Portsmouth ponders sidewalk
performance laws

Playing with fire got performance artist Lara Rines in trouble with Portsmouth police. Now she wants to use her situation to point out problems in the city’s requirements for street performers.

At a press conference on Wednesday, Nov. 30, at Caffe Kilim in Portsmouth, Rines and David O’Connor said they want to educate the public and city officials on the legal rights of street performers. They say street performances are a First Amendment right and that  permits from the city should not be required.

Rines, of Dover, was in Market Square on Monday, Nov. 21, performing poi, a traditional Polynesian fire dance involving a pair of sturdy chains with small torches at the end. She set up the impromptu performance to raise money to buy gifts for her daughter’s upcoming birthday and for Christmas, as well as to pay for a trip to Germany to reconnect with members of her family. She was arrested after a passerby complained that her fire dance almost burned him. Rines was charged with reckless conduct and performing an unlicensed theatrical presentation.

According to Rines, her act was “very safe,” and there were no people around her.

“I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t feel totally in control of the situation,” she said.

City attorney Robert Sullivan says any act that obstructs traffic on the sidewalk, whether it is playing guitar or juggling, must be approved by the City Council. Portsmouth City Clerk Kelli Barnaby agrees that the city requires anybody “obstructing the sidewalk” to obtain permission from City Council. Potential performers must submit a letter to the Council outlining their act, including the date, time, location and individuals involved. To coincide with the Council’s schedule, this letter must be submitted anywehre from a week to two weeks prior to the anticipated performance. If the City Council approves, the city manager will notify the performer of any additional requirements for staging the event, from getting a permit to having insurance.

“It depends on the situation,” Barnaby says. “Different types of events are handled differently.”

Members of Art-Speak, the organization charged with implementing the city’s cultural plan, are working with city officials on ways to streamline the permitting process for public performances. Jeff Hyland, chairman of Art-Speak’s public art committee, says the group is drafting an ordinance that will “make it easier to review what’s going to be happening (and) also make it easier for performers to apply.”

“Right now, it’s a little overwhelming for a performer to think they have to get up and stand in front of the City Council to go juggle,” Hyland says. “This (new) process might entice more performers.”
O’Connor, a friend of Rines’, is a rope-walker and juggler. He describes himself as “a very serious street performer” and has performed throughout the East Coast and at local Renaissance fairs.

Requiring street performers to have a permit is a constitutional issue, according to O’Connor. The Supreme Court has defined visual and performance arts as speech protected by the First Amendment, he says, and he believes the city “cannot require permitting for expression.”

During a performance in front of Breaking New Grounds in Portsmouth a year ago, O’Connor said, he was stopped and detained by police, though he was not arrested. O’Connor lives in Barrington. In addition to performing, he and his partner Loretta Salazar operate Castle Anam Cara, a re-creation of a 10-11th century castle keep. 

Rines says she called the fire and police departments and the city clerk’s office before her performance, asking if she needed a permit. According to Rines, she was told she didn’t need a permit for the fire dance. However, Barnaby says she told Rines to submit a letter to the City Council to get permission. Rines says she had previously performed a fire dance in Vaughan Mall following the Portsmouth Halloween Parade without any problems.

City rules aren’t clear about what is expected of sidewalk performers and the process for obtaining a permit is difficult, according to O’Connor. “There’s no system. Nobody knows what’s going on,” he says.
Hyland expects the draft ordinance to be ready by summer 2006. Details are still being ironed out, but Hyland says a permit request form will be developed and a city employee would oversee the process. Other plans include designated performance areas.

Rines is concerned more about the rights of street performers than she is with a particular ordinance.

“I would like it to be perfectly legal for performers to go out and sing in public as long as they’re not disturbing the peace,” she says. “Right now, it’s illegal to express yourself artistically in public without being given the OK by Portsmouth.”

Rines is scheduled to appear in Portsmouth District Court on Dec. 12. She doesn’t have legal representation yet, and she says she’s unsure what her defense will be.

According to O’Connor, there are no plans to legally challenge the city’s requirements, but he is talking to different legal organizations. However, he’d rather see the issue settled “gently” by sitting down with city officials and finding a way to accommodate street performers without requiring permits.

Getting permission to perform in public should be easier, according to Hyland, but he thinks there still needs to be a review process.

“We don’t want something that’s so filled with red tape that really limits what people can do,” he says. “That said, people are performing in a public space, so it does have to be safe, and there has to be some sort of review, I think, just for safety.”