If I were pregnant in my grandparents’ era, where would I get an abortion?
This is the question that spurs me to scour a newspaper database for stories of illegal operations in my hometown of San Jose. Continue reading The Lost History of Silicon Valley Abortions
A short essay on forming relationships with named objects (in this instance, washers, dryers, and Amazon lockers) and the history of laundry in San Jose. Continue reading Dear Doris, Dear Marion, Dear Arugula, Dear Rocio
The New Almaden Mine has had a huge impact on both San Jose and the bay area as a whole. This piece looks at how current Silicon Valley labor norms have been taken directly from California’s first chemical industry, the New Almaden mine. Additionally, it explores mercury pollution, environmental racism, and the relationship between extraction and settler colonialism. Continue reading A poison. A metal. A god: Settler Colonialism, Mercury, and the Lethal Legacy of Silicon Valley.
If you live in San Jose, you likely have passed by a pop-up. A pop-up is a shop, event space, gallery, or immersive experience set up in an empty, “underutilized,” or otherwise in between area. Some local settings include alleys, parking lots, vacant buildings and storefronts, or parks in gentrifying neighborhoods. Continue reading F*ck A Pop-Up
A Q&A with Jay Edgar from the podcast Blockchain Boys. Q&A covers topics such as leftist work in San Jose, challenges to learning about the tech industry, and the importance of worker power and organizing from the bottom. Continue reading Q&A with Jay from Blockchain Boys
The only ancestral story I know about birds is about 60 years old. My grandfather, a cannery worker by day, raised squab, also known as pigeons, for food. He kept them in a hutch in his backyard on East San Antonio and 24th Street. Continue reading On Kinship With San Jose Birds
Backyard is a new “pop-up space” that occupies the parking lot beside Fountain Alley. It is a product of the real-estate company WeWork. Like many spaces intent on fueling local displacement, it has begun featuring social justice events. Continue reading 6 Things to Consider Before You Attend an Event At Backyard
This is a the second of a two-part piece that focuses on three aspects of gentrification in San Jose: transportation, language, and trauma. It includes a timeline of transit-oriented gentrification in San Jose, and an overview of six stages of gentrification. Continue reading Part 2: On Language: #ActivateSJ is a Gaslighting Technique.
This is a the first of a two-part piece that focuses on three aspects of gentrification in San Jose: transportation, language, and trauma. It includes a timeline of transit-oriented gentrification in San Jose, and an overview of six stages of gentrification. Continue reading Part 1: Urban Villages and Transit-Oriented Gentrification
This project is important, in part, because of how rapidly and mercilessly gentrification changes things. It redraws skylines, displaces communities, and severs relationships (to place, to land, to each other). This project can be one way to track these changes. It is a public, living, and collaborative project. Continue reading What is Archive408? A Q&A with the Organizers
