Reflecting on the origin story of Dark Matter U, we visit with some of the DMU Initiators who catalyzed and participated in the earlier conversations to support the Design as Protest education fieldwork around academic organizing. In those early conversations, it was evident that more work was needed to comprehensively organize around design justice in academia than DAP had capacity for at that time. That group continued meeting over Zoom, inviting new voices into conversations and chatting through the Design Justice Cabal WhatsApp group chat. Somewhere between the margins, DMU emerged in June 2020, gaining momentum until the group organized and began operating in August 2020. DMU is an anti-racist, design justice academic collective led by BIPOC practitioners in the design fields. Three years later, the collective has 187+ members, multiple group chats, a business entity, and a bank account. This excerpt from a recent DMU WhatsApp chat reflects on the successes of the past three years and what comes next for the collective.
The following conversation between Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, Germane Barnes, Ifeoma Ebo, Jerome Haferd, Bryan Lee Jr., Justin Garrett Moore, Jennifer Newsom, Quilian Riano and Tya Winn was recorded on Aug. 21, 2023, at 5:05 p.m. EST in WhatsApp. Direct replies are italicized, liked messages are indicated using a "+1."
Tya Winn: Since this group is the hardest group of people to convene, we are taking it back to how we started with an old-fashioned group chat. To start, can everyone Introduce themselves and their DMU role and where they are typing in from?
Quilian Riano: Quilian Riano, have been in content, the unceded land of the Lenape known as Brooklyn. I am the dean of the Pratt School of Architecture
Tya Winn: Tya Winn, currently in Philadelphia. I run a design nonprofit locally and teach adjunct in design and real estate by say- DMU Treasurer, member of the Opportunity team, and unofficial mail opener by night
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: Venesa Alicea-Chuqui, typing in from New Jersey, I’m a core organizer and initiator - active with the people and opportunity teams. Have my own practice and currently am an Equity in Action fellow at Kean University. Also, a registered architect in NJ /NY
Jerome Haferd: Jerome Haferd here. Content group and DMU Core. Architect and public artist based in Harlem and Hudson Valley. Assistant professor of architecture at Spitzer / CCNY in Harlem. Principal of Jerome Haferd / BRANDT: HAFERD. Typing in from Hudson Valley, ancestral lands of Wappinger and Lenape peoples
Ifeoma Ebo: My name is Ifeoma Ebo typing in from Lagos, Nigeria but based in Brooklyn, New York. Assistant Professor for Design and Sustainability at the Spitzer School of Architecture at the City College of New York. I have been in the content committee. I am also Principal of Creative Urban Alchemy
Jennifer Newsom: Jennifer Newsom, DMU Instigator, typing in from the homeland of the Gayogo̱hó:nǫ (Cayuga Nation) where Cornell University sits and I am an Assistant Professor of Architecture. I am also a principal of Dream The Combine.
Germane Barnes: Germane Barnes, chatting from Saaleck, Germany. I’m a designer, Associate Professor and Director of the Masters of Architecture program at the University of Miami.
Justin Garrett Moore: Justin Garrett Moore, DMU Core, connecting now from Kigali, Rwanda but based in New York City in Lenapehoking.
Bryan Lee Jr: Bryan Lee Jr, Principal @ Colloqate Design, DC @ HGSD, typing from Rome, on the opportunity team and finance team. Rome, Italy…not Rome, Ohio to be clear
Jerome Haferd: I feel warm and fuzzy in the same "room" with y'all, even a WhatsApp chat
Justin Garrett Moore: I am also on the faculty at Columbia, Yale, along with Morgan State, Tuskegee, and Hampton, and am cofounder of Urban Patch, among other things.
Tya Winn: Firstly, thanks for all y’all who are globetrotting and staying up late. I think it’s been one of the stories of our DMU life. I think about the digital community we built and how unique it was. I don’t think I’ve spent this much time talking to people online since middle school.
Justin Garrett Moore: ICQ 🌼
Germane Barnes: What does ICQ mean?
Bryan Lee Jr: This^
Tya Winn: lol that he is old
Quilian Riano: Hahaha
Justin Garrett Moore: DMU is a multigenerational collective.
Germane Barnes: I still don’t get it
Tya Winn: When ICQ was popular, some of us were still in AOL kids only.
Germane Barnes: But what is it?
Quilian Riano: Old school messaging platform
Jerome Haferd: oh wow, ICQ. same era as a/s/l. ;D
Justin Garrett Moore: Sorry for the tangent.
Jerome Haferd: The fact that folks are overseas is already a change from when this began in 2020. We were all at home...
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: Related to changes from 2020: I think the attack on recent Diversity, Equity and Inclusion departments and banning of certain books or how / if race is talked about - makes DMU as a third space outside of an institution ever more important
Tya Winn: Sometimes I have survivor’s remorse because the pandemic was so productive for me. As much as I hated being home all the time and got stir crazy, it was the bubble of time and latitude I missed. I barely knew most of the people here pre 2020 and now most of y’all are the people I interact with the most.
Justin Garrett Moore: But yes, from the pandemic lockdowns and protests of 2020 to today is a large shift. Many things are the same and a lot of work to do, but there has been some progress. And I think the network that is DMU has contributed to that in some direct ways.
Jerome Haferd: I think also our collective comfort and facility with two different platforms has been game-changing, Zoom and WhatsApp/SignalJennifer Newsom: So many platforms! 😂
Tya Winn: Don’t forget notion, Miro, slack
Jerome Haferd: We use a ton of platforms. But those two to me are the essence of the shift
Jerome Haferd: Signal and WhatsApp for a kind of real-time comradery and also checking in and support
Tya Winn: Where are our endorsements! I want a deal
Quilian Riano: The group chat has been a great place for community — where I turn to most often to share or ask anything
Justin Garrett Moore: And of course, social media, google drive/apps, but the platforms go beyond technology, to the collective itself being a platform, that has elevated voices and people and ideas that were previously unseen and underappreciated.
Jerome Haferd: and Google Docs- for live edit, and collective edit, co-creation.
Vanesa Alicia- Chuqui: And Slack and Discord (for the larger group).
Jerome Haferd: Right - I think the funny thing is that our relationship as bodies (of color / culture) to one another sort of prefigures or predates the technology... but the synergy between the two created something special
Bryan Lee Jr: I mean mostly the seeds of this work were happening prior to that moment but that moment in time gave us space and opportunity and software, as folks are noting, to be consistent. And obviously consistency is key to organizing anything.
Jerome Haferd: For sure. And I remember that while I remember there was a frenetic energy and urgency during the "beginnings" of DMU ... there was also this deeper sense of longevity and consistency. I remember Justin saying that this is a marathon and not a race. And that stuck with me, even during the arguments over WhatsApp as to how this thing all started. ;)
Quilian Riano: It was a good moment to bring us together to share our stories within educational contexts, making it clear that change was necessary.
Germane Barnes: What have we accomplished though?
Tya Winn: I think it also created a galvanizing moment to ideate. We had a group chat already—since 2018. Some of us have been in other groups since before that.
Jennifer Newsom: Completely agree with this. We are all connected in ways that are much more tethered than before.
Jerome Haferd: @Germane, what do you think?
Tya Winn: Well, everyone’s price went up for sure. Almost everyone who is a core organizer has a new job.
Bryan Lee Jr: I'd also say that DMU was a holding pen for a lot of ideas that we were all bringing to the table and collectively the point was to materially alter the frameworks that determine what architecture can be and who it can serve.
Justin Garrett Moore: I think there is a new visibility and agency to a new generation of people who are able to voice new questions, ideas, and practices to push the design and built environment fields.
Germane Barnes: I don’t know, that’s what I’m asking. I think a lot of people who would have had a more difficult path to teaching got a boost. I think FODJ [editorial note: Foundations of Design Justice is a proprietary DMU offering] courses have popped up more in major institutions. I think more people have gotten speaking engagements.
Jennifer Newsom: New platforms for expression—perhaps with increased visibility and funding to say what we feel needs to be said. Who is listening might be another question …
Justin Garrett Moore: And I think this has been able to be done in a pretty explicitly anti-racist, decolonial, and power-shifting framework that has been uniquely positioned across several generations.
Bryan Lee Jr: But I don't think any of that was the explicit goal from the outset. The intentions were much more radical from jump and I’m not sure we’ve found our way there yet.
Ifeoma Ebo: I think that in terms of opportunities for BIPOC academics and interest in social justice-oriented courses there has been a definite expansion that is refreshing to see. However, these changes have not made their way into the core curriculum which makes it seem fleeting.
Jerome Haferd: I know that DMU (and DAP), who and what they represent, are referenced often. I think perhaps, most importantly, as a model - or nested models - of discourse, organizing, mutual support, professional and academic culture (that is anti-colonial, anti-racist)
Jennifer Newsom: Yes, I am interested in how these models can impact some lasting changes in communities and within institutions. The first is likely coming sooner than the latter.
Jerome Haferd: I know that DMU (and DAP), who and what they represent, are referenced often [across discourses in the field]. I think perhaps, most importantly, as a model—or nested models—of discourse, organizing, mutual support, and professional and academic culture (that is anti-colonial, anti-racist).
Jennifer Newsom: Yes, I am interested in how these models can impact some lasting changes in communities and within institutions. The first is likely coming sooner than the latter.
Jennifer Newsom: Many of us teach at PWIs [Predominantly White Institutions] that are very resistant to change—which is why we wanted this ‘one foot in, one foot out’ model in the first place.
Justin Garrett Moore: +1 and who is listening shifts quickly. I remember looking in disbelief as thousands of mostly white people marched down the streets chanting "Black Lives Matter" but years later the focus has shifted to defending basic history, protecting basic civil rights ... and I think there is still work to do to get people to understand how our prompts for 'new models and forms' translates to different communities and power structures.
Tya Winn: We have created a space where the BIPOC thinkers feel valued and centered. So much of teaching is being a thought-leader and guiding convos. I feel more agency in DMU courses. It’s not radical in space, the way it would be labeled at some other institutions where I teach.
Quilian Riano: Appreciate that about DMU, that the leadership goes across the generations and a few people have gotten their first teaching opportunities through the DMU infrastructure and are paying it forward.
Jennifer Newsom: Yes! I love the cross l-generational model. That feels really unusual. Also, the cross-institutional model. @Justin at Morgan and Yale concurrently, for example.
Tya Winn: It also feels less competitive. This group is so eager to just be helpful to each other. It made me realize what support should look like.
Justin Garrett Moore: I think DMU has been an accelerant for individual agency because of our network approach and soft power.
Jerome Haferd: @Bryan agreed, but I think @Tya's point strikes at something deeper. That is, who we are - as individuals, the forms of design and research and practice we are arguing for - is more legible and more salient. But beyond that, the idea that one can only operate inside of an existing institution has been burst. Which is radical. Since then, I think the questions and convos we've been having are on how we don't become the same kind of institution that we're operating outside of.
Quilian Riano: Yeah, collaborative at all levels
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: The network approach and soft power (love that !)
Jennifer Newsom: Can we talk more about soft power?
Justin Garrett Moore: Rather than concentrating opportunities and value to a select few people, we constantly and systematically distribute, it is a form of challenging a supremacist attitude that is entirely engrained in the design/be fields.
Germane Barnes: +1 jennifer Newsom: +1 Ifeoma Ebo: +10
Jennifer Newsom: I also think that it is incredibly generative that people can engage in many different ways. From article writing to lecturing to course development to critique…
Jerome Haferd: Soft power is being allied with - mutually pushing - the best designers and academics in the country, with some of the most valuable perspectives, and they also are POC. 😁
Jennifer Newsom: And we did actually BSS (build some $/@!)!
Tya Winn: Also, iron sharpens iron. So, the co-creative models actually increase skills.
Ifeoma Ebo: Mentorship for up and coming BIPOC academics has been a game changer for many
Jennifer Newsom: (Office Hours) + things offline
Germane Barnes: Talk more about that!
Jerome Haferd: I want to second the notion of generosity and (mostly) "good" competition, mutual support, intergenerational mentorship, and genuine interest and care among the network. Sadly, this is an uncommon thing in architecture / design disciplines
Tya Winn: I’ve never seen any faculty at an individual institution stay this deeply engaged for a sustained period of time authentically. Three years is a long time. Even more so when it is not required or fully compensated.
Jerome Haferd: There is still scarcity baked into the landscape we're navigating, so I'm not going to be totally pollyanna about it, and we have discussed that periodically. But I think we're moving the needle.
Quilian Riano: Given the numbers of people of color in architecture and academia this is hard to find if it’s not built consciously
Tya Winn: I think the scarcity mindset is the decolonization we have to break ourselves out of.
Jennifer Newsom: Completely^^^
Justin Garrett Moore: I think this is where we have been most successful and have broken a pattern... I think facilitated by technology and the times, where we have been able to have influence and some agency in a very wide range of contexts and conditions. The systems and institutions want to aggregate power in conventional forms, and we constantly push against it. So those of us with some power and connections have actively pushed for others, the dark matter, to be visible.
Jerome Haferd: Yep. And I think we haven't broken out of it entirely, but we're working on it
Tya Winn: Rejecting the model minority and magical negro complexes. What happens when all the unicorns get into a room, and you have a whole stable? What happens then?
Germane Barnes: Is that your one new goal?
Tya Winn: Always. It’s the real marathon. It’s hard to break it. Even in myself.
Bryan Lee Jr: Maybe let’s not go with stable of negroes 😂
Justin Garrett Moore: 🦄 🦄 🦄 🦄 🦄 🦄 🦄 🦄
Justin Garrett Moore: Why the unicorns gotta be white tho?
Tya Winn: Yours can be whatever color you’d like. These are magical beasts - there is no prototype.
Jennifer Newsom: I push against this being magical - like boom, we found each other and that’s it. There is so much hard work and effort. There is a collective special sauce that comes from all of us being in productive dialogue together. I am grateful to the core, sustaining group. We each have varying levels of commitment in DMU, but each voice is also respected and valued. And it can spread.
Bryan Lee Jr: We have had a substantial representational impact that has supported so many of us moving up in academia, but I worry that will fade as time passes. I also think there is a more radical tendency in some to dismantle and or reform some of the systems we are aligned with which makes this whole endeavor complicated
Jerome Haferd: @Bryan yes, yes. We have to make "not cool" things cool. And show another way.
Justin Garrett Moore: The shift breaks the power structure's mold which is to follow a 'kingmaker' (gendered terminology intentional) approach to who and what gets valued in the field.
Germane Barnes: I think mine [one goal] is to disappear less.
Jerome Haferd: @Bryan we can show that the standard institutional containers, and navigating them in the typical - scarcity driven ways - is not sustainable
Justin Garrett Moore: This is why office hours, peership/mentorship, etc., is so important, this group of people in the network are seeing a different, more caring, collaborative, supportive (versus competitive and aggregating) approach, so hopefully, with DMU's continued infrastructure, that can be a pattern of paying forward and power shift among those who have benefitted.
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: Agreed
Tya Winn: My other goal is an Independent, renewable funding source or stream that is not reliant on us to make something new over and over. If we can self-fund, we can stop mimicking the system that does not work. Or trying to fit our geometric shape into a round whole
Bryan Lee Jr: +1
Bryan Lee Jr: Question for the room…knowing what we know today what would we/should we have done different?
Justin Garrett Moore: The myth of scarcity of BIPOC, women, queer talent and leadership is something DMU has challenged. There is no excuse to act like there are only 5 Black people (or one) that can engage serious conversations about building the future and conserving our past.
Jerome Haferd: and the creative output. Some of the best design work, most innovative and imaginative visioning has come out of this network. Rethinking a "course" between non-institutional actors, for instance
Tya Winn: Take naps
Ifeoma Ebo: I think the real future work is Establishing sustainable changes with the NAAB that has an impact on institutions nationwide.
Jennifer Newsom: That’s interesting. Say more about that.
Justin Garrett Moore: Yes, and I think it has helped in people's practices and work in/with communities as well, it goes beyond the academic context.
Ifeoma Ebo: Well, many of the courses that we teach are not a part of the core curriculum.
Tya Winn: That part.
Tya Winn: I think we should have done more training and group research on systems and distribution of labor. The admin side still seems to use the most battery. Like a commune where everyone must do chores to support the village.
Jerome Haferd: And sustaining the efforts takes work. I wanna uplift that everyone plays a role, but some put in more labor to keep the network "going"
Jennifer Newsom: Yes, completely. That is a fact.
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: The invisible labor is a struggle
Justin Garrett Moore: Yes, it is good old fashioned hard work. None of us should have to be working this hard, for any of this, yet here we are. The world is welcome, haha. But we are doing this for all of us to survive. Look at the world now. War in the Sahel, Hawaii on fire with inequal impact on the people there, all vestiges of the persistence of racism and colonialism shaping the world and that we are working to dismantle.
Jerome Haferd: @Bryan a slightly clearer website earlier on, lol. But I don't know if I would change too much...In my mind, the process of creating something together and pivoting, reflecting periodically has been almost unavoidable
Bryan Lee Jr: I think that is key for me. I know in my work and in my classes I actively have communities as the driving force to the design outcomes we are moving toward, and I am curious how this collective continues to radically push that praxis
Tya Winn: We’ve gotten better at duplication, replication, and standardization. But sometimes I worry it’s going to restrict us.
Jennifer Newsom: Well, we see each other. And I’m saying, “Thank You.”
Tya Winn: The revolution will not be an assembly line.
Jerome Haferd: Where do y'all want to be in 5 years?
Ifeoma Ebo: My most authentic self: uncoded and unfiltered and undiluted
Jennifer Newsom: +1 and rested
Quilian Riano: I think DMU should have a campus
Bryan Lee Jr: See I knew I could count on Quilian to put something intense put plausible out there.
Germane Barnes: I have a hard enough time figuring out the next 5 months
Jennifer Newsom: True. I think we each operate with the tools we have. Tools, energy, capacity, etc
Jerome Haferd: @Germane same! I was waiting to see what you said, lol
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: I think the Robert Coles house could be an amazing resource for DMU (in 5 years) if there is a way we can preserve history and culture while also it being a tool for education and working w community that would be great
Tya Winn: I just want the next little melanated person who wants to be an architect to see it and feel welcomed. To be represented, mentored, valued, and not have to swim against a tide or contort themselves to be palatable. Because the gatekeepers, supremacists, and hoarders are quieted.
Jennifer Newsom: Five years is going to look very different from now. I can’t even imagine what foolishness the outside world will be up to.
Justin Garrett Moore: Yes, we have to talk more about labor and really getting the resources to truly make a different pattern, this is not something we have been able to do well, we still rely too much on our effort, and our way of operating essentially excluded those without the privilege/resources to engage in the ways that are truly equitable.
Tya Winn: More “Germane Barnes”. Standard issue not collectors’ editions.
Germane Barnes: I don’t follow
Germane Barnes: I’m being honest!
Tya Winn: More people who went your path. Also, more success for you!
Justin Garrett Moore: More of you, but not considered unusual, rare. It should be normal that dudes like you are building communities.
Germane Barnes: Ahhh. Got you! Yea, that would be cool. More alternative path people
Jerome Haferd: +1 rested, +1 showing up unfiltered, authentic, and uncoded...some orgs seeking to "solve a problem" say they envision themselves not needing to exist. I can see something like that for us. But I actually think what excites me most about this - and always has - is design. Is to see the generative, emergent seeds of this energy reaching fuller and fuller bloom. And for the vitality to be spread more away from the Coasts - to the Midwest, Puerto Rico, the South, etc.
Jennifer Newsom: Yes @Jerome! I love the emphasis on design. Like we can actually build a different world. Ask different questions. Look at things a different way.
Bryan Lee Jr: 5 years maybe aligns more radically with our origins and establishes a network of spaces and places that actively train professionals alongside community advocates. To hold space inside and outside of as many institutions as possible to better reshape the field in service of the most disinherited people
Venesa Alicea-Chuqui: Goal: support those on their licensure paths through the work of DMU. For example: sign off on AXP hours for those working within DMU - which would mean we would be more like a community design center - could tie into with the community credential idea
Ifeoma Ebo: I could totally see a certificate program that carry’s weight in the industry
Quilian Riano: +1
Bryan Lee Jr: +1 yes! Build $#!% till they have to stop and deal with the reality that we aren’t going anywhere
Jerome Haferd: I want those of us building to be building more =)
Bryan Lee Jr: Build and build more until we settle the score!
Jerome Haferd: *that also might be repairing or reimagining. New building culture is also problematic
Tya Winn: It would be great if we could at least become the gateway resource for communities and emerging professionals who want to center design Justice.
Jennifer Newsom: I think there are multiple pathways and multiple ways of engaging. Some will be more about NAAB and changing institutions from the inside and outside. Some will build. Some will publish and push a critical conversation that way. There are so many things to do. So much to do.
Justin Garrett Moore: 5 years, I hope the infrastructure of DMU has been established to sustain the work as long as it is needed, which may be a long time. So that involves having independence of resources and governance, and increased capacity that allow the collective and the people/communities it is focused on supporting, to be in a position of power to continue the transformation of society with the tools and opportunities we have.
An excerpt of this article first appeared in the October 2023 issue of ARCHITECT, which was guest edited and designed by Dark Matter U.
