What Is My Truth and Who Decides? Engaging Arts-Based Youth Participatory Action Research to Explore Identity Scripts and Performance With Latina Artivists

• In Event: Fairmont Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: Youth Activism and Action Research (Table 17)

Abstract

This seven-month critical performance ethnographic study explores the lived experiences of Latinx youth artivist-researchers. The data collected through participant observations, arts-based elicitation and semi-structured interviews, artifacts, and analytic memos reveal how Latinx youth utilize artmaking towards transformational resistance, but also to explore multidimensional aspects of identity. Their participation in an arts-based youth participatory action research project and intergenerational theatre ensemble I call Estrella Theatre (ET) company indicates how art and social justice-driven inquiry provokes reflection on the identity scripts and performances we use in our daily lives. Findings reveal that Latina youth utilized codeswitching was used as performance tactic to enhance belongingness and safety in school, community, and home environments.

Author

• Ashley D. Domínguez, University of Arizona
  Presenting Author