On Memory: Design Brigade Week 1.

How can we design a memorial that reflects on injustice?

A project co-sponsored by the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media and Atelier Cho Thompson.

Hello, we are a team of Yale College and Graduate students working in partnership with the City of New Haven. Our project began as a digital and physical memorial for the city’s experience with coronavirus and is transforming — along with the changing political climate of the nation — into something that directly confronts and addresses the injustice faced by the black and brown communities of New Haven.

“Memorial” may not be the right word for what we are trying to accomplish, but whatever we create will serve as a catalyst for action and education as well as a place for grieving. We have defined our process and approach as inclusive, respectful, and sensitive in the coming weeks. To that end, we will post weekly updates to Medium, including any progress we’ve made each week as well as additional reading and resources for anyone who wants to learn more.

Team

• Mari Kroin — ’21 — Grad Student — MArch — School of Architecture
• Ye Qin Zhu — ’20 — Grad Student — MFA, Painting — School of Art
• Ally Soong — ’21 — Undergrad Student — Urban Studies Major
• Hana Davis — ’20 — Undergrad Student — Architecture Major
• Winter Willoughby — ’20 — Undergrad Student — Psychology Major

Client

• The City of New Haven
• We will be working directly with city officials throughout the course of this project.

Design Challenge & Goals

As outlined by the City, our goals for the project include a digital model, physical/public model, as well as a potential fundraising model.

We aim to design and provide a digital platform in the immediate future that gives a face to the victims of COVID-19 through the lens of the injustices and inequalities experienced by the black and brown communities in New Haven. The memorial will serve as a catalyst for action and education as well as a place for grieving and reflection. We will involve, engage, and represent the affected New Haven communities and individuals in the memorial itself and in its creation.

First Steps

Our first step was to have a conversation with leaders from the City of New Haven on Wednesday, June 3.

Prior to this meeting, the focus of our project was to design a digital and/or physical memorial for New Haven and its experience with coronavirus. We imagined a place of mourning, to give the families and community a means of honoring the victims who had passed.

We approached the conversation with a series of thoughts in mind:

• Memorial-Specific: Where did the need and inspiration for a memorial stem from? Who is the memorial for?
• Community Engagement: What methods does the city have for interviewing, collecting stories, and engaging community members? Are there professionals or organizations we can partner with to facilitate these conversations?
• We would like to propose a midpoint check-in with the Board of Alders.

The question of who is being affected most by COVID-19 raised a glaring statistic for us: That black and brown communities across the nation are being disproportionately impacted by the pandemic. In New Haven, black people make up 50% of the coronavirus-related deaths. The public health crisis has exacerbated and exposed already existing inequities. The same structural racism that feeds into health disparities is also connected to police violence and other challenges faced by black and brown communities in New Haven. In light of the Black Lives Matter protests that have taken to the streets of this city — and cities and towns across the country — it did not feel adequate to focus merely on the virus. For this reason, our project began its shift toward a broader focus on injustice.

Ultimately, we will turn our attention to the histories, narratives and structures that give breathing room for systemic racism to flourish. We hope to capture this moment, where the everyday injustices and abuses faced by black and brown communities are on the forefront of national headlines. Beginning with research and public outreach, we hope to facilitate the creation of a memorial that is by the people, for the people.

Next Steps

As we continue building the foundation for this project, our next steps are to connect with local organizations, build a body of research on the manifestations of inequity and injustice in New Haven, and find methods by which this project can engage with and illuminate these important issues.

Although we are still in the process of identifying potential partners to reach out to, a number of promising contacts came up in our meeting with city officials this week. Through future meetings we hope to learn more about health equity issues and current organizing around racial justice. In addition, we will be reaching out to organizations that specialize in story-telling, reporting, and sensitive approaches to community engagement.

We will also continue research into precedents for memorials and anti memorials, looking at how people have approached the task of remembering, honoring, and educating people about tragedies and injustices of the past.

Further Reading

‘An Artist Is Projecting Giant Memorials to Covid-19 Victims on Walls All Over DC’ Washingtonian. https://www.washingtonian.com/2020/04/17/this-dc-artists-projections-are-a-huge-poignant-memorial-to-the-citys-covid-19-victims/

‘COVID-19: The black and brown battle in Connecticut.’ WTNH. https://www.wtnh.com/news/connecticut/new-haven/covid-19-the-black-and-brown-battle-in-connecticut/

“Police Brutality is a Public Health Crisis.” Vox. https://www.vox.com/science-and-health/2020/6/1/21276828/pandemic-protests-police-public-health-black-lives-matter

‘‘This is what happens to us.’ How U.S. cities lost precious time to protect black residents from the coronavirus.’ The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/politics/coronavirus-race-african-americans/

‘What’s Behind the COVID-19 Racial Disparity?’ The Atlantic. https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2020/05/we-dont-know-whats-behind-covid-19-racial-disparity/612106/

‘What will the covid-19 memorial look like?’ The Washington Post. https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/2020/04/28/what-will-covid-19-memorial-look-like/

Maya Lin, What is Missing? (A multimedia project on the world’s worsening biodiversity crisis.) https://www.whatismissing.net/

The People Involved

Community Mentors:

• Keith Appleby, Atelier Cho Thompson.
• Celia Poirier, Atelier Cho Thompson.

Academic Mentors:

• Aaron Peirano Garrison, Film Advisor CCAM.
• Justin Berry, Critic Yale School of Art, CCAM Core Faculty.

Project Sponsors:

• Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and Media (CCAM)
• Atelier Cho Thompson, an architecture firm in New Haven, CT.