Sorry for no pictures this week, the only opportunity I felt could have benefited from pictures, which I will get to a bit later, is the one where I forgot my camera. Hence you will have only my words to go by.
I felt my like my morning story and my Chicago adventures this past week required separate posts, otherwise It would be one really really really long post.
Anyways the past two Friday's have been really good highlights for me in our class known as Core Course. Two Friday's ago, we got to explore one of Chicago's many secrets, The Pedway. I already knew a little about the Pedway from one of my teachers, Robyn, and she told me about this shortcut to get to school. I was a little hesitant when she said it was underground, thinking it sounded a little sketchy, but she was like no, no, it's a shopping mall. Now I was really confused but willing to give it a try. So the next day I got off the blue line at Washington (instead of Clark and Lake) and since then I've been hooked. It's so much faster! I knew that the Pedway extended far past where I turned up the stairs to go to the street level, and promised that I would explore where it leads to someday, not knowing that that day would be so soon! Our core course teacher's Robyn and Mary, decided to take our class on a Pedway adventure, and I got to explore more of the Pedway territory, and I can now get anywhere I need downtown using this amazing system.
Yesterday however, was a whole new experience entirely. Our Core course class was split up into 2 groups to study 2 different neighborhoods, one was assigned to go to Bronzeville and and my group was to go to Humbolt Park. I knew a bit about both neighborhoods, and knew there was much more to them than there bad reputations. I was glad I got to go to Humbolt Park, as Peurto Rican influence was much more interesting to me as I have friends who are Peurto Rican, or who are from that area. The goal was to learn by talking to people from the community (meetings that were set up by our teachers) and it was so amazing. In the morning I got to meet Brooke, an amazing and young 20 something who founded a non profit arts center called Rumble Arts which offers free art programming and free community space to the community of Humbolt Park. She gives and finds programming that the community wants, not what she wants to give. In less than four years it has gone from her and 1 room to 3 floors of an entire building and 8 partner organizations. She is so inspirational and it is really cool talking to someone who is doing exactly what I want to do, giving back to people especially the arts.
The rest of our day was just as cool, we ate some pretty good Peurto Rican food for lunch, and visited the Intsitute of Peurto Rican arts and Culture which is a beautiful building with a history that intrigued me. At that point, I was wishing that we could have heard about the other parts of Humbolt Park, not just the highly publicized Puerto Rican side, but had settled with the fact that since we were at a Puerto Rican Center, that was just what our teachers had set out for us to learn about today. HA! Little did I know about a fiesty Peurto Rican named Dr. Jose Lopez, who, in my opinion, if he wasn't spending his days being the face of Humboldt Park, should be a professor at a university. This man told us stories, and did explain the whole Humbolt Park, and almost put more emphasis on the African American influence than anything else. He was very entertaining to listen too, and I think I learned more from him historically and educationally than I have all semester. If he was a professor, I would take every class he offered. Peace.
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