S9, Ep. 14 Jessica Lopez Lyman on the History of State Violence in Minnesota

Interdisciplinary performance artist and Xicana feminist scholar Jessica Lopez Lyman joins co-hosts Whitney Terrell and V.V. Ganeshananthan to talk about Minnesota’s history with state violence and local resistance to it, as well as ICE’s intensified presence in recent weeks. Lopez Lyman, the author of a new book, Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities, discusses immigration in Minnesota and how the increased ICE presence is affecting immigrant and BIPOC communities. Lopez Lyman speaks about the January 7 death of Renee Nicole Good, a white woman and legal observer who was shot and killed by an ICE officer, and compares the current situation to the time following police officer Derek Chauvin’s murder of George Floyd in 2020. She notes the pervasiveness of the harm wrought by ICE’s presence throughout Minnesota, a state with a romanticized, pastoral, and sometimes inaccurately homogenous image. She considers the importance of mutual aid, community care, and legal observers, and explains the term “movidas,” which refers to subversive knowledge and “small, hidden actions that are not public protests, that are really foundational for creating larger social movements.” She reads from Place-Keepers.

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This podcast is produced by V.V. Ganeshananthan and Whitney Terrell.

Jessica Lopez Lyman

• Place-Keepers: Latina/x Art, Performance, and Organizing in the Twin Cities

Others:

• One State, Two Very Different Views of Minneapolis The New York Times
• Gloria Anzaldúa
• Audre Lorde
• Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder
• Maria Isa
• “Video shows woman dragged from car by ICE agents in Minneapolis as she tells them she's autistic” CBC News
• "Family of man killed by off-duty ICE agent in LA demands charges: ‘The ache will never go away’" The Guardian
• NYTPitchbot- Jan. 15, 2026
• "Native Americans are being swept up by ICE in Minneapolis, tribes say"- The Washington Post
• "The killing of Daunte Wright and trial of Kimberly Potter" 2021 MPR News
• "The murder of George Floyd" 2020 MPR News
• "The death of Philando Castile and the trial of Jeronimo Yanez" 2016 MPR News
• "Right-wing, anti-Islam protest draws large group of counter demonstrators" MPR News
• "The Miracle of Minneapolis" 2015 The Atlantic

"AMERICAN SCENE: Minnesota: A State That Works" 1973 TIME

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