The Emotional Labor of Participation: Tamika L. Butler and Justin Garrett Moore in Conversation

Tamika L. Butler and Justin Garrett Moore are consummate community builders and advocates, leading in design, government, and transportation on issues of racial and social justice. Among the many things I appreciate about both of them are the frankness, emotional intelligence, and fortitude with which they approach their work. This bracing and nuanced conversation delves into the many types of labor that people of color, and in particular Black people, are often asked or forced to shoulder in our profession and society; the practice of participatory urbanism can challenge or reify that emotional burden — either by embodying new modes of collectivism or being co-opted and tokenized by those with institutional power.

Complex realities of space and surveillance and equity and justice, so central to our national collective experience this past year, have always pervaded the lives of racialized Americans. Tamika and Justin’s conversation, recorded last November, is the middle of three for this edition of the Open Space magazine, gathering many previously addressed themes and signaling those to come. – See the full piece here.