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The Neighborhood Strikes Back: Community Murals by Youth in B oston's Communities of Color[Note 1. Earlier versions of this paper were presented as part ...]
Author(s) -
SIEBER TIM,
CORDEIRO GRAÇA ÍNDIAS,
FERRO LÍGIA
Publication year - 2012
Publication title -
city and society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.308
H-Index - 25
eISSN - 1548-744X
pISSN - 0893-0465
DOI - 10.1111/ciso.12000
Subject(s) - mainstream , grassroots , ethnic group , disadvantaged , solidarity , sociology , gender studies , local community , identity (music) , media studies , visual arts , advertising , political science , anthropology , aesthetics , art , politics , law , business
Abstract Community murals in US inner city neighborhoods offer popular, grassroots representations of local identities and their relation to urban space and community culture. They are powerful tools in building neighborhood solidarity across ethnic groups, generations, and defended gang territories. Designed primarily for local consumption, murals circulate dramatic, alternative representations of local identity, heritage and history, contesting attributions of stigma and danger promulgated in mainstream media. In B oston's D udley Street corridor that crosscuts its R oxbury and D orchester neighborhoods, both low‐income communities of color, these themes are evident in the presence of a vibrant series of community murals lining the one‐mile long street. Designed and painted by local youth under the sponsorship of grassroots community‐based organizations, the murals give voice to urban youth's hopes, struggles, and aspirations for their individual and collective futures, from their positions in disadvantaged, multi‐ethnic neighborhoods in a city sharply divided by race and class.