Street Art V

A cartoonist friend of mine stopped by the Pearl store on Central Square earlier this week to hang up posters for the Cambridge Comix Festival, which continues this weekend. Word is thatthey've gotten rid of the big bulletin boards they used to offer for community fliers -- and now have a small one that is labeled for arts events only (i.e. no roommate searches or music-related events). In addition, you now have to have a manager initial your poster before it can be posted.

My friend asked if he could put up his poster, and the staff told him no. He persisted, explaining that there are gallery shows involved in the fest -- and that it's art related -- and the woman said, "Well, even if I let you put it up, my manager will just take it down." Apparently, there were grafitti-related posters posted on the board previously, and the Pearl staff is cracking down on inappropriate fliers. That's where comics rank at Pearl: below grafitti art. Not quite high art enough to promote at Pearl.