Chi Raq « Reclaiming Our Way

4Aug/140

‘You Don’t Really Know Us,’ Chicago Kids Tell News Media

Bradwell School of Excellence - Chicago, Illinois

Posted on NPR on August 2, 2014.

Tired of seeing their neighborhood portrayed in news reports as a desolate and violent place, fifth-graders in Chicago's South Shore area wrote what their teacher calls a "counternarrative." Their op-ed for The Chicago Tribune includes this line: "This isn't Chi-raq. This is home. This is us."

The students attend the Bradwell School of Excellence in South Shore. They wrote their essay collaboratively, taking the best parts of what they wanted to say. In one section they spoke directly to reporters who drop in to report on a shooting, telling them, "but you don't really know us."

Two of the students — Rondayle Sanders and Damiontaye Rodgers – discuss the essay on today's Weekend Edition, along with their teacher, Linsey Rose.

Approximately 5 minutes.

Tagged as: Bill Chapell, Bradwell School of Excellence, Chi Raq, Chicago, Chicago Tribune, NPR, Weekend Edition, Youth Advocacy No Comments

3Jan/140

Chi Raq by Will Robson-Scott: Intimate Perspectives on Chicago Violence

As overall rates of (gun) violence drop in Chicago, the dynamic within Chicago's Black and Brown neighborhoods and communities persists, masked by the city-wide (improvement) trends. The crisis continues. In the video below, hear perspectives on Chicago violence from youth and young adults most directly involved and impacted.

Protein is very proud to present Chi Raq, a film by London-born photographer/filmmaker Will Robson- Scott. The first in a series of exclusive commissions for Protein TV, Chi Raq is an intimate video portrait of life in South and West Chicago.

For the past decade, Chicago has been enduring a violence epidemic, with a death toll in the thousands and casualties mirroring the losses experienced by the US army in Iraq war over the same period. Allowing its subjects to take centre stage and tell their stories in their own words, Robson-Scottʼs film is unflinchingly honest in its depiction of life on the streets of one of the most dangerous cities in America.