Graduation Year
2025
Document Type
Open Access Senior Thesis
Degree Name
Bachelor of Arts
Department
Chicano Studies
Second Department
Art History
Reader 1
Tomás F. Summers Sandoval Jr.
Reader 2
Martha Gonzalez
Reader 3
Zsofi Valyi-Nagy
Terms of Use & License Information
Rights Information
2025 Corina M. Silverstein
Abstract
This thesis focuses on the intersections of collaborative and artistic interventions (such as collective songwriting and poetry) within the ongoing fight to legalize and decriminalize street vending in Los Angeles. Through the close partnership with Community Power Collective (CPC), this thesis analyzes the use of narrative in artistic collaborations and oral traditions throughout the political mobilization of street vendors in Los Angeles. Through an interdisciplinary approach, this investigation explores the use of early influences of street theater, to collective songwriting workshops, as well as artistic collaborations with local artists. Ultimately, suggesting CPC’s use of artistic practices and collaborations are essential to street vendor’s political organizing. Furthermore, this study analyzes arts-based narrative building practices and other artistic interventions on their effect on street vendors within CPC. The following research questions guide this work: How do CPC’s artistic practices influence street vending organizing strategies and relationships? How do Latina/o street vendors, in Community Power Collective (CPC), harness cultural power through oral and visual narratives?
Recommended Citation
Silverstein, Corina M., "Crafting Cultural Power: Artistic Interventions as Tools for Political Organizing Among Los Angeles Street Vendors" (2025). Scripps Senior Theses. 2653.
https://scholarship.claremont.edu/scripps_theses/2653
Included in
American Art and Architecture Commons, Chicana/o Studies Commons, Community-Based Research Commons, Contemporary Art Commons, Ethnic Studies Commons, Latina/o Studies Commons, Modern Art and Architecture Commons, Social Justice Commons
