JOY AS PROJECT: Why Asian American Joy? 

Why Asian American joy? What do we gain from archiving joy? I pose these questions to challenge what our notions of archival practice should be, as a practice of care beyond documenting trauma to consider joy in the midst of trauma as a visibilizing gesture. For this project, I contemplated the role of joy in Asian American experiences during the COVID-19 pandemic in which moments of joy are fleeting and all the more precious. I conceived of joy as an act of resistance, of radicalism. The COVID-19 pandemic has seen a significant rise in anti-Asian sentiment and violence from attacks on elders to the Atlanta shootings in which six Asian women were murdered. With the consistent undercurrent of anxiety about safety, the safety of loved ones, and the safety of people who look like us, what are the ways in which we persist through acts of joy? This project focuses on the experiences of Asian-identifying students at Vassar College through sound and image. I gave participants the option of contributing songs and/or images that brought them joy as well as providing some context as to why.