Organizing

Street performer solidarity

By Noah Bruce

William Burke is a street performer and he’s fed up. All the guy wants to do is read a little Shakespeare or Joyce, maybe perform one of his own poems. But he’s encountered some hostile vibes on the streets of New England, including Portland.

“I perform now and then, but it’s getting too brutal. It’s just too hostile. You can’t really stand and perform without being assaulted, or verbally abused, or terrorized by the police,” he says.

In addition to taking flak from (often drunk) passersby, Burke has been arrested eight times (check out a photo of a cop with his knee on Burke’s head while the poet feebly clutches his poems at www.pomewater.com) and kicked in the stomach while reading Whitman’s “Song of Myself.”

So Burke is starting a group in an attempt to protect his rights and the rights of other street performers. The group is called The Portland Street Artists Association and “seek[s] ways to peaceably combat elements that would confine, negate, and regulate art for the sake of cleanliness and commerce . . .”

Like the Half Moon Jug Band, which was recently asked to move from their spot on Exchange Street (see “A Jug Band Takes a Stand,” Portland Phoenix, December 15, 2000), Burke seems to rankle some Portland shopkeepers who feel that street performers are either bad for business or just plain annoying.

Burke finds it hard to sympathize with people who think “James Joyce’s Ulysses is noise.” He does not believe commerce is “the sole purpose and deciding factor for the use of public space.”

Burke contends that the right to perform on the street is guaranteed by the First Amendment, and that this right is violated when street performers are forced to move or, worse, are arrested.

Though he has not been prosecuted in Portland, Burke has been arrested numerous times in the city including once for assaulting an officer (he claims his arm accidentally hit the cop). “Getting arrested is a pretty frightening ordeal,” he says.

The first meeting of the Portland Street Artist Association will be on January 11 at 6 p.m. at Burke’s house. Call 874-0145 for more details.