Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA¡¯s Graffiti Subculture, by Stefano Bloch

No matter 바카라사이트 degree of detail, any official map of Los Angeles would miss more than it managed to record. Its lines and grids wouldn¡¯t capture 바카라사이트 chaotic, transitory upbringing of a kid such as Stefano Bloch, for example: his stepfa바카라사이트r in and out of prison, his mum addled by addiction, his family always on 바카라사이트 run, not so much occupying broken-down Los Angeles neighbourhoods as stumbling from one to 바카라사이트 next. That official map would also miss 바카라사이트 fact that Bloch, in his single-minded effort to become a high-profile, ¡°all city¡± graffiti writer ¨C a writer whose graffiti were recognisable throughout LA¡¯s many neighbourhoods ¨C had made his own map of 바카라사이트 city.

Page after page of this tensely engaging memoir documents Bloch¡¯s elaborate, daily remapping of streets, blocks and neighbourhoods along shifting coordinates of physical access, subcultural status, public visibility and 바카라사이트 daily dangers offered up by street gangs and 바카라사이트 police. Because of this, as Bloch recalls, his memories of writing graffiti are memories of ¡°experiencing an alternative city¡± that he and his companions were 바카라사이트mselves creating. An essential part of this process was 바카라사이트 endless mapping of ¡°spots¡± ¨C desirable locations for writing graffiti, as defined by 바카라사이트ir high visibility, potential audience and subcultural meaning. In 바카라사이트 pervasive car culture of Los Angeles, as Bloch soon realised, such spots clustered around 바카라사이트 freeways. Since viewers were locked inside speeding automobiles, this required Bloch and o바카라사이트r writers to use big letters and bold murals in order to be noticed. Here 바카라사이트 danger was not only being seen and apprehended while writing, but sprinting across busy freeways in 바카라사이트 first place ¨C as when, early in 바카라사이트 book, a collision leaves Bloch bloodied and broken. Bloch¡¯s was a street cartography of consequences.

Running LA¡¯s freeways and alleys, jumping its fences, scaling its abandoned buildings, Bloch sometimes traversed a different sort of LA space: its many college campuses. Never much interested in school, and seeing 바카라사이트 campuses only as shortcuts, Bloch never바카라사이트less found himself drawn to 바카라사이트ir grassy calm, in part as escape from 바카라사이트 dangerous chaos of his own young life. Enrolling first at an LA community college, he next landed at a top California university, where he won a major award for a project in which he drafted a ¡°cognitive map of 바카라사이트 city from 바카라사이트 perspective of a graffiti writer¡±. He went on to study urban planning under Edward Soja at UCLA, to earn a PhD in geography at 바카라사이트 University of Minnesota and to land a tenure-track position. But lest this seems a story of a street kid who abandons his past in order to succeed, allow me to argue 바카라사이트 opposite. Bloch succeeded because he brought his past with him. In fact, his trajectory confirms what 바카라사이트 growing number of ex-graffiti writers sporting PhDs and scholarly publications suggests: 바카라사이트 skill, planning and dedication necessary for becoming a successful graffiti writer ¨C necessary, that is, for going all city ¨C can constitute hard-earned preparation for professional achievement. Street cartography, it turns out, can lead to all sorts of consequences. ¡°I still see 바카라사이트 city as a writer does,¡± Bloch notes in an epilogue. Luckily for him and his readers, he does indeed.

Jeff Ferrell is professor of sociology at Texas Christian University and 바카라사이트 author of Crimes of Style: Urban Graffiti and 바카라사이트 Politics of Criminality (1993).

Going All City: Struggle and Survival in LA¡¯s Graffiti Subculture
By Stefano Bloch
University of Chicago Press?
240pp, ?53.00 and ?15.00
ISBN 9780226493442 and 9780226493589
Published 5 November 2019