Zach Bryan's shirt is the only one at Gillette using 'I' statements
After Zach Bryan wore the shirt at Robert Kraft's venue, Gillette Stadium says the garment must sit in circle before anyone wears it there again.
"...and the shirt has to understand that it was not the only one in that room carrying something," said Gillette Stadium's new director of garment reconciliation on Tuesday. She asked to be identified only by her pronouns. She was explaining why the venue has placed Zach Bryan's "Free Palestine" shirt on a six-session restorative justice track.
Bryan wore it Friday at the Kraft-owned stadium, days after Robert Kraft and other venue owners pressured Ed Sheeran to drop Macklemore from a tour, as Deadline reported. The stadium chose not to ban the shirt. A ban, the director said, would be "carceral."
Instead, the shirt will sit in circle with Robert Kraft's feelings, the venue's liability insurer and the home end zone, each named as a stakeholder. Session one is devoted to "arriving." Session two asks the shirt to name what it took up space for. Sessions three through six cover repair, re-entry and a closing ritual in which the shirt, the feelings and the end zone each share one thing they are grateful for.
"We are not asking the shirt to be quiet. We are asking it to be in relationship with the stadium."
Macklemore was also invited, the director said, but is "still processing" and the venue honours that pace. Asked whether cotton can consent to therapy, she said consent was the whole point. "The shirt showed up. Robert Kraft's feelings showed up. Only one of them has used an 'I statement' so far, and it was the shirt."
