Going All City: Struggle and Survival in La's Graffiti Subculture

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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"--