The Shouting of the Underground
Public marginalia surrounds us. It is an inescapable part of existence in a metropolitan city. It is a marker of both what the city is, as well as what is being fought against. Most of the public marginalia I saw took place on government property such as a street sign or on the CTA. I believe it is this way because the government is the ultimate establishment. It represents the other to almost every community.
The first image is of a city sign on Michigan Avenue which states “Free Trolley”. This sign is covered in stickers from various different communities. Much of the public marginalia I found was located on signs such as this one. I pass by this particular one every day, yet I fail to notice it because this type of public marginalia always surrounds me. It is expected that these signs will be vandalized. It is a way of the community (or marginalized communities) taking ownership of the government signs. One thing that stood out to me from this sign was that there were several stickers that seem to have faded showing that this sign has been a place for this type of graffiti for a significant time. The sticker that stood out to me was the one that says “$mell$” followed by what I believe is Chinese letters. It was interesting to me because I do not think there are not any large Chinese communities in this area of Chicago, so I doubt the vandal was aiming this sticker towards that demographic. I imagine this sticker (and most of the stickers on this sign) were put up because the person thought they looked cool. This mentality speaks to Michigan Avenue given that it is a large spot for shopping in Chicago. Ultimately this public marginalia would’ve been lost on me, and many others, due to the hecticness of the area.
The next piece of public marginalia I saw was a series of scribbles done on a column towards the el. The scribbles are indecipherable to me, but I don’t think they are for me. They are for a community that I am not a part of. The thing that stuck out to me when viewing this marginalia was that each part of it was done with a different utensil in a different color. This suggests that it was by multiple people done at different times. They are also intricate in their symbols suggesting that it is a common sign of a community or a name. I imagine these were done to signify that a certain community is at this location.
The last piece of marginalia was in an alley on Belmont. I noticed that the marginalia has faded, and it looks as if some previous graffiti was painted over. This shows that the owner of the building, or the city, did not want such pieces on their wall. This attitude seems odd to me because this alley is in Boystown, home to one of the largest marginalized communities in the US. The graffiti that stood out was the word “C Jones”. I assume this is someone’s name, and it doesn’t seem to be done by someone who is used to using this medium. It reflects the rather affluent neighborhood surrounding it. I imagine it was done by a person who could point to it on drunken Boystown nights and say “look, there's my name”.
Overall, marginalia is all over in Chicago. It is a part of everyday life within the city and represents a way for the community to mark its presence. By not having this marginalia, city signs would seem to new, and unused by the community around it. Public marginalia becomes the ambient rhetoric in Chicago, because there are thousands of communities in this city, and they all have something to say.
