Nearly every day, performers fill the Red Line’s station at Lake with smooth electric guitar riffs, or soulful a cappella, or improvised raps, or—as was the case on the afternoon of May 15—a voice nearly identical to Sam Smith’s.

     “This is really unfortunate,” he said, looking the employee in the eye. He then pulled up the text of the CTA’s ordinance governing performances on his phone, and tried to calmly argue to the officers that as a permitted performer, he was indeed allowed to sing at this location. They weren’t having it. Soon his speaker was off, his mike wrapped up, and he was on his way off the platform with a ticket for performing at a “nonperforming” CTA station and a date for an administrative court hearing.    Since 1991, the CTA has designated four stations where people who’ve paid the agency $10 for a subway performer’s license can showcase their talent—the Washington and Jackson stations on the Blue Line and the Washington and Jackson stations on the Red Line. The Washington Red Line station, however, has been shuttered since fall 2006, when the city launched a $400 million attempt to convert it into a “superstation” under Block 37 with express service to the airports. The plan never came to fruition and the Washington Red Line station never reopened, but the CTA’s ordinance wasn’t amended to take the ghost station off the list. Johnston and many other performers thus interpret the “Washington and State Streets” performance location in the ordinance as the Lake Street station, which now has entrances stretching all the way to Washington Street.

     All of this begs the question: Why are the CTA’s authorized performance areas so limited in the first place? Compared to the nation’s other metropolitan areas, as the Tribune reported last year, Chicago’s subway performance policies are very restrictive. This leads to tense competition for the few available subway performance spaces and lots of “unauthorized” performances that get musicians like Johnston into unpleasant situations with the authorities. (The Trib feature includes video of an a cappella group singing at the Monroe Red Line stop—not an authorized performance location.)

 The performers, meanwhile, have for years argued that the CTA should expand the number of stations where performances are allowed. These calls intensified last year when downtown alderman Brendan Reilly pushed to limit the volume at which street performers are allowed to play (or preach), and the times and locations at which they can set up shop. Though Reilly’s proposal died in the City Council, Johnston—who’s also a licensed street performer—says enforcement of existing rules above ground can also be inconsistent and unfair.

Johnston spent most of the rest of the day at the 18th District lockup, cited for a violation of the noise ordinance, and charged with two misdemeanor counts of resisting arrest.

@andrew2themic, a black man, was signing near the Chicago River, possibly without a permit, and was handcuffed and pushed to the ground by three white police men. Support this incredible artist. Andrew, I hope you are okay and safe. pic.twitter.com/q2KPhQJ0wn

— happierstill (@HappierStill) May 19, 2018

   Johnston recently traveled to LA to film an appearance for the current season of America’s Got Talent, which could air as soon as Tuesday night.

@andrew2themic YOUR VOICE ❤️ xx

— Sam Smith (@samsmithworld) March 12, 2018