Damien M. Sojoyner on Ethnography and Histories of Resistance in Los Angeles

PEN America Works of Justice

For over 50 years, the Southern California Library has made history a practice. Housing an extensive collection of histories of community resistance in Los Angeles and beyond, the library also serves as a community organization. Though he grew up not too far from the library, anthropologist Damien M. Sojoyner only learned it existed as an adult. When asked to help develop programs and teach a summer course for youth in the area, Sojoyner met Marley, a high school student whose vocal opinions caught the ethnographer’s attention. Through Marley, Sojoyner learned and observed how Marley and the young people in the area were caring for their community, resisting policing and patrolling of their neighborhood, and confronting the injustices of the criminal justice system. Sojoyner’s recent book, Joy and Pain: A Story of Black Life and Liberation in Five Albums (University of California Press, 2022), documents Damien’s conversations with Marley across five “albums” centered on housing, education, health care, social services, and juvenile detention.
In the latest episode of PEN America’s Works of Justice podcast, Malcolm Tariq, senior manager of editorial projects for PEN America’s Prison and Justice Writing, asks Sojoyner about his approach to ethnography, the ethics of constructing someone else’s narratives, and the history of resistance in gang culture.