“You can't ignore us”: Multiliteracies and disruption in youth activism

Abstract

This article examines the activism of student protesters in a rural Rust Belt community's Black Lives Matter protest, challenging prevailing stereotypes about civic engagement, literacies, and youth involvement in rural settings. Utilizing critical ethnography and nexus analysis to examine disruptions of discourses in place and interview student participants about their activism, findings showcase how students strategically practiced multiliteracies to upturn power dynamics and assume leadership roles within a socio-spatial landscape. Examining youth protest literacies can inform education partners of the ways students already engage in civic discourse and how understanding their co-construction of space can inform practices across learning communities.