"This Is America"

In "This is America," Katie Rios considers current American artists who build encoded gestures of resistance into their works. These gestures recur across images, live performances, and videos, becoming recognizable acts of resistance leveled at injustices based on a number of categories, including race, gender, class, religion, and politics.

Katie Rios is associate professor of music history at the Townsend School of Music at Mercer University.

Chapter 1: "We're Drowning in Our Own Stories": Laurie Anderson's Call to Artists and Her Performance Art as a Commentary on Current American Democracy Chapter 2: "At the Intersection' of Racism and Sexism": The Encoded Resistance and Social Activism of Beyoncé, Rhiannon Giddens, and Janelle Monáe Chapter 3: "We the People"? Hip Hop As Resistance in the Trump Era Chapter 4: '"Look Around", "History Is Happening": Heterogenous Topics in Lin-Manuel Miranda's Hamilton