Wallbangin': Graffiti and Gangs in L.A.

by Susan A. Phillips

Graffiti is as ubiquitous as telephone poles in America's cities; it is as old as the earliest civilizations. The most public medium in the country today, graffiti can signal territory, love, or liberation. Ironically, graffiti is understood by only a fraction of those who encounter it. Usually read as a sign of urban decay and as a loss of control over the physical environment, graffiti has become one of the most potent cultural languages of our age. Wallbangin' is an unprecedented, in-depth look at this phenomenon as it is embodied in the neighborhoods of one of its epicenters, Los Angeles.

Anthropologist Susan Phillips enters the lives of the African-American and Chicano gang members to write a comprehensive guide to their symbolic and visual expression. She not only decodes the graffiti—explaining how, for instance, gang boundaries are visually delimited and how "memorial" graffiti functions—but she also places it in the context of the changing urban landscapes within the city. Graffiti, she argues, is inextricably linked to political change, to race, and to art, and she demonstrates how those connections are played out in contemporary L.A. Wallbangin' is, on this level, an iconography of street imagery. But it is also a very personal narrative about entering the world of L.A. street gangs—a world of pride, enemies, affirmation, and humanity where gang members use graffiti to redefine their social and political position in society.

To many outsiders, graffiti is cryptic, senseless scribbling. But Phillips explains it as an ingenious and creative solution to the disenfranchisement felt by those who produce it. With personal narratives, provocative photography, and contemporary voices, Wallbangin' unlocks the mysteries behind street-level ideologies and their visual manifestations.

Genres: Graffiti

414 pages, Paperback

First published July 15, 1999

Reviews

[Kate Emery · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnificent!

[estEbaNGutieRez-P.2 · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Wallbangin’ Graffiti and Gangs in LA” is about what its title says. This book is kind of lengthy and look too long to read and as you flip through it you can see all the pictures that’ll grab your attention.

I liked this book even though I didn’t read every single paragraph not that it was boring but I already knew some of it. This book isn’t hard to read, the format is well put together and it includes several references that you can look into in the index.

This book is not full non-fiction which makes it more readable, it is in first person and the author is a woman. She encounters real life situations with gang members and she interviews a lot of them, by doing this it gives life to the book because it necessary in order to not get information from the outside but also from the inside and brings life to the book.

There is six chapters each about seventy pages, I don’t recommend you read the first two if you think you already know the basic things like the definition of graffiti or why gangs exist. So basicaly if you live in the “hood” or “ghetto” then don’t read the first two, the middle chapters are the most important, they include; chicano gangs, black gangs (Bloods and Crips), and hip-hop art.

Overall, this is a good book I don’t recommend you read the entire thing and if you think you knew your stuff about “the streets,” think again. There's some valuable information in here so if you’ve never been to LA or the ghetto, read this book it’ll help. I give it four out of five stars.

[Jose · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read Wallbangin' by Susan A. Phillips, and I thought this book was with education and history about LA.It is educational in the way that she describes the history of the gangs or the graffiti. She goes back and forward from the streets of gangs or graffiti, and also describes how the gangs are related to the graffiti on the streets. What I liked about the book was that she didn’t just focus on one topic but she goes back and forward. What I did not like about the book was that it did not describe what some of the symbols that were in the graffiti. If it does describe the meaning it would not go into complete detail. It does do a good job comparing the different types of graffiti and how they were different besides the design. I talked about the gangs and their rivalries like the Bloods and the Crips and why the Bloods adopted Bompton, and the Crips are Compton.

[Stacey · Rating 4 out of 5]

Phillips uses graffiti as a window into the lives of Los Angeles gang members of the late 1990s. If you are especially into the symbolic role played by visual and material "artifacts" such as graffiti, you will likely relish in her detailed descriptions and analyses of various styles and intentions. If you are more interested in aspects of gang life, while this wasn't necessarily the goal of the study, Phillips addresses the experiential side of things adequately and situates it in broader political-economic and cultural contexts beautifully. However, I found the greatest strength of this ethnography to be the reflection on methods, and on Phillips' journey as an ethnographer. This is what ethnographic reflexivity should be.

[David · Rating 2 out of 5]

a great insight into the identity and meaning behind graffiti in los angeles. includes field studies with east l.a. and south central gangs as well as hip hop graffiti artists and taggers.

[Sam · Rating 2 out of 5]

Very dry but informative.