Book
Ontiveros, R. J. (2014). In the spirit of a new people: The cultural politics of the Chicano movement. New York: New York University Press.
Ontiveros argues that the arts provide an expression of the Chicano movement that circumvents neoliberalism and connects historic struggles to current lived experience. Chicano artists have integrated environmentalism and feminism with the Chicano movement in print media, visual arts, theater, and novels since the 1970s. While focused on art, this book also provides a history of the coalition politics connecting the Chicano movement to other social justice struggles.
Journal article
Alvarez, N. & Mearns, J. (2014). The benefits of writing and performing in the spoken word poetry community. The Arts in Psychotherapy, 41(3), 263-268. doi:10.1016/j.aip.2014.03.004
Prior research has shown narrative writing to help with making meaning out of trauma. This article uses grounded theory to analyze semi-structured interviews with ten spoken word poets. Because spoken word poetry is performed live, it creates personal and community connections that enhance the emotional development and resolution offered by the practice of writing. The findings are limited by the small, nonrandom sample (all the participants were from the same community).
