Who Is the We in Diaspora? Liner Notes from the Future

ABSTRACT

“Who Is the We in Diaspora?” is episode 12, season two of Digital Salon, an experimental podcast begun at the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Produced by coauthor Jonathan Jae-an Crisman, the “DJ,” it meditates on the Atlanta shootings of six Asian spa workers on March 16 2021. The transcript of this episode is presented anew, paired with “liner notes” that are a collaboration between the DJ and his “critical listener,” Jacqueline Barrios, coauthor of this piece and co-producer of Digital Salon, through textual “accompaniments” on the episode and its afterlife to stage the work’s claim to its own futurity.

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• collectivity
• podcast
• liner notes
• Atlanta spa shootings

Acknowledgements

We would like to acknowledge the following production team members who collectively made Digital Salon a work of art: Heidi Maureen Alexander, Joshua Nelson, Lili Flores Raygoza, Sai Rojanapirom, and Gus Wendel, along with thanks to the UCLA Urban Humanities Initiative. Thanks also to those acknowledged in the episode whose voices contribute to this piece: Andy, Ann, Howin, Jason, John, Kenny, Kevin, Kimhouy, Louie, Melissa, Paul, Paulie, Savannah, and Scott. Finally, we are also eternally grateful to Swati, Aline, and Arnold for their editorial guidance.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the UHI UCLA.

Notes on contributors

Jonathan Jae-an Crisman

Jonathan Jae-an Crisman is an artist, teacher, and researcher. His book Urban Humanities: New Practices for Reimagining the City (MIT Press, 2020), co-authored with Dana Cuff, Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris, Todd Presner, and Maite Zubiaurre, stakes out new disciplinary terrain for the humanities, and his forthcoming book Approximate Translation: Media, Narrative, and Experience in Urban Design explores new practices for urban designers.

Jacqueline Barrios

Jacqueline Jean Barrios studies the global nineteenth century, literature, and the city, and is currently investigating London-Pacific trans-urban imaginaries—geographies of East Asian Pacific Rim entanglement with the British capital. She is author of the forthcoming book Dear Charles Dickens, Love South LA (University of Iowa Press), founder of LitLabs, co-founder of Digital Salon and co-leads the newly formed global Urban Humanities Network. Currently an Assistant Professor in the University of Arizona’s Public & Applied Humanities Department, she holds a Ph.D. in English from UCLA and served as a public school teacher for many years in South Los Angeles.