A few days ago, I posted about how an unknown graffiti artist actually improved a photograph (by Bo Choi) on the wall between 3rd and 4th on Cherry. On the same wall, however, there is a photography (by an unknown artist—the poster with his/her name is gone) that was clearly ruined by graffiti…

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As much as I do not want to denounce graffiti (a position that would align me with middle-class tastes), I have to admit that, aesthetically speaking, the situation we find in my first post is rare and the one in this post is common.

Charles Mudede—who writes about film, books, music, and his life in Rhodesia, Zimbabwe, the USA, and the UK for The Stranger—was born near a steel plant in Kwe Kwe, Zimbabwe. He has no memory...