A very known but unspoken tidbit of American history is the repetitive erasure of communities of color throughout the country. Jeff Yoo Warren is challenging this with his project, Seeing Lost Enclaves: Relational reconstructions of erased historic neighborhoods of color. The virtual installation allows you to visit Asian American sites around the country via an immersive 3D reconstruction of historical neighborhoods that were developed with archival photographs and record.

As I dive deeper into this work, I hope to share the techniques I’ve learned and developed, both in this guide and through public workshops over the coming months. I especially hope to work together with fellow Asian Americans who share my interest in unearthing early histories and stories of erased communities across the country — and with descendants of these communities. Though Chinatowns are for me a starting point, due to my work in Providence’s Chinatown, I am also interested in the histories of other erased communities of color, and hope to learn more about these histories over the course of the project. Please reach out if you are interested in sharing or contributing.

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