This was an interesting and great read! I have heard a lot about the east coast graff scene and it was interesting to read about the different experiences on the west coast.

This memoir is such a harrowing, yet beautiful and heartfelt book! I could not put it down. The author's description of the camaraderie he felt with his friends while "tagging" -spray-painting graffiti - is exhilarating. We all want to make our Mark in the world, and this author shows how the graffiti artists are doing just that.

“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.”

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.

A fascinating read a raw real look at the hood at the gangs and the unique sub culture graffiti artist staggers who leave their mark on buildings stores letting all Now we are here,This is a view of their world through their eyes an enlightening read. #netgalley #uof chicagopress.

This was okay for me I am happy that I got to see a view from someone else’s point of view and see what happens in their head and life