Street Art and Activism in the Greater Caribbean

Foregrounding street art in the capital cities of Cuba, Haiti, and Puerto Rico, this book argues that Antillean street artists diagnose the "impossible state" of the arrested present (colonized, occupied, or under dictatorship) while simultaneously imagining liberated futures and fully sovereign states. Jana Evans Braziel launches a comparative study of art, politics, history, urban street cultures, engaged citizenships, and social transformations in three Antillean capital cities-Havana, Cuba; Port-au-Prince, Haiti; and San Juan, Puerto Rico-of the Greater Caribbean. The book includes a photo documentary archive of street art, murals, and installations by key muralists in these cities: Yulier Rodriguez Pérez, "Jerry" Rosembert Moïse, and Colectivo Moriviví (Chachi González Colón, Raysa Rodríguez García, and Salomé Cortés). Braziel offers art historical and geopolitical analyses of the urban street art in their cities of production, underscoring street art as political, economic, and environmental engagements (and not as exclusively aesthetic ones) with urban space and street life. The book will be of interest to scholars working in art history, Caribbean studies, Latin American studies, and urban studies.

Jana Evans Braziel is Western College Endowed Professor in the Department of Global and Intercultural Studies at Miami University.

Introduction: Living Streets: Calles Vivas: Lari Vivan Intermezzo: Havana, 1. Murales as Testimonios: In the Streets of Havana Intermezzo: Port-au-Prince, 2. Murales as Media: In the Streets of Port-au-Prince Intermezzo: San Juan, 3. Murales as Mythos: In the Streets of San Juan, 4. Digital Walls/Virtual Publics: Coronavirus Cities on Instagram, Conclusion: Beyond "Impossible States"