Photos: We Are Anchorage hosts potluck celebrating city's diversity

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Bob Hallinen / Alaska Dispatch News Sepe Doll and members of the Pacific Blossom dance group perform at the Northway Mall on Saturday, April 4, 2015. Anchorage residents gathered Saturday at an eastside shopping mall to celebrate the city’s diversity, an event prompted by an act of vandalism that targeted local Sudanese refugees. A potluck was served and politicians and Anchorage Police Department chief Mark Mew mingled with residents. 150404

Anchorage residents gathered Saturday at an east side shopping mall to celebrate the city's diversity, an event prompted by an act of vandalism that targeted local Sudanese refugees.

Families rubbed elbows with politicians in an atrium of the Northway Mall, where We Are Anchorage, an action group formed in March following a spate of gun violence in the city, organized the community potluck.

"The recent hate crime galvanized folks to pull together," said We Are Anchorage member George Martinez. "There is clearly a broad interest in unity; people will not accept intolerance. Those who disagree will have to get with the program."

Mao Tosi, the mall's manager and member of the action group, mingled with attendants and introduced speakers -- such as Anchorage Police Chief Mark Mew and mayoral candidate Ethan Berkowitz -- throughout the afternoon.

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