NABBing Taggers

Bringing the graffiti issue firmly to the present, notorious tagger Danielle Bremner (tag name UTAH) appeared at Court on Tuesday morning. She has spread her name across walls from Europe to New York to the historic buildings of the Back Bay in Boston. Her case was postponed and Detective William Kelley of the Boston Police Department, along with Nancy O'Loughlin of the MBTA Police, will use the remaining time to collect more evidence.

Graffiti and historic architecture collide near the Old South Church in Copley Square.

In addition to meeting Detective Kelley and O'Loughlin at the Boston Municipal Courthouse, I also spoke extensively with Anne Swanson and Kathleen Alexander, co-chairs of the Graffiti NABBers (Neighborhood Association of the Back Bay). They were very vocal about their opposition to vandalism and have worked tirelessly for many years to eliminate it from the streets of the Back Bay neighborhood, spending 10-40 hours per week scrubbing tags from UTAH and others off buildings in the area.

Anne Swanson of the Graffiti NABBers, looks across the street to some graffiti and expresses her concern, in front of the Boston Municipal Courthouse after Bremner's appearance.

We met in the Boston Public Library and discussed their work with the NABBers. They mentioned that graffiti writers are often not aware of the extreme costs of their "form of entertainment". Swanson mentioned that during one case, she sat by the tagger himself completely by coincidence. He leaned over and asked "Are you the NABBer?" and then, instead of a confrontation, an apology followed. Perhaps with more education and awareness of the effects of graffiti on communities like the Back Bay, some vandals may change their minds about what they do with their free time.

Kathleen Alexander of the Graffiti NABBers counts off the reasons why graffiti in historic neighborhoods like the Back Bay is unacceptable. She described her anti-graffiti work alonside Anne Swanson in the Boston Public Library, an example of one of the priceless works of architecture that they strive to protect.

-Jessica Bal