Urban Farm DB
Research catalogue
Database research record2023·United States (Minneapolis)

Guerrilla Gardening: At the Intersection of Birnam Wood and Minneapolis

Sarah Dimick

Critique Studies in Contemporary Fiction

Urban Farm DB summary

This study reflects on guerrilla gardening and its narratives by intersecting Eleanor Catton’s novel Birnam Wood with descriptions of gardens at police killing sites in the greater Minneapolis metro area. It argues that guerrilla garden infrastructures sprout in the soil of highly unequal power, often in the wake of the fatal exercise of state power, and in the shadow of a foreshortened environmental future. These are DIY infrastructures constructed by people weathering entwined environmental, political, and economic crises in the 21st century.