Resistance and Identity: Art as a Vehicle for Authenticity

• In Event: Roundtable Session 4
  In Roundtable Session: Arts, A/r/tography, and Identity

Abstract

This study focused on providing graffiti artists a space to express their artistic voices as a form of resistance to the inadequate and inequitable educational opportunities they had received. Through the lens of Yosso's (2005) notion of Community Cultural Wealth and Critical Race Theorists (Parker & Lynn, 2002; Smith, 2004) call for counter story, eight artists worked to reframe the prevailing discourse about their identities and potential and created counter art. The findings reframe the conditions for underrepresented student success to focus on authenticity of student identity, relevance of material to student contexts, and connections with peers and mentors.

Author

• Kyle Reyes, Utah Valley University