whittlin’ away

Photo by Gabe Graff.

Gadflies who organized The Version Festival in Chicago received a rude awakening last week when a mural that was commissioned as part of the festival was destroyed. Chicago Alderman James Balcer personally took offense to the mural, due to its content that depicted police surveillance cameras omnipresent in the neighborhood.

Balcer reasoned he thought the following image was gang-related and the makers did not have a permit.

The building now looks like this:

The Bridgeport Alderman did not contact the property owner, nor the artist, Gabreille Villa, before ordering the mural’s removal early in the morning, May 14. Chicago does not require a permit for murals on private property. The property in question is owned by the festival organizer’s mother.

The mural was part of Bridgeport WPA, a project that encouraged artists to make work in the cooperative spirit of the New Deal’s Works Progress Administration. The project resulted in silk-screened prints that were posted in public places around the neighborhood and in a gallery. More images, courtesy Paul Rizzuto, after the jump.

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Leonard Crowdog is a legend. He served as spiritual advisor to the American Indian Movement (AIM) and played a pivotal role at Wounded Knee during its 71-day siege in 1973. He will be speaking in defense of American Indian activist Leonard Peltier, next Wednesday, May 20 at 7PM, at the Native American Student and Community Center at Portland State University (on the corner of SW Broadway and Jackson Streets). David Hill, official spokesperson for the Leonard Peltier Defense Committee, will also speak.

Organizers of the teach-in hope to raise awareness as part of a nationwide effort to renew support for Peltier’s release. Peltier was recently nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for a sixth consecutive year, and last fall, President Obama met with Native American leaders and indicated his willingness to consider clemency.

Peltier’s case has been hotly debated as to his guilt and the fairness of his trial. He was convicted and sentenced to two consecutive terms of life imprisonment for the murder of two FBI Agents in a 1975 shoot-out on the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation. His story is vividly told in Peter Matthiessen’s book In the Spirit of Crazy Horse and in Michael Apted’s film Incident at Oglala.

The event is free and open to the public.

Check out RIP: A Remix Manifesto, a fantastic new film by Brett Gaylor. Focusing on the “band” GirlTalk, the doc makes a compelling and thoroughly researched argument for the relaxing of intellectual property/ copyright laws, and its implications on everything from the music industry to prescription drugs.

True to its subject, Gaylor’s distribution model encourages the remixing of his film footage, paying whatever you want to download the movie, and hosting your own screening. Read more in this Wired interview.

I have been thinking for a while that I don’t agree with Portland’s Sit/ Lie Ordinance. I have mostly kept these thoughts inside my head. But recently, it has become hard to ignore the sweeps, the issuing of tickets and the outright harassment by police of those on the streets.

For those unaware, the Sit/ Lie is a law that was passed two years ago, granting police authority to cite anyone sitting or lying in a public space. Championed by the Portland Business Alliance, the law has been overwhelmingly targeted at homeless people.

On Wednesday City Council voted, as anticipated, 4-1 to extend the Sit/ Lie another six months, so that council can hold a series of community hearings  (even though the homeless community has signed petitions, gave lengthy testimonials and camped out on the steps of City Hall in opposition).

Then yesterday I witnessed an unmarked van pull the wrong way down a one-way street in Old Town. Six undercover cops stepped out, guns drawn. They were stopping a homeless man for jaywalking. “Do you remember the last time we caught you on this street?” questioned one officer, “We had to taser you”.  He was issued a $97 ticket.

Is it just me or is anyone else angered with the way Sam Adams is running the show? I voted for the guy but he’s been disappointing in both his public and private life. I think its time the artist community organize themsleves and hold our elected officials accountable. If anyone is inetresting in working on a campaign to challange city policy on the sit/ lie over the next six months, drop me a line.

Have a short piece coming out in Squeaky Wheel’s new issue of the media arts journal The Squealer. Thought I’d post it!

We can learn a great deal about the culture and politics that we live under by looking at our public spaces. While Celino and Barnes billboards and corporate logos dominate Buffalo, NY’s landscape, we can infer an equal amount from our shared histories by recognizing what is not memorialized and given prominence. Lost in this telling of history is the story of people’s movements, including the campaign to end child labor, the right to collective bargaining and the right to the forty-hour work week.

For instance, little is left to remember the Buffalo Street Car Strike of 1913, in which 2300 national guardsmen quelled protesters being forced to work 18 hour days. Or Thomas Low Nichols, editor of The Buffalonian, Buffalo’s first underground newspaper, who was jailed in 1837 for printing back-room deals by the city’s elite businessmen. Or, for that matter, the numerous suffragist and abolitionist leaders from upstate New York, who were instrumental in winning equality and the right for all to vote.

One story I thought should be given greater prominence in our urban memory is that of Martin Sostre, who in 1966 opened the Afro-Asian Bookstore on Jefferson Avenue, near Utica. The store sold radical literature and soul records and provided a community meeting and organizing space.

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