Collection Description: Private Practices is a collection developed alongside artist and organizer Kayla Tange also known as Coco Ono, co-producer of Sacred Wounds, which highlights healing-focused celebrations of Asian perspectives through erotic rituals. She is also the co-founder of Stripper Co-op, the sex worker-run pop-up strip club. The collection that LACA and Tange have established is a living collection, meaning that items—such as screenshots, paystubs, apparel, set pieces, police reports, text messages, and other ephemera pertinent to sexual labor—will be added on an ongoing basis. The March 16th, 2021, shooting spree that targeted Asian women in Atlanta, Georgia, is a stark reminder of the systemic misogyny that minimizes racial violence in the United States. In LACA’s shared neighborhood of Chinatown, we have seen firsthand a notable expansion of police presence. We are mindful that the securitization of our neighborhoods is not the answer to the entrenched systemic misogyny and racism that permeates our country. Private Practices asks how artists, archives, and Chinatown community members can effectively collect together. This collection addresses anti-Asian violence by locating it narrowly in the experience of AAPI sex workers. We believe that by amplifying some of these voices, Private Practices can draw into focus how a uniquely sexual register can mark racism toward Asian bodies.

Scope and Content: The collection is organized by the contributor's names. These include Kayla Tange (Coco Ono), Mariko Passion, Emily Christine Velez Nelms, Lola Chan, Wang Newton, Kim Ye (Mistress Lucy), Riv, Chao Ying Rao, Muse Ling, EthicalDrvgs, Goddess Yuki, Lena Chen, Celeste X, and various anonymous contributors.

Restrictions: Some items in this collection can only be accessed in person at the Los Angeles Contemporary Archive (LACA) and are unavailable online. Donors have sometimes chosen to be organized under their stage name or anonymously.

Mutual Aid Poster for Migrant Massage Workers

image zoom