The Autograph Book of L.A. is one of our favorite publications of 2019, as its curated presentation of highlights from the Los Angeles Public Library’s massive collection of autographs, notes, and letters celebrate a century of luminaries and everyday folk. Its editor Josh Kun teases out several salient veins of inquiry in the process, but one of the richest has been the affinity to the project with the history of graffiti writing in L.A. as well, characterizing it as akin to signing the city as one might sign a guest book.

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Chaz Bojorquez in The Autograph Book of L.A.

In that spirit, Kun is joined in conversation tonight by Professor Susan A. Phillips, author of the new book The City Beneath, telling the history of a century of L.A. graffiti, and living legend of painting and writing, Chaz Bojorquez, whose work features prominently in both publications.

Institute of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, 1717 E. 7th St., downtown; Wed., Jan. 22, 7:30-9 p.m.; free. theicala.org.

 

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