Performance and Activism

Kamran Afary teaches communication studies at California State University Los Angeles.

• Chapter 1 Chapter One. Introduction and Roadmap to the WorkChapter 2 Chapter Two. A Historical Political Economy of Los AngelesChapter 3 Chapter Three. Performing Peace: Gang Truce in Watts and BeyondChapter 4 Chapter Four. The Gang Truce Movement as a Space for Dialogue and ActivismChapter 5 Chapter Five. Performing Motherhood: Creating Uprising Textualities and Reclaiming their ChildrenChapter 6 Chapter Six. Performing Twilight Los Angeles: Walking in the Words of a Sad and Beautiful PoemChapter 7 Chapter Seven. Conclusion: Remembrance and Reinterpretation

Afary’s contribution of performance-conscious activism and activist-conscious performance gets to the core utility of performance for social change and activism as embodied praxis. This important project deepens and extends our collective understanding of performance in and as activism and the ways in which such intention is dynamized on the grassroots level. Performance and Activism should quickly become standard reading for those in performance studies, cultural studies, and cultural geography, amongst other disciplinary formations, interested in the confluence and conflicts of cultural identity in place and space, and the ways in which performance can be used as a critical lens of seeing and transforming the world.