Research and Course Guides: Teach-in Tuesday companion guide: Landscapes of Resistance: Street Art and Protest in the Aftermath of George Floyd's Murder

Landscapes of Resistance: Street Art and Protest in the Aftermath of George Floyd's Murder

In the final Teach-in Tuesday for spring semester on April 20, 2021, with the main presentation being offered by:

Dr. Todd Lawrence (English)
Dr. Paul Lorah (Earth, Environment & Society)
Dr. Heather Shirey (Art History)

The streamed presentation will be followed by interdisciplinary commentaries offered by:

Dr. Paola Ehrmantraut (Modern and Classical Languages)
Dr. Kanishka Chowdhury (American Culture & Difference, English),
Dr. Olga Herrera (English)

Street Art Archives

George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art

Description of the George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art project:

The mural depicting George Floyd painted by local artists on the side wall of Cup Foods at 38^th St and Chicago in Minneapolis initially transformed a location that was a tragic marker of an extrajudicial antiblack murder into an important community space for memorialization, organizing, fellowship, and healing, but also became a site of conflict and negotiation. A simple tag reading "Mama," written on a wall near the location of intense conflict between protesters and the police, can be read as an equally powerful call for transformational change. Starting with works such as these, this database seeks to collect ephemeral imagery of all types, large and small, commissioned and uncomissioned, covering a tremendously wide range of approaches and perspectives.

Image by Nicole Peterson. Private residence parking garage door in Minneapolis, MN. https://georgefloydstreetart.omeka.net/items/show/2075

COVID-19 Street Art

Description of the COVID-19 Street Art project:

Over time and as the ongoing Covid-19 crisis unfolds, the Urban Art Mapping Covid-19 Street Art database seeks to document examples of Covid-19 related street art from around the world. The database will serve as the repository for images and a future resource for scholars and artists by way of metadata that is freely available. In addition, the project involves an analysis of the themes and issues that appear in street art, explored in relation to local experiences, responses, and attitudes.

Image by @coronastreetart. Nurse in snow, a large-scale snow drawing on a street in Potvino, Moscow. https://covid19streetart.omeka.net/items/show/623

Resources from the Presenters

Articles from the popular press

(Articles are in chronological order)

St. Thomas Documents George Floyd and Anti-Racist Street Art from Across the Globe
Amy Carlson Gustafson, June 2020. University of St. Thomas Newsroom
A look at the project, including the student perspectives.
A Virtual Museum Preserves Black Lives Matter Protest Art
Leah Feiger, August 2020. Hyperallergic.
A discussion of the George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art database.
How Can Street Art Teach Us About Racism?
Kyeland Jackson, June 2020. Rewire.
A discussion of the project and how it can be used in teaching. This article originally appeared on Twin Cities PBS Originals.
Mapping Urban Art
Lydia Moran, August 2020. Minnesota Women's Press.
An interview with the project's team about the power of street art to foster dialogue, and their vision for the archive.
How the Death of George Floyd Sparked a Street Art Movement
Chioma Uwagwu, Tiaryn Daniels, and David Todd Lawrence, Sep. 2020. Smithsonian Magazine.
Written by members of the Urban Art Street Mapping Project, this article walks through the creation of the George Floyd & Anti-racist street art database and how it can be used in the future.
Art and Social Justice: A Digital Archive of Street Art & Protest
Dr. Heather Shirey, Dec. 2020, Americans for the Arts Artsblog.
Dr. Shirey's article about the street art created in the days after George Floyd's murder, and her work in helping to create the George Floyd & Anti-Racist Street Art Database.

Scholarly Articles

(alphabetical by first author's last name)

Black Lives Matter: The Emotional and Racial Dynamics of the George Floyd Protest Graffiti
Mary Louisa Cappelli, 2020. Advances in Applied Sociology, 9(10). doi:10.4236/aasoci.2020.109020
An examination of the George Floyd protest graffiti before and after protests in Los Angeles around the murder of George Floyd. This research hopes to contribute to the scholarship on emotional dynamics and discursive power of protest graffiti to confront structural racism and advocate for political change.
Preserving Street Art: Uncovering the Challenges and Obstacles
Carmen Cowick, 2015. Art Documentation: Journal of the Art Libraries Society of North America, 34(1). doi:10.1086/680563
A look at the presence of street art in the historical record and the issues and challenges involved in the documenting and preserving that art.
Constituting an archive
Stuart Hall, 2001. Third Text, 15(54). doi: 10.1080/09528820108576903
An essay on the "constituting of an archive", that moment when a collection of works becomes an archive.
Drips Gallery: A Community-driven Graffiti Library & Archive
Alexandra Lederman and Farah Jindani, 2016. Society of American Archivists, Research Forum.
And exploration of the uses of digitial technologies to preserve and archive street art.
Radical archiving as social psychology from the future
Rachel Jane Liebert, 2017. Qualitiative Psychology, 4(1). doi:10.1037/qup0000041
A call for radical archiving as a means for "bearing witness." The archive is not a passive object of inquiry so much as an active, unruly companion for strengthening the response-ability of a critical and creative social psychology from the future.

Books

Graffiti and Street Art by Konstantinos Avramidis and Myrto Tsilimpounidi (Editors)
Call Number: O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library GT3912 .G727 2017
Publication Date: 2016
The contributors of this volume investigate underexplored urban contexts in which graffiti and street art appear, shed light on previously unexamined aspects of these practices, and introduce innovative methodologies regarding the treatment of these images. The focus is on the relationship of graffiti and street art with urban space, and the various manifestations of these idiosyncratic meetings.
Street Art of Resistance by Sarah H. Awad and Brady Wagoner (Editors)
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2017
This book explores how street art has been used as a tool of resistance to express opposition to political systems and social issues around the world. Aesthetic devices such as murals, tags, posters, street performances and caricatures are discussed in terms of how they are employed to occupy urban spaces and present alternative visions of social reality.
The Cambridge Handbook of Copyright in Street Art and Graffiti by Enrico Bonadio (Editor)
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2019
In this work, Enrico Bonadio brings together a group of experts to provide the first comprehensive analysis of issues related to copyright in street art and graffiti. Chapter authors shed light not only on the legal tools available in thirteen key jurisdictions for street and graffiti artists to object to unauthorized exploitations and unwanted treatments of their works, but also offer policy and sociological insights designed to spur further debate on whether and to what extent the street art and graffiti subcultures can benefit from copyright and moral rights protection.

Resources for exploring these topics further

Library Databases

Use these to search for articles or examples of artwork

Art Full Text This link opens in a new window
A full-text database of scholarly sources in art history. Search for "graffiti" or "street art" to find more articles about the topic. Limited to 20 simultaneous users.
ARTstor This link opens in a new window
A searchable database of more than 1 million images, including street and urban art. Users can search, view and download images. You can narrow results by geography and time.

Books

Search LibrarySearch for the subjects "Street art" or "Graffiti" to find books, videos, journals, and more on those topics. Here are a few of the books we have:

The Aesthetics of Global Protest by Aidan McGarry, Itir Erhart, Hande Eslen-Ziya and Olu Jenzen (Editors)
Call Number: ebook (open access)
Publication Date: 2019
Protestors across the world use aesthetics in order to communicate their ideas and ensure their voices are heard. This book looks at protest aesthetics, which we consider to be the visual and performative elements of protest, such as images, symbols, graffiti, art, as well as the choreography of protest actions in public spaces.
Street Art World by Alison Young
Call Number: O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library NA9052 .Y68 2016
Publication Date: 2016
This illustrated book explores every aspect of street art, from those who spray it into being to those who revel in it on Instagram, from its place under highway overpasses to one on the austere walls of high art museums.
The City Beneath: a century of Los Angeles graffiti by Susan A. Phillips
Call Number: O'Shaughnessy-Frey Library GT3913.C22 P45 2019
Publication Date: 2019
Drawing on extensive research within the city's urban landscape, Susan A. Phillips traces the hidden language of marginalized groups over the past century--from the early twentieth-century markings of hobos, soldiers, and Japanese internees to the later inscriptions of surfers, cholos, and punks. Phillips profiles the experiences of people who remain underrepresented in conventional histories, revealing the powerful role of graffiti as a venue for cultural expression.
World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti by Rafael Schacter
Call Number: ebook
Publication Date: 2013
Organized geographically by country and city, more than 100 of today’s most important street artists are profiled alongside key examples of their work. The World Atlas of Street Art and Graffiti emphasizes urban art’s powerful commitment to a spontaneous creativity that is inherently connected to the architecture of the metropolis.