The Colors of Loisaida: Embedding Murals in Community Activism

Abstract

This article delves into an overlooked ingredient in community activism between the period of the Great Society and Reaganomics. In the midst of the shift from housing disinvestment to gentrification, communities across the United States sought out any means necessary to fight forced displacement. The community mural was one of the most creative tools activists employed to claim their stake in a neighborhood. This article demonstrates how these community murals were deeply embedded within activist projects, not simply as an afterthought but as a crucial catalyst to provoke action among the residents of a neighborhood, especially its young people. Loisaida (Spanglish for Lower East Side) was a pioneering neighborhood where activists democratized art as a means to politicize neighborhood space and organize an entire community. As murals play important roles for struggling communities across the world now, this article traces their role in community activism back to the U.S. mural movement.