Art, Community & Cultural Resistance

Abstract

Music and songwriting have always felt like tools to combat chaos for me, both personally and politically. Surviving the most recent wave of American fascism has taken so much, yet it has left a portal in its wake. Understanding how our personal experiences are impacted by the political changes we live through is crucial in dismantling systems of supremacy. I am fascinated by the human ability to navigate personal and political trauma while still finding ways to create subversive art and organize social movements. From Riot Grrrl radical feminist music and movement of the 1990's to the artist-activist collectives born of Occupy Wall Street in 2008, resistant art and culture often grow from times of personal and political turmoil. This project is inspired by artist-activists like Rosa Balistreri and countless others, who dare to create subversive art in the face of personal and political crises. With a radical feminist lens, I explore the relationship between the personal and political, specifically the connection between creative expression and cultural resistance. In the following section I discuss the importance of art and culture in resisting violent supremacy in its many forms, namely neocolonialism and late capitalism. Drawing on the extensive work of marginalized artist-activists, indigenous land protectors, feminist scholars and qualitative sociologists, my senior project explores our long standing global history of cultural resistance. My methods are qualitative in nature and do not attempt to quantify complex concepts like art, community and cultural resistance. My intent is to highlight micro-level personal narratives of creative expression that speak to macro-level concepts like art, community and cultural resistance.