In These Times: Free Speech, for Art’s Sake

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Free Speech, for Art’s Sake
A Chicago sidewalk salesman prepares to sue his city.

By Robin Peterson


CHICAGO, IL.—On November 13, the hordes of holiday season shoppers encountered a sight rarely seen in downtown Chicago: an artist selling art on the sidewalk. Near the entrance to Macy’s at the corner of Randolph and State Streets, artist and activist Chris Drew displayed an array of $1 patches and a prominent “Art for Sale” sign affixed to his bright red poncho. His conspicuous appearance attracted several customers over the course of his two-and-a-half-hour vigil, but most of the attention he received was of a less positive nature. Four police officers stopped to tell him that what he was doing was illegal. One wrote him a ticket.

Today, however, this attention was welcome. Drew knows it’s illegal to sell art in most of downtown Chicago and other prohibited districts. As the leader of the Free Speech Artists’ Movement group, he chose to violate this law and incur a fine because he intends to sue the city for violating his First Amendment rights.

“During the Iraq War, when I went out to try to sell my patches on the street, I discovered why it’s so hard for artists to survive in Chicago,” Drew says. “I got a peddler’s license, then a speech permit for certain corners of the Loop. It has three pages of prohibited districts— every place you could make a living.”

Drew maintains that the city of Chicago infringes on artists’ speech rights in multiple ways. According to the rules of the speech permit, “every month you have to show them all the art you’re going to sell in the next month, so the bureaucratic structure doesn’t allow any topical speech. Everything is censored by prior restraint. You’re limited to a small audience because you’re nailed to only that corner. And the license itself is a violation, because you shouldn’t need to license speech.” ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.inthesetimes.com/article/5325/free_speech_for_arts_sake