Draft:PRAY
| Submission declined on 5 November 2024 by Bonadea (talk). This submission does not appear to be written in the formal tone expected of an encyclopedia article. Entries should be written from a neutral point of view, and should refer to a range of independent, reliable, published sources. Please rewrite your submission in a more encyclopedic format. Please make sure to avoid peacock terms that promote the subject.
Where to get help
How to improve a draft
You can also browse Wikipedia:Featured articles and Wikipedia:Good articles to find examples of Wikipedia's best writing on topics similar to your proposed article. Improving your odds of a speedy review To improve your odds of a faster review, tag your draft with relevant WikiProject tags using the button below. This will let reviewers know a new draft has been submitted in their area of interest. For instance, if you wrote about a female astronomer, you would want to add the Biography, Astronomy, and Women scientists tags. Editor resources
|  |
| Submission declined on 14 May 2024 by Theroadislong (talk). This draft's references do not show that the subject qualifies for a Wikipedia article. In summary, the draft needs multiple published sources that are: Declined by Theroadislong 5 months ago.
| |
Comment: The tone issue is separate from the referencing problem - if you revise and resubmit the draft, please make sure to enter the references as actual citations, as explained in previous reviewer comments.Several of the references are not reliable sources, e.g. Wikipedia and IMDB. bonadea contributions talk 14:17, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
- Comment: It would be incredibly helpful to reviewers if you formatted your references correctly. See the tutorial at WP:INTREFVE. Qcne (talk) 14:09, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
- Comment: see WP:REFB for help with correctly formatting sources. Theroadislong (talk) 14:07, 5 November 2024 (UTC)
PRAY Graffiti in New York City
[edit]PRAY is a recurring graffiti motif that began appearing across New York City in the early 1970s. The word "PRAY," typically rendered in angular block letters, could be found on subway columns, payphones, doorways, windows, storefront gates, parking meters, and numerous other urban surfaces. Sometimes accompanied by repetitive spiritual messages such as WORSHIP GOD, LOVE GOD, THANK GOD, TRUST GOD or PRAISE GOD.[i][ii][iii][iv] PRAY graffiti has prompted ongoing debate among writers and cultural historians. Interpretations range from “admonitions,”[v] to “a suggestion,”[vi] while others consider it an enigmatic element of New York's urban fabric.
History and Cultural Impact
[edit]The earliest known media reference to PRAY graffiti appeared in 1973, when retired New York Times critic Brooks Atkinson, then writing columns, described longer religious messages in marker on construction fences in Manhattan's Kips Bay area, including phrases like "Look for God" and "Go to Church." Initially, the graffiti writer responsible used marker for these extended statements.[vii]
By the late 1970s, PRAY graffiti evolved into the etching of the single word "PRAY" onto various surfaces.[viii] On payphones, however, this graffiti was often accompanied by additional religious exhortations like "WORSHIP GOD," "GO TO CHURCH," "LOVE GOD," and "READ BIBLE."[ix] [citation needed]4 Articles in the New York Post and Wall Street Journal[x] documented the prevalence of these messages, with telephone company employees noting their widespread appearance.
In seminal graffiti-focused works, both Jack Stewart and Craig Castleman devoted sections to PRAY graffiti in their original Ph.D. dissertations[xi] and later expanding these into books.[xii][xiii] PRAY graffiti was also cited as an influence in the SAMO© project by artists Al Diaz and Jean-Michel Basquiat, who referenced religious themes in a manner Diaz has described to be referencing PRAY graffiti in a way that was a "kind of a spoof and then it grew from there."[xiv]
Ubiquity
[edit]The graffiti has been found across all five boroughs of New York City.[xv] In 1978, an unnamed New York Telephone executive quantified the graffiti on its payphones as “almost all of its 97,000 coin boxes.”[xvi] Author Jonathan Lethem claimed it appeared on "every single payphone in the five boroughs, as well as nearly every pillar in every station in the system.”[xvii] In a 1989 Spy Magazine article on the subject, Max Cantor speculated that the graffiti could be found “scratched on virtually every one of the city's 44,428 public phones and 13,001 mailboxes.” The article includes a “Control sample: one city block,” documenting 81 instances of PRAY graffiti found on the north side of 69th Street between Lexington and Third Avenues in Manhattan, along with an accompanying diagram. It also references 10 other PRAY graffiti instances from various locations around the borough of Manhattan.[xviii]
In photographs accompanying an New York Times article on the disappearance of payphones, PRAY can be seen etched into several booths.[xix]
Despite the ubiquity of the etchings, they are subtle and difficult to spot from a distance. Those with a prior knowledge of the graffiti are often the only ones to observe them. As Cantor writes, "nearly every-one is oblivious to it— indeed, this is apparently the point."[xx]
Material and Technique
[edit]The tools used for PRAY graffiti are debated, with eyewitnesses suggesting screwdrivers, drill bits, and other improvised implements. Retronyms[xxi] like “scratch tagger,”[xxii] “scratchiti”[xxiii] or “scraffiti” are sometimes used to describe this form of graffiti. The term "graffiti" itself began to describe marker and spray-painted writing in the early 1970s. However, the technique of scratching letters into surfaces is consistent with methods referenced in studies of graffiti from antiquity by epigraphers and classical historians.[xxiv] [xxv][xxvi][xxvii]
Because scratched graffiti cannot be removed with chemicals and often remains visible even after multiple coats of paint, PRAY tags have outlasted many graffiti tags made with markers or spray paint. Numerous examples still remain visible across the city.[xxviii] Eyewitnesses recount that the graffitist would often obscure their scratching by holding up a newspaper or magazine to block the view,[xxix] making it subtle and difficult to spot from a distance.[xxx]
Legacy and Preservation
[edit]Although many original instances of PRAY graffiti have been removed due to urban development, its presence is preserved in films, literature, and cultural retrospectives. Notable appearances include the 1973 film Serpico[xxxi] and the 1984 film The Brother From Another Planet,[xxxii][xxxiii][xxxiv] in which PRAY graffiti appears in the background, as confirmed by payphoneproject.com. In Brother From Another Planet, John Sayles included a scene specifically mentioning PRAY,[xxxv] further acknowledging and lending it significance as part of NYC’s cultural landscape.
In 2019, the “BEYOND THE STREETS,” art exhibit featured a PRAY installation replicating the iconic scratched tag on a salvaged phone booth. [xxxvi]
Outsider Status
[edit]PRAY’s creator is considered an outsider to the NYC graffiti community, as described in graffiti cultural references.21 Despite this, the graffitist earned widespread respect for the omnipresence of their tags, referred to as “Queen of the Subways,”[xxxvii][xxxviii] "the Queen of the Boroughs” and “the greatest tagger who ever lived."[xxxix] In graffiti culture, where individuals are known by their "tags,"[xl] the person behind PRAY is known solely by that name.
Identity
[edit]The identity of PRAY remains unknown. Some have speculated that it was a collective or cult,23[xli] “a group of people," or “pranksters,” while graffiti writers and others largely believe it to be the work of a single person.[xlii][xliii] In a 1983 Wall Street Journal article, New York Telephone executive in charge of payphone operations, James Horris reportedly “[believed it] to be the work of one vandal".[xliv] Descriptions from witnesses, primarily graffiti writers, characterize PRAY as “a small, elderly woman in black”[xlv] possibly homeless. [xlvi] A 1986, a photograph taken by Laura Hanifin is believed by some to be the only existing image of PRAY.[xlvii]
[i] Cantor, Max (September 1989). "The City That Prays Together." Spy Magazine
[ii] Payphone Project, "PRAY Graffiti on NYC Payphones," www.payphone-project.com
[iii] 1978 'Divine Graffiti,' New York Post, November 19, p. 31
[iv] BEYOND THE STREETS, PRAY: NY, NY https://beyondthestreets.com/pages/pray
[v] White, James A. "What Has Come To Pay Telephones? Change, of Course," Wall Street Journal, September 8, 1983.
[vi] Lethem, J., “Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture.” ZE Series, 5. 2024
[vii] Atkinson, B. "Otherwise, Everything Is the Same," New York Times, April 5, 1973.
[viii] [Citation need]
[ix] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[x] White, James A. "What Has Come To Pay Telephones? Change, of Course," Wall Street Journal, September 8, 1983.
[xi] Stewart, J. “Subway graffiti:an aesthetic study of graffiti on the subway system of New York City, 1970-1978” Thesis Dissertation, New York University, 1989
[xii] Stewart, J. “Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s,” Abrams Books, 2009
[xiii] Castleman, C. “Getting up: Subway Graffiti in New York,” MIT Press, 1982
[xiv] Dart, C. "Al Diaz wants to set the record straight on how he and Jean-Michel Basquiat revolutionized graffiti," CBS Arts, Canadian Broadcasting Corporation
<>https://www.cbc.ca/arts/al-diaz-wants-to-set-the-record-straight-on-how-he-and-jean-michel-basquiat-revolutionized-graffiti-1.6622307 Retrieved 2024-10-12
[xv] Cantor, Max (September 1989). "The City That Prays Together." Spy Magazine
[xvi] 1978 'Divine Graffiti,' New York Post, November 19, p. 31
[xvii] Lethem, J., “Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture.” ZE Series, 5. 2024
[xviii] Cantor, Max (September 1989). "The City That Prays Together." Spy Magazine
[xix] Chen, A. Reiss, A. “Looking Back at the Pay Phone’s New York Heyday,” New York Times, May 27, 2022.
[xx] Cantor, Max (September 1989). "The City That Prays Together." Spy Magazine
[xxi] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retronym
[xxii] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[xxiii] Lethem, J., “Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture.” ZE Series, 5. 2024
[xxiv] https://www.etymonline.com/word/graffiti"graffiti | Origin and meaning of graffiti by Online Etymology Dictionary". www.etymonline.com. Retrieved 19 February 2018.
[xxv] https://web.archive.org/web/20101219082751/http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/definition/graffiti "Graffiti". Oxford Dictionaries. Archived from the original on December 19, 2010. Retrieved 5 December 2011.
Publishers, HarperCollins.
[xxvi] "The American Heritage Dictionary entry: graffiti". www.ahdictionary.com. Retrieved 2024-03-26.
[xxvii] Willi, A. "Manual of Roman Everyday Writing, Vol. 2: Writing Equipment," LatinNow ePubs, Nottingham
[xxviii] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[xxix] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[xxx] Cantor, Max (September 1989). "The City That Prays Together." Spy Magazine
[xxxi] IMDb Entry: “Serpico,” 1973 https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0070666/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Retrieved 10-12-2024
[xxxii] IMDb entry: “The Brother From Another Planet,” 1984. https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0087004/?ref_=fn_al_tt_1 Retrieved 10-12-2024
[xxxiii] Payphone Project, "Graffiti in Brother From Another Planet,"
[xxxiv] Lethem, J., “Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture.” ZE Series, 5. 2024
[xxxv] https://findingaids.lib.umich.edu/catalog/umich-scl-sayles_al_50fb9741b225453ef675731dc3322be914f3bd26#contents University of Michigan Library, John Sayles Papers, 1959-2013, Sayles, J. "Brother from Another Planet" Retrieved 2024-06-17
[xxxvi] “BEYOND THE STREETS,” June 21, 2019 - September 29, 2019
25 Kent St. Williamsburg, Brooklyn https://www.rogergastman.com/nyc
[xxxvii] Stewart, Jack. Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s. [publication details]
[xxxviii] Stewart, Jack. Graffiti Kings: New York City Mass Transit Art of the 1970s. [publication details]
[xxxix] Lethem, J., “Cellophane Bricks: A Life in Visual Culture.” ZE Series, 5. 2024
[xl] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tag_(graffiti)
[xli] 1978 'Divine Graffiti,' New York Post, November 19, p. 31
[xlii] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[xliii] https://www.si.edu/es/es/object/archives/components/sova-aaa-stewjack-ref936?destination=object/archives/sova-aaa-stewjack Smithsonian, Jack Stewart Papers, Research Files on Graffiti, "Interview with T-168, Billy 167, Wasp I and Daze"Retrieved 2024-10-02
[xliv] White, James A. "What Has Come To Pay Telephones? Change, of Course," Wall Street Journal, September 8, 1983.
[xlv] "New Weapon in Graffiti War: Scratch resistant Glass," New York Times, July 26, 1992.
[xlvi] Castleman, Craig. Getting Up: The Origin and Early History of Graffiti. MIT Press, 1980.
[xlvii] Edlin, J. "Graffiti 365," Abrams(2011)