Going all city : struggle and survival in LA's graffiti subculture /

Going all city : struggle and survival in LA's graffiti subculture /

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Bibliographic Details
Author / Creator:	Bloch, Stefano, author.
Imprint:	Chicago : The University of Chicago Press, 2019. ©2019
Description:	205 pages ; 23 cm
Language:	English
Subject:	Graffiti -- Social aspects -- California -- Los Angeles. Graffiti artists -- California -- Los Angeles. Subculture -- California -- Los Angeles. Graffiti artists. Graffiti -- Social aspects. Subculture. California -- Los Angeles.
Format:	Print Book
URL for this record:	http://pi.lib.uchicago.edu/1001/cat/bib/11995328

Hidden Bibliographic Details
ISBN:	9780226493442 022649344X 9780226493589 022649358X 9780226493619
Notes:	Includes bibliographical references.
Summary:	"In the late 1970s, cities began to declare war on graffiti, and task forces were created to stop the scourge. By the 90s, graffiti became inextricably linked with rising gang violence in the public imagination. But who are the real people behind graffiti? Why do they risk their freedom, and sometimes their lives, to write across city walls? "We could have been called a lot of things: brazen vandals, scared kids, threats to social order, self-obsessed egomaniacs, marginalized youth, outsider artists, trend setters, and thrill seekers," says Stefano Bloch. But, most of all, they were just kids growing up hard in America amid staggering conditions of violence and poverty. Going All City is their mesmerizing and heartbreaking story. Bloch, himself one of LA's most prolific writers, saw it all firsthand. Some of what he writes is grave, even chilling: brutal interactions with law enforcement and random violence at the hands of gang members; white supremacist relatives and undocumented friends; violence and imprisonment; addiction, eviction, and homelessness. The result is an unflinching portrait of a much maligned subculture and an unforgettable personal meditation on what writing on city walls means to the most vulnerable people living within them"--
Standard no.:	40029619820

Description
Summary:	" We could have been called a lot of things: brazen vandals, scared kids, threats to social order, self-obsessed egomaniacs, marginalized youth, outsider artists, trend setters, and thrill seekers. But, to me, we were just regular kids growing up hard in America and making the city our own. Being 'writers' gave us something to live for and 'going all city' gave us something to strive for; and for some of my friends it was something to die for." <br> <br> <br> <br> In the age of commissioned wall murals and trendy street art, it's easy to forget graffiti's complicated and often violent past in the United States. Though graffiti has become one of the most influential art forms of the twenty-first century, cities across the United States waged a war against it from the late 1970s to the early 2000s, complete with brutal police task forces. Who were the vilified taggers they targeted? Teenagers, usually, from low-income neighborhoods with little to their names except a few spray cans and a desperate need to be seen--to mark their presence on city walls and buildings even as their cities turned a blind eye to them.<br> <br> <br> <br> Going All City is the mesmerizing and painful story of these young graffiti writers, told by one of their own. Prolific LA writer Stefano Bloch came of age in the late 1990s amid constant violence, poverty, and vulnerability. He recounts vicious interactions with police; debating whether to take friends with gunshot wounds to the hospital; coping with his mother's heroin addiction; instability and homelessness; and his dread that his stepfather would get out of jail and tip his unstable life into full-blown chaos. But he also recalls moments of peace and exhilaration: marking a fresh tag; the thrill of running with his crew at night; exploring the secret landscape of LA; the dream and success of going all city.<br> <br> <br> <br> Bloch holds nothing back in this fierce, poignant memoir. Going All City is an unflinching portrait of a deeply maligned subculture and an unforgettable account of what writing on city walls means to the most vulnerable people living within them.
Physical Description:	205 pages ; 23 cm
Bibliography:	Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN:	9780226493442 022649344X 9780226493589 022649358X 9780226493619