AAPI community to band together and mobilize.

Sun is a first-generation immigrant, having arrived in America as a young child.

“This is the only home I know,” she said, and the only home her 15-year-old son, who was born in Arizona, knows. “This is our community. We share it with so many other groups and ethnicities, and we are beginning to realize that if we don’t step up now, then when? When are we going to be standing united to fight white supremacy, discrimination and racism?”

Tiwamangkala and Sun encouraged people from all nationalities, ethnicities and groups to attend to heal and find the tools to speak up about injustices across communities.

They said a march is also in the planning stages for March 27, likely at the state Capitol or at Margaret T. Hance Park, which held Lunar New Year celebrations earlier this year.

Reach breaking news reporter Nienke Onneweer at [email protected] or on Twitter @thenienke.

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