ABSTRACT
This chapter analyzes the guerrilla gardening movement within the US, tracing the movement from the early 1970s in New York City to today. Throughout, it examines how the playful, vegetal micro-performances of many guerrilla gardeners, from the Green Guerrilla Group in Lower Manhattan in 1973 to Ron Finley in South Los Angeles today, unevenly challenge capitalistic demarcations between private and public land. The chapter suggests that, whether they plant in a vacant lot, a median strip, or a pothole, guerrilla gardeners assert their right to the city. In an analysis of the rhetoric and performance style of various guerrilla gardeners, this chapter finds that White gardeners have more spatial mobility than BIPOC gardeners and can take more dramatic license, leaning into the illicit aspects of guerrilla gardening without fearing for their lives. Contextualizing the international emphasis on guerrilla gardening as a subversive movement, this chapter considers how guerrilla gardening performance varies based on gardeners’ geography, racial identity, and overall purpose.
