Narratives of Dispossession and Anticolonial Art in Urban Spaces

Abstract:The narratives produced by settler capitalists and transplants in Detroit continue to suggest that it is a place of possibility for white people and notably not, using frontier rhetoric like that which was used in the 19th century when settlers moved out West. In the aftermath of the bankruptcy of 2013 and the water shutoffs, Indigenous creatives found ways to craft expressive culture that critiqued dispossession and demonstrated artistic solidarity with African Americans. This article explores the meanings and possibilities of Indigenous creative expression as a response to ongoing dispossession in contemporary Detroit. Using discourse analysis of Indigenous popular culture, this article argues that Indigenous hip-hop artists are creating anti-colonial art to resist anti-blackness and settler capitalism in the city and beyond.