Anti-War Protest Chicago 10/27/07
My “Stop WW3 - Stop Bush” patch screen was still wet from development. When I arrived at Union Park at 12:45pm organizers and volunteers were already plentiful and busy preparing the stage. A long line of Port-A-Potties stood waiting for the crowd to come. I could only imagine the logistics and cost of organizing a protest rally for thousands of people. The press and even the protesters themselves rarely give the organizers their due.
The stage was set up on the north end of the park. I decided to lay my blanket down on the sand of a baseball diamond along the third base line, far enough away from the stage to avoid the crush. A volunteer immediately warned me that the park officials had ordered organizers not to let protesters walk on or camp on the sands of the baseball diamond. Then, I moved my blanket onto the grass and flew into action printing my first design within minutes of sitting down.
I had brought several handfuls of patches to satisfy protesters until I could print more patches on the spot. The pre-printed patches went fast. The park filled up swiftly, as well. People were crowding out toward me even though I was as far back from the stage as possible. Even at the far end of the field, I was able to hear the speakers easily. After printing around 75-100 “Bring the troops home NOW!” patches, I switched to printing “More Art - Less War” patchs.
The fresh screen, which I’d laid aside to soak up sunlight in order to harden its emulsion before taping for printing, was ready by the time I finished printing my second design. I cleaned up the screen I was printing and taped my latest screen playing on Bush’s own warning of WW3. Naturally Bush claims to blame the possibility of WW3 on other world stage actors but we know who is the real negative motivating force in the world.
A lady in her 60’s with several friends came by and saw the “Peace on Earth” patch I had pinned to my sweatshirt and asked me for one.
“I don’t have any more of those with me.” I told her. She was heartbroken.
“That is so beautiful, are you sure.” she pleaded.
She looked as if she came from a financially comfortable background. The crowd seemed to me to have a large number of less-likely protesters today in comparison to previous protests I’ve printed my patches at. There were many older people in attendance today. This I decided was a good sign. “Here, take it as long as you will display it proudly.” I requested as I unpinned the patch from my sweatshirt and offered it to her. “I have more at home.”
Three o’clock arrived and the people began marching off toward Federal Plaza. I had only a small pile of patches left from the two and a half hours I’d been printing. When I stood up slowly my feet were numb from sitting cross-legged for so long. I packed up and walked briskly to the El station at the north corner of the Park and caught the Green Line to Wabash and Adams. A short walk later I came to the protest site at the marcher’s destination - Federal Plaza. My estimate had the marchers 15-25 minutes away. I set-up immediately at a foot of the orange sculpture at the end of the plaza away from the stage that promised to be crowded when the marchers arrived later.
While the press interviewed organizers before the crush, I prepared by printing as fast as I could in hopes of having patches for those who would soon swarm around seeking them. That time came shortly. As the line of marchers snaked onto the Plaza barely ten minutes after I set up. Soon people filled the entire plaza and stepped gingerly around my blanket. Many stooped to pickup patches.
Some commented, “What a great idea!” Others thanked me over and over for coming to print at the protest. They put dollar bills and change in my donation hat. This was the first protest where I printed but did not have to call out to people to take my free patches. It appeared to me that the people finally seemed to understand and accept my presence as a positive contribution to the protest. Could it be the crowd accepted my protest patches as art and as a means for them to protest into the future by wearing my patches? I could not print enough. They took the patches wet as I laid them down. They walked away waving them in the breeze to dry the ink. I printed continuously looking up briefly and responded to questions while I worked.
The patches of the design I had just finished printing disappeared while I printed the next design. “More Art Less War” was a very popular patch. Requests from the crowd encouraged me to return to printing that design several times. I followed suggestions from the crowd whenever possible.
From time to time I remember during the frantic and frenzied, fog-of-war-protest-printing, friends and acquaintances stopping to say hello. I chatted as I printed without breaking stride. The four designs I printed were “Bring the Troops Home NOW”, “More Art - Less War”, “Stop WW3 - Stop Bush” and “Invest in Peace Not War.”
By the end of the protest, people had filled my hat many times over and taken all the prints I could pull. Other artists said I inspired them to use their art to speak-out. One told me “A movement is only as good as its art!” I stood up very slowly to pack up, amazed that the time had gone by so swiftly. It was past 7:00pm.
The patches I printed on this day would travel far and wide. Artists be able to have a daily presence in the Loop. I should move from corner to corner on a weekly basis selling my “speech” patches in every sector of the Loop but municipal codes make this impossible. Artists have not worked together to take advantage of even the reduced opportunity the City does provide. Perhaps this is because the peddlers license the City requires is costly to those most likely to benefit from a street art scene. There should be pockets of artists working the Loop and the lakefront during the summer. People in the city should be able to see Chicago’s artists.
Not only do Chicago’s artists suffer, their natural audiences suffer by not being able to meet up with them. The harm laws that prevent artists’ scenes do can be estimated. Multiply the potential artists in the Cities art scenes by their average annual public art scene selling/exhibit time and multiply that by the average number of persons who stop to talk with an artist per hour to get the total annual number of times citizens were ripped off of contact with their local artists. Once a scene is established these figures would go up dramatically as members of the public find the artists who inspired them. This figure is enormous.
Our goal should be to establish a breach - at least one true street art scene in a good location in Chicago where there are no fees or licenses required of an artist to sell art (art is speech). We need to educate the public that the art scenes they are missing should be encouraged to thrive instead of discouraged by City policies. Doing this will create venues for the people to speak to each other. This a part of creating the full freedoms we deserve and need. It is a social key to a lively market place of ideas in the City of Chicago. Presently, we are censored by treatment as commodity vendors.
A friend came by to introduce me to a lawyer who claimed to be an expert on First Amendment law. He was negative about our chances to fight the City of Chicago claiming that recent cases allowed cities to charge fees to those who would sell their speech in the public way. We exchanged contact information. I e-mailed him to have him refer me to the cases he spoke of but he never wrote back. Further research of my own discovered a website by a Boston artist who has been doing the same thing in Boston for ten years. His website lists many cases in which artists have won back their speech rights from cities around the country (http://communityartsadvocates.org/saaNewYorkCity.html). Not all the lawyers we meet will be willing to defend our free speech rights. Until we organize - no one is likely to believe in our cause.
This mistake was the only one of this patch left at the end of my day of printing in public.
