Roll Calls:
The City is an Autograph Book

In The Autograph Book of L.A., author and curator Josh Kun reads Los Angeles past and present through a collection of signatures. Pitzer College Professor Susan A. Phillips’s new book, The City Beneath, chronicles a century of Los Angeles graffiti. In this special collaboration with the Institute of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (ICA LA), these two writers and readers of culture are joined by painter and graffiti icon Chaz Bojorquez to talk about the politics of memory and the future markings to come in our city.

This event is part of a series exploring the unique and historic Autograph Collection of the Los Angeles Public Library. In 1906, City Librarian Charles Lummis initiated an Autograph Collection, soliciting hundreds of notable men and women from across the country to submit a representative expression or artwork to the Library’s permanent collection. In 2018, current City Librarian John F. Szabo expanded the collection, inviting all Angelenos to add their names and drawings, poems or memories. This project asks, who gets recorded in the history books and in official archives? Who leaves their mark on the city, and by what means? This series considers the culture, history, and politics of the Los Angeles autograph and signature—from sidewalk cement markings to murals and street names.