Collected Item: “Brianna Tong Oral History, 2021/03/18”
Title
Oral History Interview with Brianna Tong
Who conducted the interview? List all names, separated by comma.
Kit Heintzman
Who was interviewed? List all names, separated by commas.
Brianna Tong
Email Address(es) for all interviewers. Separated by comma.
kheintzman@gmail.com
Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your oral history. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?
#Chicago #music #library #minimumwage #protests #Spotify #policeviolence #therapy #mentalhealth #punk #isolation #gunviolence #vaccination
What is the format of your recording?
Audio
In what ZIP code is the primary residence of the interviewee? (enter 5-digit ZIP code; for example, 00544 or 94305)? In what city/town/village does the interviewee live? In what country does the interviewee live? All comma-separated.
Chicago, IL, USA
What is the gender of the interviewee? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their gender in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a gender identity to interviewees.*
Woman
What is the age of the interviewee?
25 to 34
How does the interviewee describe their race or ethnicity? Be sure to allow interviewees to self-identify their race/ethnicity in the pre-interview or interview. *Do not assign a racial or ethnic identity to interviewees.*
Black and Asian
Describe the oral history.
Chicago, IL
Self description: “I am sitting in my bed right now as I’ve done for a lot of this quarantine. In regular times and I guess still now, I’m in three bands and I also work at the library, the public library. So I’ve been working there in person since we came back to work in May. I was contacted for this interview through Bussy Kween Power Trip, which is a Black queer punk band with three people, no guitars, so my close friends. I’m in two other bands. One band is called Je’raf and one is called Cordoba. And one person each from Bussy Kween is in each of those bands. Haven’t played a show in forever. I can give a little about what I look like or am like. I’m a woman. I’m 26, almost 27 I guess. I’m Black and Asian. I’m kinda short. And during this pandemic I’ve been in general super lucky to have a job still and a great living situation. And I met my partner right before the pandemic, so we’ve been chilling a lot and that’s been amazing. She is so great. Yeah, just going to work and working on all kinds of things in my home. And sometimes having the energy to do a bunch of music and crafts and other art things, and sometimes laying in bed for a full day.”
Performs in:
https://amalgamusic.bandcamp.com/album/throw-neck
https://bussykweenpowertrip.bandcamp.com
https://cordoba.bandcamp.com
See more coverage on music:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201125235322/https://chicagocrowdsurfer.com/brianna-tong-amplify
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111045606/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-jazz-fusion-unit-cordoba-actualize-their-ambition-on-specter/Content?oid=83730117
See more coverage on pre-pandemic organizing here:
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/02/18/campus/chicago-black-lives-matter-activists-speak-at-second-breathe-in-event/
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/11/16/campus/students-take-action-to-support-undocumented-peers-in-light-of-election-results/
Some of the things we discussed include:
Humour in the early stages of the pandemic and developing a fear for the safety of others; empathy
The journey from vaccine apprehensions to getting the first shot of the vaccine, household and coworkers doing the same; the importance of vaccine access for Black and Latinx communities; resisting the narrative that all rural people and Black people are anti-vaccine
White supremacy, the murder of Black people by police, the mainstreaming of “defunding the police” activism
Difficulties getting out of bed and noticing new behaviours; taking up new activities: stick-and-poke tattoos, embroidery, cooking elaborate meals
Therapy
Pre-pandemic life: going to queer parties, busy with rehearsal
What community support means for health, the harms of for-profit healthcare, growing up with access to good health care coverage and racism and sexism in the healthcare system, ableism, fatphobia, and the crises of inaccessible healthy food, lack of parental leave, pollution
Working in the public library system: working remote for the first two months, reduced libraries services upon reopening, prophylactic supplies and cleaning regimes, the importance that libraries serve in communities (access to internet, printing, and books), enforcing mask mandates, shifting to online programming
How the return to work at the library normalized being inside indoor spaces when it is still unsafe
Doing outside live music
Looting as purposeful resistance to corporation
Union of Musicians and Allied Workers protests against Spotify (https://louderandclearer.byumaw.org)
Biden’s failure to get the $15 minimum wage
Murders tied to racism, sexism, sexworkers, anti-Asian violence that was committed the day before the interview. See coverage here (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-shooting-spa.html), here (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/17/eight-killed-atlanta-area-spa-shootings), and here (https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978141138/atlanta-shooting-suspect-is-believed-to-have-visited-spas-he-targeted)
The expectation that lots of art and reflection will come out of this experience, wanting solutions from the humanities and social sciences, the importance of preserving stories of people ignored by media
Self description: “I am sitting in my bed right now as I’ve done for a lot of this quarantine. In regular times and I guess still now, I’m in three bands and I also work at the library, the public library. So I’ve been working there in person since we came back to work in May. I was contacted for this interview through Bussy Kween Power Trip, which is a Black queer punk band with three people, no guitars, so my close friends. I’m in two other bands. One band is called Je’raf and one is called Cordoba. And one person each from Bussy Kween is in each of those bands. Haven’t played a show in forever. I can give a little about what I look like or am like. I’m a woman. I’m 26, almost 27 I guess. I’m Black and Asian. I’m kinda short. And during this pandemic I’ve been in general super lucky to have a job still and a great living situation. And I met my partner right before the pandemic, so we’ve been chilling a lot and that’s been amazing. She is so great. Yeah, just going to work and working on all kinds of things in my home. And sometimes having the energy to do a bunch of music and crafts and other art things, and sometimes laying in bed for a full day.”
Performs in:
https://amalgamusic.bandcamp.com/album/throw-neck
https://bussykweenpowertrip.bandcamp.com
https://cordoba.bandcamp.com
See more coverage on music:
https://web.archive.org/web/20201125235322/https://chicagocrowdsurfer.com/brianna-tong-amplify
https://web.archive.org/web/20201111045606/https://www.chicagoreader.com/chicago/chicago-jazz-fusion-unit-cordoba-actualize-their-ambition-on-specter/Content?oid=83730117
See more coverage on pre-pandemic organizing here:
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2015/02/18/campus/chicago-black-lives-matter-activists-speak-at-second-breathe-in-event/
https://dailynorthwestern.com/2016/11/16/campus/students-take-action-to-support-undocumented-peers-in-light-of-election-results/
Some of the things we discussed include:
Humour in the early stages of the pandemic and developing a fear for the safety of others; empathy
The journey from vaccine apprehensions to getting the first shot of the vaccine, household and coworkers doing the same; the importance of vaccine access for Black and Latinx communities; resisting the narrative that all rural people and Black people are anti-vaccine
White supremacy, the murder of Black people by police, the mainstreaming of “defunding the police” activism
Difficulties getting out of bed and noticing new behaviours; taking up new activities: stick-and-poke tattoos, embroidery, cooking elaborate meals
Therapy
Pre-pandemic life: going to queer parties, busy with rehearsal
What community support means for health, the harms of for-profit healthcare, growing up with access to good health care coverage and racism and sexism in the healthcare system, ableism, fatphobia, and the crises of inaccessible healthy food, lack of parental leave, pollution
Working in the public library system: working remote for the first two months, reduced libraries services upon reopening, prophylactic supplies and cleaning regimes, the importance that libraries serve in communities (access to internet, printing, and books), enforcing mask mandates, shifting to online programming
How the return to work at the library normalized being inside indoor spaces when it is still unsafe
Doing outside live music
Looting as purposeful resistance to corporation
Union of Musicians and Allied Workers protests against Spotify (https://louderandclearer.byumaw.org)
Biden’s failure to get the $15 minimum wage
Murders tied to racism, sexism, sexworkers, anti-Asian violence that was committed the day before the interview. See coverage here (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/17/us/atlanta-shooting-spa.html), here (https://www.aljazeera.com/news/2021/3/17/eight-killed-atlanta-area-spa-shootings), and here (https://www.npr.org/2021/03/17/978141138/atlanta-shooting-suspect-is-believed-to-have-visited-spas-he-targeted)
The expectation that lots of art and reflection will come out of this experience, wanting solutions from the humanities and social sciences, the importance of preserving stories of people ignored by media
On what date did you record this oral history?
2021-03-18T11:10