West Craft Fest, an annual vendor event on Penn’s campus, was canceled following a demand from the University that vendors sign a written agreement to exclude “politically sensitive” art.
The event was originally scheduled for Dec. 14 to 15 at The Rotunda, which is located at 40th and Walnut streets and owned by Penn. On Dec. 10, representatives of The Rotunda received an email complaint from an unnamed individual regarding the inclusion of pro-Palestinian artists and artwork in the 2024 market. According to an update posted to the West Craft Fest website, the message singled out specific vendors with an affiliation to the pro-Palestinian cause.
An email exclusively obtained by The Daily Pennsylvanian showed communication between the organizers of West Craft Fest and the vendors.
"Gina Renzi, who is the manager of the Fest venue, The Rotunda (a Penn property), received an email from an individual accusing us, the venue, and Penn of hosting ‘vendors who express support for violence against Jewish people implicitly and explicitly through their artwork and crafts’ with ‘items that explicitly celebrate acts of terrorism and violence that resulted in massacres of Jewish people in Israel,’” the organizers wrote.
A similar message was commented on a post on West Craft Fest’s Instagram page and sent to members of Penn’s administration.
In response to the backlash, Penn required the organizers of West Craft Fest to issue vendors an affirmation form requiring that all participants pledge to not display “items that depict, glorify, or incite violence of any kind whatsoever AND/OR are politically sensitive.”
Following a request for comment, a University spokesperson wrote that Penn "asked the organizers not to permit crafts extolling violence of any kind. Rather than complying with this request, the organizers decided to move the event to another location.”
West Craft Fest initially accepted Penn's demand to issue an affirmation form, writing in an email to their vendors that their reason for sending out the form was because “so many vendors are counting on this event for a good portion of their holiday sales.” In the same email, the organizers also wrote that those wishing to withdraw from the event in light of the new policy would receive a refund of their vendor fees.
“It felt so devastating to ask what we asked of you yesterday,” the organizers wrote to their vendors about the affirmation form that they were forced to send to the vendors. “We were pushed to do so immediately, which did not give us adequate time for thoughtful reflection on the position we were putting you in as vendors.”
The affirmation form was met with backlash. One vendor, who goes by the name Shiny Horse Shoe on Instagram, posted a criticism of the policy’s wording as “intentionally vague presumably because they don’t want to acknowledge that this entire thing is about pro-Palestine art.” The vendor also posted to Instagram a screenshot of an email response from West Craft Fest, in which the Fest's organizers agreed that the removal of artwork was “agonizing” and “letting bullies win.”
The organizers declined a request for comment on the situation.
Other vendors, including local small business owner Raffi Marhaba, hoped to hear more from the organizers of West Craft Fest before they sent out the affirmation form. After getting in touch with the organizers, Marhaba learned that the complaint specifically referenced one of their items, a wallet that depicts images of Palestinian politician Leila Khaled.
“I have items that depict Black Panthers,” Marhaba told the DP. “I have items that say ‘f**ck cops.’ I have items that say ‘abolish prisons.’ What is the difference between an armed Black Panther and an armed Palestinian? This is 100% about my Palestine stuff.”
West Craft Fest emphasized their commitment to their vendors in subsequent emails despite upholding the affirmation form.
“We’re trying to get Penn off our backs and the backs of the vendors,” the organizers wrote. “It’s absolutely not right. It’s not ethical. It’s the solution we’ve come up with to get Penn to leave us alone and not jeopardize every vendor at the fest and at future events at The Rotunda.”
At the same time, West Craft Fest successfully negotiated with Penn to adjust the phrasing of the vendor affirmation. In future iterations of the form, the phrase “politically sensitive” no longer appeared.
Many vendors still believed more action needed to be taken.
Bee Sampson, a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation who vends at many markets each year, described their effort to organize vendors who were otherwise disconnected.
“In the midst of trying to make stuff for this market, I took half the day off to go through each vendors’ personal Instagrams and websites, trying to find as many emails as I could to CC everyone in a group discussion,” Sampson said.
In an email sent to the organizers and around 60 vendors on Dec. 12, Sampson outlined several grievances against how the organizers handled Penn’s concerns, namely the short notice of the policy, its vague and biased phrasing, and how it felt misapplied to vendors.
"We are neither students nor staff of Penn and are not beholden to these policies. We are independent artists, makers, and small businesses showing up to a fair to sell out wares. That is no place for censorship," Sampson wrote in the email.
Sampson also urged the organizers to retract the affirmation form and move forward with the original plan. They alternatively suggested a rescheduling and relocation of the event as a solution “given the many violent, armed crackdowns that Penn police have engaged in on their properties throughout the year.”
On Dec. 13, West Craft Fest sent an email to their vendors that announced the cancellation of the event at The Rotunda.
“We believe the compromise was too great to have to single out individual vendors and not allow them to have pro-Palestine art,” the organizers wrote. The Rotunda later updated its website with the message “CANCELLED DUE TO CIRCUMSTANCES BEYOND OUR CONTROL!”
West Craft Fest also announced the relocation and downsizing of the fest to Black Hound Clay Studio, an outdoor venue. They wrote that the new space could only accommodate 25 vendors per day. The first vendors to reply with interest to the email were selected and all other vendors would be refunded.
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