UC Santa Cruz

This study critically examined the racial, spatial, gender, and class dimensions of expressive cultures and social control. More specifically, Between Art and Crime: Graffiti and Street Art in Neoliberal Los Angeles examined how people from historically marginalized and underserved communities affirmed their rights to social space through graffiti and art-based community projects. Focusing on working-class communities of color in Los Angeles, this study demonstrated how criminalized and structurally marginalized youths of color create new social identities and social relationships by producing graffiti rooted in mutual respect, dignity, and justice. This study revealed how Black and Latinx graffiti writers and artists achieve visibility, challenge the borders of racial residential segregation, and transform places abandoned by businesses and overpoliced by city governments into spaces of congregation and empowerment.