coffee with a curator
October 1 @ 10:30am – 11:30am
Street Art Blues: Murals, Melancholy and Resistance
Join us for this month’s installment of our Coffee with a Curator series, where Museum staff or invited guests speak on a range of Salvador Dalí-inspired topics.
Inspired by Freud’s idea of melancholia—feeling a loss without knowing exactly what’s missing—Wendy Brown calls out the political Left for getting stuck in helpless sadness instead of truly mourning what’s been lost in the fight for change. This talk digs into how street art today is often stripped of its bite and rebellious roots that emerge from a graffiti ethic. While aesthetically beautiful, this type of street art often conceals deeper societal wounds rather than actively opening up urban spaces for critical and uncomfortable dialogue.
But not everywhere. This talk will focus on spaces where street art still pulses with raw, untamed energy, including George Floyd Square in Minneapolis. In these spaces, art isn’t just for show—it’s a bold act of mourning, protest and resistance.
Location: The Dalí Museum’s Will Raymund Theater (registration required) or live on YouTube (link below).
This event is free with limited capacity. An event ticket is required for entry.
Gallery access is not included.
To watch the live stream from home, click below at the time of the program:
John Lennon, Ph.D.
I am a professor of English at the University of South Florida with diverse research interests that span working-class literature, street art, and graffiti—all united by a central focus on how marginalized individuals express politicized voices through collective action. My book Boxcar Politics: The Hobo in Literature and Culture 1869–1956 (UMass Press, 2014) reclaims the hobo as a politically charged figure within a resistive working-class collective, while my co-edited, open-access volumes Working Class Literature(s) offer global perspectives on working-class narratives. My work has appeared in journals such as Journal of Urban Cultural Studies, Cultural Studies Review, New Proposals, American Studies, Irish Studies Review, Rhizomes, and Acoma. My latest book, Conflict Graffiti: From Revolution to Gentrification (University of Chicago Press, 2022), investigates the evolving roles of graffiti in conflict zones—from revolutionary protest to commodified street art—and was supported by several grants, including an NEH Summer Grant, which allowed me to conduct field research in the MENA region, Europe, Brazil, and key U.S. cities like Detroit and New Orleans.
https://drjohnlennon.wordpress.com/about/
