LA Graffiti Girls

“People often view graffiti and street art as exclusively male domains but this couldn’t be further from the truth. Women have been just as active as their male counterparts since graffiti’s very inception, be it in fewer numbers, venturing down dark side streets or dangerous stretches of rail track to catch tags or to piece. In the free gallery of the street, to which everyone has access and where the artists can keep their identity a secret or wipe out all traces of sex, anonymity has played a vital role. Many female spray artists take advantage of this aspect of the game; others prefer to make their pieces overtly feminine. For women, faced with the clear risks of attack or rape, the night-time escapades linked to graffiti are particularly dangerous. Many find that getting up is made doubly difficult by that fact that female spray artists are often taken less seriously or become the focus of gossip, with stories circulating about how they’ve slept their way to the top or how some other spray artists have really done their pieces for them. The term that is so important for the graffiti and hip-hop movements - respect - sometimes seems to fall by the wayside.” -Nicholas GanzAuthor of Graffiti Women LAGraffitiGirls.com’s mission is to give female writers a forum to represent themselves within a culture that doesn’t always share the spotlight.