In this paper presentation, we examine how a trauma-informed art and writing program that incorporated museum, university, and community partners created space for adolescents to explore their racial, cultural, and social identities in a community organization that works with refugee youth. Informed by a critical multimodal literacy framework, we ask: "How do critical multimodal literacies create space for youth to explore and express their racial, gender, cultural, and social identities?" We utilized a qualitative case study approach focused on visual and multimodal qualitative research methods. Our findings suggest that a) multiple modes of expression created opportunities for youth to center their identities within the context of their cultural backgrounds; b) writing alongside their art allowed youth to interrogate existing power structures through harnessing the power of images as cultural tools; and c) multimodal literacies enabled students to imagine possibilities and identities of past, present, and future selves while navigating cultural expectations and influences. Our study has implications for the affordances of how trauma-informed and art-based literacy practices can better help students express the complexities of their adolescent experience across diverse cultural contexts.
