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Words of the Prophets
Graffiti as Political Protest in Greece, Italy, Poland, and the United States
Series: - Studies in Critical Social Sciences, Volume: 246
Author:
Words of the Prophets treats graffiti as a form of political prophecy. Whether we consider austerity in Thessaloniki, Camorra infiltration in Naples, the fall of Communism in Gdansk, or the rise of gang warfare in Chicago, graffiti is a form of democratic self-expression that dates back to Periclean Athens and the Book of Daniel. Words of the Prophets offers close readings of 400 original photographs taken between 2014 and 2021 in Philadelphia, Venice, Milan, Florence, Syracuse, and Warsaw, alongside literary works by Pawel Huelle, films by Andrezj Wajda, Antonio Capua, and music videos by Natasha Bedingfield and Beyoncé. A third of the book is dedicated to interviews with Krik Kong, Iwona Zajac, Ponchee.193, Jay Pop, Ser, Simoni Fontana, and Mattia Campo Dall’Orto.
Jonathan Gross received his Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1992. A Professor at DePaul University, he has published monographs on Lord Byron, Anne Damer, and edited the letters of Lady Melbourne and Thomas Jefferson. His editions of the Sylph, Belmour, and Emma, or the Unfortunate Attachment highlight the achievements of women writers.
Preface
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction: from “Kilroy Was Here” to Krik Kong
Part 1
Four Murals and Their Environs
1 Thessaloniki: a Born-Again Faith in Graffiti
1 Graffiti in Thessaloniki, 2014
2 Athens, Exarchia, and Missolonghi
2.1 The Street Is My Gallery
3 Exarchia
3.1 St. Paul Six Years Later: Graffiti Has Now Become Inartistic Sloganeering
3.2 Messolonghi
4 Conclusion
2 Naples, Graffiti in Naples, or Rubbish Is Gold
1 Two Visits to Naples
2 “Rubbish Is Gold”: Three Films on Neapolitan Garbage
2.1 “We Want to Breathe! It’s Our Right!”
3 Parking among the Corpses of Syracuse
4 Approaching Florence
4.1 Florence: Masterworks outside the Uffizi
4.2 On Bullshit in Florence
5 Venice
6 Between Venice and Milan, 2020
7 Approaching Milan
8 Roma Termini
3 Gdańsk: Remembering Solidarity
1 An Unguided Tour of Gdańsk
2 Krik Kong
3 Solidarity Museum
4 Courtesy Solidarity Museum, Gdańsk
5 Fonts of Fascism, or the Heaviness of the Solidarity Museum
5.1 Westerplatte Tour
5.2 A Closer Look at Krik Kong
6 My Interview with Krik Kong
6.1 Art School vs. Street Knowledge
7 Conclusion: from Andrez Wajda’s Man of Iron to Warsaw
4 Welcome to Chicago
1 Welcome to Chicago/ We Can Change the World (1971)
1.1 Welcome to Chicagoland: Redux
1.2 Is Rap a Black Art Form
2 Conclusion: Chicago, Philadelphia, New York
2.1 Philadelphia
2.2 New York
2.3 One Last Mural
Part 2
Graffiti as Narrative Art
5 Byron, Blake, and the George Floyd Protests: the Evolution of Fonts
1 Lord Byron: Graffiti Artist
1.1 Byron’s Name at Ferrara
1.2 Graffiti: Local and Global Practices
2 Graffiti Practices in England
3 Visions of Belshazzar: Ortygia, Syracuse, and the Book of Daniel
4 Graffiti in the South Bronx
5 Who’s John Lennon?
6 Lady Pink and Lord Byron: the Museum of Graffiti in Miami Beach
6 Orozco, Pomona College’s Prometheus
1 Blake, Orozco, and the Graffiti/Mural Tradition
2 The Parable of the Ten Virgins
3 Lady Pink and the Art of Pointing
4 George Floyd: “Corporate Media, Graffiti, and the Visualizations of the George Floyd Protests” in 2020
5 Calligraphy: from Istanbul to the South Bronx
6 Hagia Sophia
7 Words of the Prophets on Walls and Curtains
8 Cultural Riches vs. Benign Neglect
7 Conclusion
Appendix: In the Words of Contemporary Artists
Notes on Artists and Interviewers
References
Index
Acknowledgments
List of Figures
Introduction: from “Kilroy Was Here” to Krik Kong
Part 1
Four Murals and Their Environs
1 Thessaloniki: a Born-Again Faith in Graffiti
1 Graffiti in Thessaloniki, 2014
2 Athens, Exarchia, and Missolonghi
2.1 The Street Is My Gallery
3 Exarchia
3.1 St. Paul Six Years Later: Graffiti Has Now Become Inartistic Sloganeering
3.2 Messolonghi
4 Conclusion
2 Naples, Graffiti in Naples, or Rubbish Is Gold
1 Two Visits to Naples
2 “Rubbish Is Gold”: Three Films on Neapolitan Garbage
2.1 “We Want to Breathe! It’s Our Right!”
3 Parking among the Corpses of Syracuse
4 Approaching Florence
4.1 Florence: Masterworks outside the Uffizi
4.2 On Bullshit in Florence
5 Venice
6 Between Venice and Milan, 2020
7 Approaching Milan
8 Roma Termini
3 Gdańsk: Remembering Solidarity
1 An Unguided Tour of Gdańsk
2 Krik Kong
3 Solidarity Museum
4 Courtesy Solidarity Museum, Gdańsk
5 Fonts of Fascism, or the Heaviness of the Solidarity Museum
5.1 Westerplatte Tour
5.2 A Closer Look at Krik Kong
6 My Interview with Krik Kong
6.1 Art School vs. Street Knowledge
7 Conclusion: from Andrez Wajda’s Man of Iron to Warsaw
4 Welcome to Chicago
1 Welcome to Chicago/ We Can Change the World (1971)
1.1 Welcome to Chicagoland: Redux
1.2 Is Rap a Black Art Form
2 Conclusion: Chicago, Philadelphia, New York
2.1 Philadelphia
2.2 New York
2.3 One Last Mural
Part 2
Graffiti as Narrative Art
5 Byron, Blake, and the George Floyd Protests: the Evolution of Fonts
1 Lord Byron: Graffiti Artist
1.1 Byron’s Name at Ferrara
1.2 Graffiti: Local and Global Practices
2 Graffiti Practices in England
3 Visions of Belshazzar: Ortygia, Syracuse, and the Book of Daniel
4 Graffiti in the South Bronx
5 Who’s John Lennon?
6 Lady Pink and Lord Byron: the Museum of Graffiti in Miami Beach
6 Orozco, Pomona College’s Prometheus
1 Blake, Orozco, and the Graffiti/Mural Tradition
2 The Parable of the Ten Virgins
3 Lady Pink and the Art of Pointing
4 George Floyd: “Corporate Media, Graffiti, and the Visualizations of the George Floyd Protests” in 2020
5 Calligraphy: from Istanbul to the South Bronx
6 Hagia Sophia
7 Words of the Prophets on Walls and Curtains
8 Cultural Riches vs. Benign Neglect
7 Conclusion
Appendix: In the Words of Contemporary Artists
Notes on Artists and Interviewers
References
Index
Anyone concerned with hip hop, street art, graffiti, sociology, semiotics, and the films, poetry, and street art of Italy, Greece, Poland and the United States.