A City Council debate over whether a controversial pro-Gaza puppet display at the Chicago Cultural Center is antisemitic or a fair expression of free speech descended into disorder Tuesday, with an aldermanic ally of Mayor Brandon Johnson being told to leave the council chambers after he appeared to call another alderman a “white supremacist.”
Ald. Byron Sigcho-Lopez, 25th, who last year was criticized for speaking at a protest rally where an American flag was burned, later Tuesday claimed he said the words “this is white supremacist” in the direction of Ald. Bill Conway, 34th, and didn’t direct his comments to Conway individually. After the comment was made during the committee meeting it was temporarily recessed and neither alderman returned. The committee chair said he told Sigcho-Lopez not to return.
The argument capped a four-hour debate about the puppetry exhibit that features a two-sided “protest puppet” with bloodied caricatures of Uncle Sam and Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Writing on the wooden bases holding up the puppet criticizes U.S. financial support for Israel’s war efforts in Gaza and labels the characters as “children killers” and “murderers.”
As many as 28 aldermen, a majority of the City Council, signed a letter last month condemning the puppet display as antisemitic “hate speech.” But some aldermen during the no-vote hearing criticized that condemnation as an attack on free speech and a waste of time.
“Last time I checked, in America, we should be free to express ourselves,” said Ald. William Hall, 6th.
Conway during the debate pressed Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Affairs Commissioner Clinée Hedspeth about the artwork before Sigcho-Lopez chimed in and the two aldermen began a heated back-and-forth during which Sigcho-Lopez said Conway had disrespected Hedspeth.
Conway, who represents parts of the Loop, Greektown and Little Italy, had earlier in the debate referenced burning the American flag. Sigcho-Lopez, who represents parts of Pilsen and Little Village, appeared in March in front of a burnt American flag at a pro-Palestinian rally. The flag incident almost cost Sigcho-Lopez his position last year as head of the council’s Housing Committee but aldermen eventually voted not to punish him. Sigcho-Lopez at the time said he did not see the burnt flag and was not at the rally when a veteran torched it in protest of the federal government’s support of Israel’s war in Gaza.
After Tuesday’s meeting recessed amid shouts from several aldermen for Sigcho-Lopez to be removed, the chairman of the Special Events committee, Ald. Nicholas Sposato, 38th, said, “You gotta go, out, get out of here!” Sposato later said he “threw him (Sigcho-Lopez) out.” The committee did not take an official vote to bar Sigcho-Lopez from the meeting.
Sigcho-Lopez and Conway spoke privately in a closet behind the council chambers after the exchange. Afterwards, Sigcho-Lopez told reporters the comments were not directed at Conway. Conway later said Sigcho-Lopez apologized and added that he had “no desire to escalate this.”
Hall, who was in the closet room with Sigcho-Lopez, Conway and top Johnson adviser Jason Lee, said the group prayed during their private discussion. He noted that Sigcho-Lopez had said he felt targeted by Conway’s comments about the burnt flag.
“Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Hall said. “We need to get to a place where we can disagree and not disrespect.”
The ugly exchange set the tone for yet another fraught debate in the City Council over the Israel-Hamas war in Gaza almost a year after Johnson cast a tie-breaking vote to make Chicago the largest American city to call for a Gaza ceasefire.
The puppet installment was vetted by a panel of arts experts designed to root out biases, Hedspeth said. After hearing complaints last month, the commissioner removed a panel naming the piece “US-Israel War Machine” and placed sensitivity warnings outside the exhibit, she added.
But Hedspeth emphatically defended the decision to so far leave the puppet display up despite pressure. She described the calls for the piece to be removed as efforts to “bully” and “silence” artists from a “small group.” It would be “anti-American” for someone to unilaterally remove the piece, she told aldermen. Artwork depicting other offensive topics, such as lynching, have been displayed at the building, she added.
In one of many sharp disagreements throughout the hearing, Ald. Debra Silverstein, the council’s lone Jewish member, asked Hedspeth how she would react if someone tried to install a puppet depicting a bloodied caricature of Johnson to criticize his decision to remove the ShotSpotter gunshot detection system. Hedspeth said she would follow with the same vetting process.
“I would trust the team and the experts,” she answered.
Silverstein repeated her demand that the artwork be taken down. There is a difference between making a controversial piece of art and displaying one with taxpayer money, she argued.
“It is not just an art exhibit. It’s a statement made in a publicly funded, city-run space, a space intended to welcome tours and represent the value of Chicago,” Silverstein said. “Let me be very clear: This is not a First Amendment issue.”
Aldermen struck a more collegial tone when the meeting continued after the recess, with many thanking Hedspeth for explaining to them how art is vetted and what the department’s removal processes are. As planned, the committee did not vote on any ordinances during the subject matter-only hearing.
