“If everyone does a little…”

“There is something we at DAP like to say: if everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot,” urban designer Alexa Gonzalez noted during last Saturday’s Design as Protest National Call. That sentiment of collective power and responsibility was not lost on the designers, architects, educators, and more who gathered virtually for two hours to discuss the organization’s efforts to, as educator and DAP organizer Bz Zhang put it, “challenge the existing power structure.”

The event, which started with heads bobbing in webcam boxes to Beyoncé’s ostensibly anti-establishment anthem Break My Soul, kicked off with a session led by architect Taylor Holloway. Following a prompt to add “practices of self, community, and organizing care” in the chat, presentations from A.L. Hu, Fauzia Khanani, Sophie Weston Chien, and other organizers offered testimonials and experiences tied to DAP’s efforts to organize grassroots community projects across North America. In a breakout session, co-organizer Sumant Krishna stressed how important it is to connect and communicate with BIPOC youth using “co-design tools,” such as public design participation, youth workshops and more—a sentiment shared by architect Marwa Al-Saqqar in her presentation. Plans for a monthly national call, expanded public meetings, regular BIPOC meetings, and strategies to bring in like-minded organizations were pledged. Then, Collaqate Design Principal Bryan C. Lee Jr. concluded with a message of hope: he played Tracy Chapman’s Talkin’ Bout a Revolution, hoping to inspire everyone in the room to do a little more.