story from the road

yesterday, with my Discover Chicago class (see my last post), we travelled south as far as 71st and Jeffery (which would be, I believe, the South Shore neighborhood) and also made stops in Kenwood, Hyde Park, as well as Bronzeville. We ended our day at the Donnelly Community Center at 40th and Indiana.

There, we saw two murals – “Another Time’s Voice Remembers My Passion’s Humanity” and “The Great Migration” – the detail shots here are from the latter.

Prior to arriving at the Donnelly Community Center, we had ridden the State St bus from 71st to 49th, where we walked a block over to the mural, “History of the Packinghouse Worker” and from there, walked up two blocks and east three to the corner of 47th and Calumet. This short trek of ours generated a lot of interest, and really, where can a long line of 23 people led by a man in a cowboy hat go in Chicago and not be something of a spectacle? So we (four students of color, plus 20 white folks, the lot of us looking very DePaul) are marching down the street when a slightly disreputable looking white van careens around the corner and heads down Michigan Ave. As they pass us, a voice floats out the passenger window:

“…There goes the neighborhood!”