Storytelling Spaces of Solidarity in the Asian Diaspora (SSSAD) is an initiative that engages 1. On the use of Asian: We recognize the limitations of using the terms Asian, Asian American, and Asian diasporic to encompass and describe Asian-identifying people and communities based in the US and hope that this project can begin to break apart the idea of Asian identity as monolithic. We are also aware that API (Asian and Pacific Islander) and AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) are often used as umbrella terms to describe our communities, but believe that Pacific Islander communities hold a different and important set of experiences that this project does not speak for. Asian¹ 2. On the use of diasporic: We are choosing to use the terms Asian and Asian diasporic over Asian American to foreground the connection of our diasporas to Asia and challenge the idea of America. diasporic² designers and leaders in learning, building, and practicing intra- and inter-community solidarity. Part public memory work, part educational resource, and part working toolkit, this project looks at the Asian 3. Here, the Asian diaspora includes immigrant, refugee, adoptee, multiracial people who have ancestors from Southeast Asia, South Asia, Central Asia, Southwest Asia, West Asia, and East Asia. diaspora³ through the lens of transcultural space, creating connections (not equivalencies) between Asian diaspora histories and the histories of Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities.

Stories centering Asian voices engaged in transracial activism are collected through oral history interviews and convenings. The gathering of stories is rooted in the belief that shared knowledge is a form of mutual aid. While it is important to amplify Asian voices, which are historically erased from our national consciousness, this project foregrounds Asian experience as inherently bound to other racialized communities. The freedoms that some of us have been afforded are predicated on the oppression of others. This unsettling reality structures Asian solidarity as a process of undoing and uplifting.

READ THE PROJECT FRAMING STATEMENT︎

SSSAD (2022-ongoing) is a public memory project initiated and stewarded by Tonia Sing Chi / Peripheral Office.