The Paint Marks the Place: The Mural Art of Resistance in Oakland, California

In the context of both historical and current urban redevelopment schemes in Oakland, California that displace black, brown, and indigenous peoples, businesses, and communities, I examine the work of mural artists and activists to resist erasure and mark belonging. Specifically, this research explores the relationship between the practice of intentional community mural-making, projecting narratives of culture and resistance, and geographic concepts of place-making, and sense of belonging. The research was conducted through a critical feminist anti-colonial methodological process of artography. Through semi-structured in-depth interviews with artists, residents, and community activists, photography, archival media analysis and a case study of the Madre Maize (2012) mural by the Community Rejuvenation Project crew, I uncover how the process of mural-making is a means of place-making by allowing some of the most societally marginalized to author the landscapes in which they dwell, work, and live. This thesis argues that intentional community mural art is a means of counter monument, community justice, and an act of decolonization through embedding a decolonial aesthetic in the fabric of urban landscapes, uncovering hidden black, brown, and indigenous geographies and contributing to larger movements of social justice making.