AUBURN GRESHAM

Chicago’s South Side neighborhoods are often lumped together as one big homogenous place. But the South Side is a patchwork of distinct neighborhoods, filled with the kinds of characters and day-to-day stories that don’t always make headlines. Over a six-month period in 2011, I followed five people in the Auburn Gresham neighborhood: a high school student, a fitness club owner, a House music legend, a 20-something journalist, and an elderly disabled artist.

I produced five radio stories that appeared on WBEZ and with videos online. The series won first place awards from the National Headliner Club and the National Association of Black Journalists.

House music legend shaped by childhood in Auburn Gresham

Young, gay and black in Auburn Gresham

Women build muscles and connections in Auburn Gresham

Neighborhood pushes, pulls Auburn Gresham teenager toward adulthood

Auburn Gresham man turns empty lot into a work of art

Related Stories

House music legend shaped by childhood in Auburn Gresham

Growing up in Chicago’s Auburn Gresham neighborhood, DJ Farley “Jackmaster” Funk says he and his friends would sneak into bars and taverns like the Green Bunny on 77thand Halsted to see the “grown ladies in high heels” and smell the cigarette smoke and liquor. “We didn’t know what the smell was,” he recalls. “But we knew it was a grown-folks smell.”

Funk is now a house music legend and sought-after entertainer, filling clubs and headlining shows at Millennium Park. He credits the neighborhood of his youth with shaping his musical tastes and helping him forge the professional connections that would later help him break into the music biz. “Auburn Gresham was the place we were able to hone our skills in so many different areas,” he says.

We start the series with DJ Farley “Jackmaster” Funk, who describes how his upbringing in Auburn Gresham planted the seeds of his musical future.

Young, gay and black in Auburn Gresham

TThe trip on public transportation from Auburn Gresham on the South Side to Boystown on the North Side can be long and tedious. But as Terrence Chappell rides from 79th Street to Belmont and back home again, he uses the time to think.

Chappell is a nightlife and society columnist for ChicagoPride.com. He travels this route frequently – between his apartment in Auburn Gresham and the gay nightlife in Boystown. But in both places, he feels misunderstood.

In Auburn Gresham, he says, there are no bars he would hang out at more than once. And in Boystown, he sometimes feels like an outsider because of the stereotypes he hears from people about the South Side.

A while back, a woman, upon learning where he was from, asked him, “Are you from one of those ghetto families?” Chappell laughs as he recounts the story. But it’s not the first time someone has had a notion about Auburn Gresham, where he grew up and still lives.

“People are very scared of what they don’t know about,” he says.

The Auburn Gresham, Chicago series continues with Terrence Chappell talking with his mother Marilyn about what it’s like to be young, gay, and black.

Women build muscles and connections in Auburn Gresham

Auburn Gresham, Chicago continues with a small business owner who was born in Auburn Gresham but now lives in nearby Beverly.

When Kimberley Rudd set out to open a small workout facility in Auburn Gresham, she knew she wanted it to be sort of like the TV show Cheers: a place where everybody knows your name.

These days, her Curves Auburn Gresham is a place where women of a variety of ages go to help each other get stronger, physically and emotionally.

But it was a hard sell at first. When she was trying to get her business off the ground, Rudd would walk the streets of Auburn Gresham, handing out fliers. Some women balked at her invitation to join the gym. “What are you trying to say? You saying I’m fat?” was the response.

Finding new members is still a constant pressure for Rudd. But so too is catering to the women who arrive to workout at the facility each day. Rudd handles it with grace, answering the phone, helping women use the equipment, even sweeping the floors when necessary.

Here, Rudd talks about being a small business owner in a minority neighborhood, and how she feels compelled to help the women of Auburn Gresham stay strong.

Neighborhood pushes, pulls Auburn Gresham teenager toward adulthood

At 17, Justin Irving is an Auburn Gresham transplant. He and his mother and sisters moved to the South Side neighborhood four years ago. Justin’s mom works long hours to support their family, and Justin says that’s given him an appreciation for how strong many women are. Stronger than a lot of men, he says.

But there are times when all her efforts haven’t been enough to keep everything going at home—like last year when the electricity was shut off.

That family dilemma had Justin seeking out the help of St. Sabina Church at 79th and Racine. The church is one of the most visible landmarks in the neighborhood, and its pastor, Father Michael Pfleger, is a community institution in his own right.

“Father Mike” helped the family with the power problem, and offered something even more important to Justin—his support and advice.

Auburn Gresham man turns empty lot into a work of art

“What’s gonna happen when I die?” Eddie Harris asks. “What are they gonna do with all my art?” Harris is 76 years old and he’s got a lifetime’s worth of art at his home. He’s skilled in many different media – painting, carving and drawing, to start. And he’ll use anything he can find to make his unique style of art: empty milk cartons, glitter, puff paints. Many of his paintings highlight African-American icons – Ray Charles and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., for instance. But there are lesser-knowns too – Fred Hampton and Shirley Chisholm.

For Harris, the whole world is a blank canvas. Auburn Gresham, though, is where he finds his inspiration. Hang around Harris for even a couple of minutes, and you’re likely to absorb all sorts of wisdom.