Words of the Prophets

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.

• PrefaceAcknowledgmentsList of FiguresIntroduction: from “Kilroy Was Here” to Krik KongPart 1Four Murals and Their Environs1 Thessaloniki: a Born-Again Faith in Graffiti1 Graffiti in Thessaloniki, 20142 Athens, Exarchia, and Missolonghi2.1 The Street Is My Gallery3 Exarchia3.1 St. Paul Six Years Later: Graffiti Has Now Become Inartistic Sloganeering3.2 Messolonghi4 Conclusion2 Naples, Graffiti in Naples, or Rubbish Is Gold1 Two Visits to Naples2 “Rubbish Is Gold”: Three Films on Neapolitan Garbage2.1 “We Want to Breathe! It’s Our Right!”3 Parking among the Corpses of Syracuse4 Approaching Florence4.1 Florence: Masterworks outside the Uffizi4.2 On Bullshit in Florence5 Venice6 Between Venice and Milan, 20207 Approaching Milan8 Roma Termini3 Gdańsk: Remembering Solidarity1 An Unguided Tour of Gdańsk2 Krik Kong3 Solidarity Museum4 Courtesy Solidarity Museum, Gdańsk5 Fonts of Fascism, or the Heaviness of the Solidarity Museum5.1 Westerplatte Tour5.2 A Closer Look at Krik Kong6 My Interview with Krik Kong6.1 Art School vs. Street Knowledge7 Conclusion: from Andrez Wajda’s Man of Iron to Warsaw4 Welcome to Chicago1 Welcome to Chicago/ We Can Change the World (1971)1.1 Welcome to Chicagoland: Redux1.2 Is Rap a Black Art Form2 Conclusion: Chicago, Philadelphia, New York2.1 Philadelphia2.2 New York2.3 One Last MuralPart 2Graffiti as Narrative Art5 Byron, Blake, and the George Floyd Protests: the Evolution of Fonts1 Lord Byron: Graffiti Artist1.1 Byron’s Name at Ferrara1.2 Graffiti: Local and Global Practices2 Graffiti Practices in England3 Visions of Belshazzar: Ortygia, Syracuse, and the Book of Daniel4 Graffiti in the South Bronx5 Who’s John Lennon?6 Lady Pink and Lord Byron: the Museum of Graffiti in Miami Beach6 Orozco, Pomona College’s Prometheus1 Blake, Orozco, and the Graffiti/Mural Tradition2 The Parable of the Ten Virgins3 Lady Pink and the Art of Pointing4 George Floyd: “Corporate Media, Graffiti, and the Visualizations of the George Floyd Protests” in 20205 Calligraphy: from Istanbul to the South Bronx6 Hagia Sophia7 Words of the Prophets on Walls and Curtains8 Cultural Riches vs. Benign Neglect7 ConclusionAppendix: In the Words of Contemporary ArtistsNotes on Artists and InterviewersReferencesIndex