We recognize that the field of design is inherently non-neutral and has an obligation in addressing the architectures of oppression that our society is built upon and our role in perpetuating them. We want to use our creativity and skills to contribute to the movement against racism by amplifying the voices of its leaders who are advancing justice and equity in design.
Why did we organize this Design Yard Sale?
The recent murder of George Floyd has given rise to a new wave of mass protests against systemic racism and police brutality directed at the Black community. Racial injustice and inequality have been a centuries-long battle fought by the Black community daily around the world. Countless Black lives—Eric Garner, Breonna Taylor, Freddie Gray, to name a few of too many—have been violently taken by the incarnation of this systemic oppression: the police.
While the design profession must rethink its long term plan to battle racism both within the field and in society, we want to use our creativity and skills to assist the Black community right now in projecting its voice and in leading the profession and society towards a better and more equitable future. In the face of such deep-rooted, systemic violence and oppression, we really questioned what role we could play in support of the Black community. We are not activists or politicians, but as minority designers and students ourselves, we want to contribute to the movement in whatever small way we can. To that end, we thought that we might utilize our greatest strength—design—to gather as many resources as possible into the hands of the movements’ leaders, and let them do what they do best.
100% of the net proceeds collected will go towards funding organizations engaged in dismantling racism.
“the Bail Project, Inc. is a non-profit organization designed to combat mass incarceration by disrupting the money bail system ‒ one person at a time.”
“We believe that paying bail for someone in need is an act of resistance against a system that criminalizes race and poverty and an act of solidarity with local communities and movements for decarceration. Over the next five years, The Bail Project will open dozens of sites in high-need jurisdictions with the goal of paying bail for tens of thousands of low-income Americans, all while collecting stories and data that prove money bail is not necessary to ensure people return to court. We won’t stop until meaningful change is achieved and the presumption of innocence is no longer for sale.”
The language of the built environment tells a complex story of place that can either speak to our collective values and ideals or reveal persisting inequity and injustice.
The struggle for human and civil rights is one that has largely evaded the design profession and we have framed our work around addressing this void. Established in 2017, Colloqate Design is a multidisciplinary Architecture + Design Justice practice focused on expanding community access to, and building power through the design of social, civic, and cultural spaces. Our mission is to intentionally organize, advocate, and design spaces of racial, social and cultural equity.
We believe that to design is to have an unyielding faith in the potential for a just society. It is an act of individual and collective hope requiring, not only, an awareness of true inequity, but a compulsion to speak out against it in its many forms. Our work speaks to the potential for equitable spaces and attempts to visually and physically represent our collective aspirations for the future.
Design Yard Sale is a student-initiated and student-led event.
We are a group of design students and alumni–Yaxuan Liu, Tessa Crespo, Grace Chee, Edward Han and Izzy Kornblatt–at the Harvard Graduate School of Design. It was a few public emails on our school listserv that brought us together to organize this event as we felt the urge to help the Black community fight against systemic racism but inept to do so in the immediate context with our skills. But we thought we could sell our design, what we do best, to raise funds for movement leaders to win this battle.
Design Yard Sale Inc. is a registered nonprofit corporation in the state of Massachusetts, but is not a tax-exempt entity. The Architectural League of New York, tax-exempt under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code, acts as our fiscal sponsor.