Gated Community: Graffiti and Incarceration

Gated Community: Graffiti and Incarceration is a memoir detailing Mickael Broth's involvement in graffiti vandalism, and the ten-month jail sentence that it led to when he was twenty-one, living in Richmond, Virginia. Expanding on his personal experiences, the book addresses issues of wider relevance, such as delinquency, property rights, addiction, racism, class privilege, privatization, and mass incarceration in America, among other topics. It stands apart from glut of hero-worshiping graffiti tomes currently on the market, relating rather to the more honest, and societally significant story of a young person placed at odds with the justice system and society's mores. Praised by audiences as diverse as graffiti writers, art magazines, and even a MacArthur Fellow, this book is an insider's perspective on two worlds that the general public is only able to view from outside. Brutally honest and conveying a deep sense of remorse, while punctuated by a healthy dose of self-deprecating humor, Gated Community: Graffiti and Incarceration will transport the reader into worlds they may be lucky never to experience themselves.