C Drew - Street Artist Adventures

I went downtown to visit the IRS to get help with my taxes. I also wanted to print somewhere and give away my art in the loop, so I took my suitcase. On the way downtown I decided to shoot some snapshots on the El for this blog. When I turned on my Nikon Coolpix 5400, I found the display filled with wavy lines and unrecognizable warped shapes. Something in the electronics of the camera had gone wrong. Later, I learned it was the CCD sensor chip and that this is a common problem with digital cameras. Now I need to buy a new camera to continue to maintain my blog. How would I find the money for this, I wondered?

Once downtown, as I approached Dearborn and Jackson Streets, a black sedan with siren screaming ripped around the corner from Jackson just as a man in a suit and tie dashed from the Dirkson Federal Court Building. The sedan braked to a stop in the middle of the street and the driver flung open the door. The official leapt into the open door of the sedan. It disappeared down Dearborn siren wailing into the distance.

As I crossed Dearborn I tried to decide if I should get help from the IRS or print my art first. The sedan’s siren reminded me of all the 9/11 hype and the oppressive attitudes that our foreign policies have brought down on us. With all the stuff I had with me, my suitcase and a leather bag, I could only imagine the problem I would have trying to get through the security check to the upper floors of the Federal Office Building. This helped me to decide to print instead. I walked across the Federal Building Plaza looking for the best place to exercise my free speech rights. The best place would be where the newspapers were sold or offered for free. On the SE corner of Clark and Adams - east of the crosswalk I found the paper stands along the curb. I put my folded blanket on the ground next to the last paper stand as a cushion to sit on and setup to print facing the corner. In front of me along the curb was a fire hydrant. Positioned thusly, I was completely out of the way of foot traffic. On the corner an elderly man panhandled for spare change. He had his first amendment rights. I wanted mine.

The noon time traffic hurried to and fro. They glanced quickly but had little time to stop and chat. It became obvious that I was a unexpected sight in this location and few were conditioned to interrupt their stride to see what I was up to. A Dunbar armoured truck waiting for the light blew its hot exhaust from its air conditioning unit on my leg, blowing my printed patches on the pavement around before rolling on when the light changed. A man in his late forties stopped to talk. He told me about a website - antiwarart.com and described some of the art on that site. I gave him a patch. He wanted to give me some money but I told him to send us a donation because we do not have free speech in the Loop of Chicago. Four high school kids stopped and eagerly accepted patches. A working lady in her mid-thirties stopped and gleefully took a patch, a pin and said she was going to put it right on. Just as responses began to pick up, the nose of a patrol car crept into my view. I heard the red-faced officer say something but it didn’t register. Puzzled, I looked up at him from printing. “I said I called in on you.” He stated again.

“I’m the same thing as these” I said reaching around to point at the news boxes to my back. I’m giving this art away.”

You will go to jail, too” he said as the light changed.

He drove off. I kept printing. Imagine that, illegal to give art away on the streets of Chicago. Well, I thought, I have to draw the line somewhere. I was angry enough to go to jail. Restaurants can give away menus, tobacco companies can give away cigarrettes, Wrigley can give away gum but I can’t give away speech in the land of the not-quite-free. I continued to print believing that this could not be true. He just might be bluffing, too, I considered.

There was a break between responses. I explored printing the three colors red, yellow, blue - in the screen at an angle. The patches were piling up. The ink mixed beautifully, especially on the pastel flowered cotton patches. The art calmed me. People began to respond again. I became more certain he was bluffing. The old man still stood in the pedestrian path collecting money. He was getting paid while I had only my bus fare home and this I had brought out with me. I was losing money. Forty-five minutes had passed since the cop had threatened me with arrest. My pile of prints was tall. I needed to get on with my day. Not being able to raise funds to survive from my art activity meant I had to spend my time to look for other means of making a living. This is the very reason that the courts state that charging for speech can not be an issue in denying a person their speech rights. If the Chicago Tribune, a wealthy corporation, can not afford to give away their speech, then how could a broke artist afford to give it away without the support of other income. Obviously, if I can not afford to give my speech away, I lose my speech right when denied the ability to charge for it. The old man was still panhandling, confronting people as they crossed the street, when I rolled my suitcase on my way home. I felt no malice toward him. I just wanted my rights to sell my peace art.

The Daley Center should be a place I can sell my work but today I wanted to give it away. I will be testing many locations in the Loop as viable free speech locations where an artist should be able to sell their work at. I will give it away to avoid arrest by those denying us our rights. This will demonstrate that I am not blocking traffic or causing a public safety hazard. When we do go to court we will have a long list of locals to show where and when our rights are violated.
This day no one hassled me. It was quiet. I printed with little disturbance.
Just across the Plaza with a straight line view of me is the Security hut. My every move was observed. If later I ever print an image that disturbs the authorities they can not say they do not allow me to give away my art in this location. I was watched. The Federal courts say there is no difference between giving speech away and selling it. See this link for the complete court ruling - 7th Circuit finds for Weinberg and artists.

I called the 1st precinct to tell them I would be vending at Michigan and Balboe just as Greg Adams from the Department of Business Affairs said I should. The man who answered said that due to the Lollapalooza different police would be on duty. The Lollapalooza was my excuse to test out my free speech rights as an artist once again in the City of Chicago. The Lollapalooza is a corporate sponsored three day music festival hosted at Grant Park. The fees the park district charges its tax paying citizens to organize festivals allows mainly deep pocketed promoters to mount events. This is another limitation on the peoples right to assembly and speech.

The Peace and Weed Festival has had great difficulty organizing its annual event in City parks for this and other political reasons. Hopefully some of those organizers will post their experiences with Chicago’s parks here. Corporations whose rights are modeled on the rights of the individual citizen are able to afford to use the public parks while those citizens whose rights they claim and who pay the majority of the taxes for the parks are not as able to use them. How artists are treated by the Chicago Park District is of great interest to me. I would like to read posts by other artists regarding their experiences in Chicago’s parks.

The Red line carried me down to Harrison and State Street where I rolled my art filled luggage to Balboe and Michigan. This spot interested me because the popular nightclub, “The Hothouse: was located very close and this left-leaning venue would attract a crowd sympathetic to my peace patches. It was very windy at that intersection. For some reason I was under the impression my “free speech corner” was the Southwest corner of Michigan and Balboe. As I approached that intersection I saw the park across Michigan Avenue and the Hilton Hotel on the Southwest corner. It was not likely that the City had negotiated with the court to allow free speech on the Hilton Hotel corner but that was the SW corner. I informed the traffic policewoman that I had a permit to vend at this spot. She was busy managing traffic and encouraging those heading east to the Lollapalooza to cross on the north side of the street. She shrugged and said “ok” when I informed her of my intentions. It appeared that it was not her job to regulate the venders.

I set-up under a window of the Hilton Hotel cafe and began printing a patch, “Wisdom is more powerful than all the Weapons of War”. The wind was a challenge. After numerous adjustments to keep my blanket from blowing over flipping patches and t-shirts around, I was able to print with great concentration and difficulty. This was not a bad spot except for the wind. I could make a presence known here over a month’s time, I decided while printing. Then, a policewoman on a segway rolled up and informed me that “there is no vending in the Loop.”

I informed her I had a license to sell speech at this location. I handed her my peddler’s license.

“This says Balboe and Columbus Drive,” she said pointing out the fine type. She was right. I would have to move three blocks further east from the Loop. On a normal day this puts me into a no-man’s-land deep in Grant park where little foot traffic exists. Tonight it brought me closer to the Lollapalooza which just might be a better position for sales, I thought. This mitigated the anger I felt at being removed from a location that I knew was not endangering public safety or blocking traffic.

As I packed my patches into my luggage carrier, I noticed a man in his late thirties dressed in business suit sitting just inside the window of the Hilton cafe sipping coffee. He smiled a satisfied smile and waved. He reminded me of the manager of Hersheys who had called the police on me further north on Michigan Avenue. I nodded and smiled a weary smile.

I crossed Michigan Avenue on the North side of the street because the south sidewalk was blocked off this evening. My designated spot is closer to the event but my hope that it would be a better place soon proved to be wrong. At this time, about 6:00 PM the low sun was mostly blocked by park trees and I noticed the wind was much less than on Michigan Avenue for some reason. This was all good. However, almost all the traffic walked on the opposite side of the street. Metal barriers discouraged people from passing by me. I was isolated by the way the City had set this up.

This day was one of the few days any significant traffic was likely to be passing my way and 90% of it was across the street. Of the 10% that passed me by - half of that were people working various jobs related to clean up or had nothing to do with the event. I was effectively isolated and the result of the evening reflected this plainly. Across the street where most of the traffic flowed there was plenty of room to set-up without disturbing traffic. In no way was this location an “ample alternative” as the Appeals Court ruling required to the City to provide us.

I sat and considered my options. The City regulations say that up to five speech-vendors can occupy this location. There was plenty of room for many more - especially given the way the police isolated it. Maybe if I could organize four more artists to occupy spots here during events we could create a scene. We could pass out fliers and encourage people to step out of their way to visit us I dreamed. That did not seem like an easy thing to do at this point. A study in the behavior of the crowd herding toward the rock music suggested great difficulty. The business mantra of “location-location-location” definitely applied here. I was in the wrong location. These rockers were marching toward the best seat they could find with a set mind. They sought the soonest sight of their favorite group. To draw them out of their way across a street and around a metal barrier was highly unlikely.

Are these events even worth my time, I wondered as I watched the continuous crowd heading into the festival across the street? Could I even turn their heads and expect them to stop to look at what I was doing? Later, watching the crowd of people leaving the event across the street, having sold only $3 worth of patches in three hours and having given away only 15 patches, isolated as I was in the shadow of thousands of people, I was discouraged. I decided to give away my patches on Saturday evening just to have the opportunity to find out if the location across the street was better than here.

SATURDAY
The El train at 6:30 PM was crowded. I was very glad I packed for the first time my small luggage with just my screens, four sample t-shirts and patches with a few designs in quantitiy to give away. I had a flyer prepared to give out inviting the public to help artists gain our free speech rights. It announced this blog and how I was prevented from selling my speech. This will be my first test to see if the police will allow me to occupy a spot to print and give my art away. Naturally, my wife asked me not to get arrested. I laughed. My intention is not to be but that is not necessarily under my control. I have prepared for that event if it does occur. I need photos documenting this experiment for my blog. The act of taking photos as I am talking with the police is the touchy action. It must be done and it is my right to take photos. This right I can not compromise.

I am heading home. Now I’m excited. That was not the case when I walked across the Congress Avenue Bridge to Michigan Avenue. I had not even been able to give many of my patches away trapped in my “Free Speech jail” at Balboe and Columbus.

At 7:00 I tried to setup across the street from my spot where the foot traffic was. I began giving away my patches and printing new ones to attract the public. They responded. I had a steady stream of takers as soon as I put out my free patch sign. In 15 minutes after I arrived a stern senior officer arrived to insist that I had to leave immediately. He said the free speech area was north five blocks at Jackson and Columbus and that there were others selling marijuana t-shirts there. I said I was just giving away my patches and not selling. He claimed the public safety excuse saying when the event ended in an hour there would be tens of thousands of people over-running where I sat and for my safety I had to move now. It was just after 7:00.

Art that point I showed him my license and asked if I was in the correct o al. His stern tone turned to politeness and he happily directed me across the street where I had died the night before. Once over there I printed for several hours with little response from the sparse traffic. I could sell in this spot but was not even able to give patches away to the indifferent few who passed. By the time I left at 10:00 I still had not seen the dangerous rush of people the policeman had predicted to occur around nine o’clock. It may have happened later but I had to leave before I could document it.

I walked north to Congress Avenue and turned west crossing the bridge to Michigan Avenue depressed. As I crossed Michigan Avenue I saw a man selling openly the official T-shirt of Lollapalooza. I stopped and pondered this. Why could the event organizers sell their merchandise and I could not sell my free speech? I shot his picture. When I talked to him he said there were others selling t-shirt up and down Michigan Avenue. Then, I saw on the other side of Congress a woman selling bottled water. That did it. I spread out my blanket and began to print and sell, too. I made sure I was out of the way of traffic. As soon as I setup I had buyers. I sold eight dollars worth of patches in ten minutes and then a policeman arrived on a bike and ordered me to pack up or else. I claimed my free speech rights. He said I was selling. I said my 1st Amendment rights allowed me to sell speech as long as I did not block traffic or endanger the public. He said pack up or go to jail. I said, remembering my wife’s request, “OK, I’ll pack up.”

I had to clean the ink out of my screen. As I did so people kept coming trying to buy patches. I told them the police were denying me my free speech rights. They would only allow me to give away the art. I handed each person the flier I made up to announce my blog and told them how they could do something to change Chicago’s policy. Before I left several people promised they would do something about this. I was re-invigorated by their response. I knew now I could organize in Chicago by this method.