Laura Hawbaker

Within spitting distance of the United Center, a Bush/Cheney ’04 campaign sign hangs askance from a chain link fence; it’s the only indicator a poster revolution is taking place. Inside the otherwise nondescript brick compound, volunteers in ink-splattered jeans use stencils, silk screens and spray paint to create hundreds of anti-war posters. They’ll paste their work in neighborhoods across the city to coincide with the five-year anniversary of the Iraq War on March 19.

An organizer hunches over a screen that reads "Help End the War; Let Your Voice Be Heard." The floor is carpeted with identical flyers. Bob Dylan blares from a music player in the window. The fuse in the warehouse keeps blowing ("Don’t plug in the space heater!") and everyone curses the neighbor’s cat when it walks across an array of fresh prints.

"We’re called the Chicago Poster War…mostly because we needed an email address," an organizer explains. "It’s more important that people make posters and get a dialogue going about the Iraq War…we don’t care if anyone knows we did it." All three organizers have chosen to remain anonymous, and not just to support their modest mantra.

Mayor Daley’s anti-graffiti campaign and the subsequent police crackdown have made pasting a dangerous pastime. Where New Yorkers use spray paint to express themselves, Chicago’s urban artists rely on wheat pasting, which fades with the elements. The impermanence of the artwork is not lost on the protesters. "We want to cover the city, even if it’s just for a day," one says. "Just to get war on people’s minds for one day and remind them it’s been five years."

(2008-03-18)

Also by Laura Hawbaker

The Pursuit of Chicagoist
It’s Thursday night and a raucous group from Chicagoist.com gathers in the candlelit back room of Sheffield’s for a Trivial Pursuit smack-down.
(2008-03-05)

Monster Mash
"Ten bucks gets you a credit in the movie!" hawks Jamye Graham, producer. It's Thursday night, and Graham is manning the merchandise table at the wrap party and fundraiser for local indie monster movie, "Hellcat and Tala"
(2008-02-26)

Everyone's Got Issues
Kingsley Quigley stands on a podium in East Pilsen’s Rooms Gallery. She twirls. She jiggies. She shouts, "Let’s dance for the cause! Let’s save ‘em!" Her T-shirt reads "Save the Whales," and she sports a curly fro and metallic blue spandex pants that would make Richard Simmons proud. Quigley is one of nine contenders in the gallery’s "Political Science Fair"
(2008-02-12)

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