June 11--A newly elected South Side alderman announced Wednesday he has denied St. Sabina Catholic Church a permit for a block party to celebrate the end of filming of the Spike Lee movie "Chiraq" because he opposes the film's title.
Ald. David Moore, 17th, said in a news release that he turned down the request for a permit from the church in Auburn Gresham, where the Rev. Michael Pfleger has worked with Lee on the film, because he "did not see how the long-term impact would be beneficial. In fact, it seemed like another veiled attempt to buy the community's support."
The film project has been controversial for months, with Mayor Rahm Emanuel coming out against the title, a slang term that compares the street violence in Chicago to that in Iraq. Ald. Will Burns, 4th, called on the state to withhold tax credits from Lee unless he changed the name.
Now Moore, who was elected to his first term this year, is weighing in.
"I applaud the fact that (Lee) wants to bring national attention to the senseless gun violence taking place in the city's black communities," Moore said in a statement. "What I object to is the branding of these communities to the rest of the world who will never know anything about the real people who live in Englewood and Auburn Gresham. All they will ever know is the name Chiraq and the overreaching association with the war torn nation of Iraq."
