ENGLEWOOD Compiled by Erica Mosely
ENGLEWOOD
Compiled by Jade Yan, Neighborhood Captain PHOTO BY BRITTANY NORMENT
T
he sun is bright and the energy is electric as clusters of people approach the In & Out Food and Deli at the corner of South Halsted and West 66th Streets. The last operating business in this small building was a corner store with everything from cigarettes to diapers to hot italian beef sandwiches—one of many in a long list of businesses unable to maintain a hold on the property. Boarded up for months after failing health inspection after health inspection, the former eye-sore is in the process of a transformation. Teams of artists from the Englewood Arts Collective paint colorful murals as vibrant as the people of Englewood, while others lead children in arts and crafts. In the parking lot, residents and families dance to music played by community leader and resident DJ Dap, with children playing on see-saws crafted by design studio Made in Englewood. Just days after a shooting took place at the same site, residents are gathering to celebrate the launch of the free communal market, orchestrated by local community art nonprofit alt_, where shelves are regularly stocked with non-perishable
food and essential items and available to anyone in need. Dedicated, resilient, powerful, vibrant, innovative, and unstoppable. This is Englewood. I am a third-generation Englewood resident; the landscape surrounding my legacy home has evolved over the years: from a thriving Black business district, to a gang war zone, to a mass of vacant lots central to neighborhood revitalization efforts happening today. In the nineties, my father retired from the Air Force and moved our family from England to Englewood. Around the time we moved back, post white-flight and after years of systemic disinvestment, gang violence had ravaged Englewood. Many families made the difficult decision to relocate in search of safety. Our home at the corner of West 65th and South Green Streets sat in the middle of this battle, driving my family to be one of the many who would migrate to the south suburbs. But despite our physical relocation, Englewood was always my home, and the only place in America I felt connected to. When I came to a crossroads in my adult life, just like my father before me, it was only natural that I returned home to 65th and Green Street. NOVEMBER 25, 2020 ÂŹ SOUTH SIDE WEEKLY 47
