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body workers' atlas

mapping the policing of Asian massage work

body workers’ atlas is a collaboration between Red Canary Song and Brown University’s Ruth J Simmons Center for the Slavery and Justice Human Trafficking Research Cluster, directed by Elena Shih. The lead designers are Shravya Sompalli and Arman Deendar, who have written about the map in their article, “Raiding Roosevelt Avenue: The Policing of Asian Massage Work in New York City.”
The collaboration has also built a growing archive of over 40 oral histories from migrant Asian massage workers conducted by RCS outreach team members: Chinese Team: Lisa, Lyn, Mei Mei, Fran Yu, Chong Gu, Elena Shih, and Korean Team: Yeonhoo Cho, Charlotte, Mina, Yeoul, and Lo.
Former Human Trafficking Research Cluster student research assistants include: Amy Xiao, Mona Malone, and Karen Hu.
Countermapping consultations were offered by AJ Kim, whose work Unauthorized City inspires and informs our understanding of cognitive and narrative napping approaches.
Funding was provided by: Mellon Emerging Faculty Leadership Award, Brown University Undergraduate Teaching and Research Award

We invite you to grapple with the policing of migrant Asian massage work throughout New York City and to listen to the voices and lives behind the data. This project offers a critical intervention to the mapping projects undertaken by carceral anti-trafficking organizations that manipulate big data to stroke fears around massage work. These visualizations flatten the lives of workers to one-dimensional points on a map and are used to bolster policies that criminalize racialized and gendered low wage work. We encourage you to engage with the stories (un)told here and share them to amplify the struggle and power of migrant massage worker organizing.



body workers' atlas

Data: NYC OpenData Historic Arrests & OATH Hearings

Updated January 2025

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