SSSAD Transcripts is a living archive of oral history interviews with architects and designers working in racial justice and solidarity spaces, contexts, and frameworks. The interviews explore ways in which personal identity, lived experience, community, and positionality have shaped each individual’s values, situated knowledge, and creative work. Is there such a thing as Asian diasporic architecture? What are the unique challenges we face and dreams we have for our spaces and communities into the future?
The documentation of these stories hopes to combat the historical amnesia and erasure of Asian activism and solidarity work with Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities while cultivating healing and reciprocity across racial and ethnic groups. It will honor Asian diasporic experiences through transcultural, decolonial, anti-imperialist frameworks towards the collective liberation of all communities that have been othered by the legacy of anti-Black racism. The aspiration is that the process of sharing stories will allow us to honor our own lived experiences and racial trauma while overcoming colonial mentalities, internalized racism, and cultural assimilation.
Season 1 (2023) includes interviews conducted by Tonia Sing Chi in conversation with Asian diasporic women, femmes, and nonbinary people living in the US with whom she has a personal and working
1. This includes individuals who are part of Dark Matter U, Design as Protest, Nááts'íilid Initiative, Oriental Party Line, and Girls Garage.relationship.1
As such, the interviewing process seeks to forgo extractive power dynamics between interviewer and interviewee and is instead grounded in relational trust. It is through sharing, discussing, and bearing witness to each other’s experiences that this project hopes to build networks of care with other Asian diaspora creatives and uplift more nuanced counternarratives of our communities.
The interviews are semi-structured and follow an interview guide informed by a pre-interview questionnaire that each narrator fills out. They are recorded on Zoom, transcribed, reviewed by narrators, and edited for clarity. Here, they have also been annotated and cross-referenced with other oral history interviews and resources in hopes of expanding their resonance and connectivity beyond the one-on-one conversation. The decision to publish edited transcripts over full video or audio recording allows narrators to think in draft, share thoughts more freely, and make amendments in writing to best reflect their intentions.