Michael Heaton column in Plain Dealer

Free Times Article published earlier today

THE TOWER CITY "T" PARTY

Local Afrobeat ensemble Mifune won't need to shell out for a publicist; a jittery manager at downtown's Tower City Center did the job for free.

The group was playing a noon show on the Tri-C JazzFest stage at Tower City on Friday when the mall manager ran up to the stage manager and demanded that the band members turn their T-shirts inside out or stop playing, according to band founder Jacob Fader. The nine musicians were sporting shirts featuring a drawing of George Bush inside a red circle with a slash through it.

"Our music is overtly political," Fader explains. The shirts, he adds, are "a visual aid for people who can't hear the lyrics."

According to Fader, "The manager was pretty irate. He said, 'This isn't the place for a political rally.'" The band refused to remove or invert the shirts and the plug was pulled only 20 minutes into their scheduled hour-and-a-half set. Fader's version of events was corroborated by fan Eric Schneider (who called Free Times as it was happening) and Tri-C spokesperson Greg Krizman.

A Saturday Plain Dealer report on the fracas was picked up at DailyKos.com, a widely read progressive blog.

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Mifune at Afro-Fest 2006 at the Beachland Ballroom (15700 Waterloo Rd., 216.383.1124) on Saturday, May 27. -- Anastasia Pantsios

Mifune began last Friday just past noon. Twenty fleeting minutes later, the music stopped without warning leaving thousands left looking at each other slackjawed for a short while until a band member in a futile attempt spoke loudly in ten words or less without a microphone to inform whoever was in earshot why the gig was over.

It didn't matter what he said as it became evident just minutes later when management, mall security, and police started gathering several feet from me because the man with the navy jacket and handkerchief as seen in the photo I took was actively voicing concern over what was happening (Found out later that this was Jacob's father).

Tower City Center is a large mixed-use facility located on Public Square in the center of downtown Cleveland, Ohio. The facility includes a number of interconnected office buildings including the landmark Terminal Tower, a shopping mall, two hotels, and the main hub of Cleveland's three rapid transit lines.

From my perspective as an audience member, I did not interpret the shirts as something political aside from it being an indicator at best that they probably didn't vote for the guy. The shirts apparently were not a big deal before they started playing or when they were setting up their equipment. Furthermore, the decision to pull the plug wasn't based upon anyone complaining to management about the shirts either.

The fact is that it did not seem that anyone cared about the shirts because the crowd was sincerely enjoying these talented musicians putting out some amazing sounds, grooves, and beats only to be silenced by a poor business decision. I spoke with one of the security guards standing nearby who while summarizing the situation mentioned that there would have been no issue with song lyrics as a matter of free speech but yet they claim the right as proprietors to intervene because of an image on a t-shirt, which could be sold in a store in the mall just yards away.

The Tri-C JazzFest is a community college jazz festival. Which means the event seems to have been run by some private-public partnership. At the very least between the main hub of a public transit system and the community college there is a public component to this that can not be discounted.

Separation of church from state is one thing, but it ought to be a crime to separate art from state. Mifune showed us the state of the art and as artists succeeded by sharing with the community the gift of both music and freedom.

It was sad such a wonderful celebration cut short by those who have forgot how to hear music except with their eyes as our ears beared witness to this strange sudden silence.

GEN-ERIC