8Lives Vigil

Presented by Red Canary Song in collaboration with the Asian American Feminist Collective, NYU Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU.

REGISTRATION AND DETAILS

We are nearing the one-year anniversary of the tragic spa shootings that occurred in the Atlanta area in March 2021. Red Canary Song, in collaboration with Asian American Feminist Collective, NYU Center for the Study of Gender and Sexuality, and the Asian/Pacific/American Institute at NYU, will be hosting a memorial vigil for the eight lives lost. The event is taking place in person – at Washington Square Park in New York City – and will also be live-streamed online. It will consist of speakers, music, and an art memorial, created by Asian and migrant body care workers.

We are inviting our coalition of sex worker rights, abolitionist, labor organizers, and allies to mourn and stand strong with us. Please follow us on social media for updates for the live event (links below).

Body care work is sacred and dignified work, whether erotic services are offered or not. The history of American discriminatory policies that targeted Asian immigrants, especially women, along with the white military imperialism in the Eastern and Southern countries has directly influenced the ongoing fetishization, dehumanization, and violence towards Asian and other BIWOC, including LGBTQ and nonbinary peoples.

Accessibility: Streaming access, closed captions, live ASL interpretation, and language interpreter phone lines (in Chinese Mandarin and Cantonese, Korean, Spanish, plus more TBA) will be available. We are striving to make this event accessible to everyone. COVID-19 safety protocols will be expected and enforced. Please see our event page for more information on our approach to accessibility.

Participating Organizations:

Sex Workers Project at the Urban Justice Center
Butterfly (Toronto)
Massage Parlor Outreach Project (Seattle)
Scarlet ChaCha (Korea)
Trans Equity Consulting
DecrimNY
ACLU
The BIPOC Adult Industry Collective
Black Trans Nation
Flushing Workers Center
MinKwon Center for Community Action

Event safety: If you are attending this event in Washington Square Park, we ask that you wear a mask and stay masked during the event to uphold COVID-19 safety. Food and drinks will not be provided. Please take the necessary consideration for your own care. We urge people to engage with the vigil online if a two-hour outdoor event in a park is not safe or comfortable for them. Red Canary Song’s members and volunteers will be wearing Red Canary Song masks and other apparel, so they can be identified in case concerns arise during the event. This is a permitted event, so we should be able to be there without concerns.

Community care: We also ask that you be mindful of the space because this is a grief space. Vigils are sacred spaces. People handle and express grief differently, and we want to hold space for those possibilities while still having a safe event. We do not police other people’s behavior, and we ask that people who come to this space do not either, however if you cause harm to another individual or other individuals you will be asked to stop and/or leave.