The first and with any luck only virtual Lollapalooza is under way. From Thursday through Sunday, the festival’s YouTube channel is presenting a mix of streaming sets and rebroadcasts of performances from Lollas past. But as with most things in 2020, it’s not without controversy.
Twitter user @riellayes posted in response to a statement DCASE gave the Tribune following the incident. “DCASE says these showcases are ‘not intended to provide a platform for public discourse and debate’ and asked Sen to ‘remove personal viewpoints from the concert,’” they wrote. “WTF is art if not discourse, debate, and personal viewpoints? @ChicagoDCASE just post hold music if that’s your stance.”
Singer-songwriter Kaina Castillo, whose DCASE-sponsored set was broadcast Thursday at 6:30 PM, is one of them. She and Morimoto were working together when he learned that the city had a problem with his prerecorded Millennium Park performance—in fact, the two of them were setting up at Thalia Hall to film Kaina’s 12-minute Lollapalooza set, where Morimoto played keys and saxophone alongside drummer Ryan Person and bassist Michael Cantella.
Art and music are inextricably linked to politics and dissent, and they all shape Chicago’s culture and its understanding of itself. Some of the city’s most exciting rising artists are also its most politically active—during the ongoing uprisings, Pivot Gang, Femdot, Ric Wilson, Ohmme, Dehd, and many others have taken to the streets, shared resources, and coordinated mutual aid efforts. This commitment to community and to fostering common ground, which often manifests itself explicitly in the music, is something that both Mayor Lightfoot and DCASE commissioner Mark Kelly mentioned when they announced 2020 as the Year of Chicago Music last October.
Because the city hasn’t been transparent about how it will package creatives’ art for its community outreach efforts, Kaina argues, those efforts can leave artists—especially Black artists and other artists of color—feeling as though they’ve been enlisted in support of policies that harm their communities.
“The ‘Millennium Park at Home’ virtual concert series was created as a platform to showcase local music, support musicians and engage audiences at this difficult time,” the statement continues, “however these City platforms should not be used for political purposes.”
