Voices of Uptown (Update 7.21 – 7.23)

Hello, everyone! This is simply an update on what has been going on last week (the week (July 21 through July 23). So much has been going on lately for the members of MAVReC, and we have been able to get a fair amount of things done.

Last week, on Wednesday, July 28, 2015, several members of MAVReC went to the VOP’s Tech Center to secure interviews with people who were and are personally affected by the gentrification of Uptown. This is a part of our oral history project (one of two) this summer dealing with the topic of gentrification and affordable housing in the Uptown neighborhood. The purpose of this project is to give a voice to the most oppressed and marginalized of the Uptown community, and to preserve that voice. We are currently collaborating with an organization called Voice of the People, whose fliers we have attached below, and if anybody from the Uptown area is interested in sharing their story about Uptown and the how gentrification and rising rent prices have personally affected them, please contact us through the information below.

Anyways, at the VOP Tech Center, we went around the buildings to ask people if they were willing to share their stories,one of them was a man by the name of Prince Noble El. Prince Noble El is a community organizer in Uptown who has lived there since 1993, and is a member of the Moorish Science Temple. A clip from the interview is available at the top of this post, and the full interview will be released later. In this short clip Mr. Prince talks about the basketball rims within his community being taken down without the consent of the people.

The interview was a very interesting experience, with Prince not only discussing his life experiences as a community organizer in Uptown and the struggles of the Uptown community, but also other topics including nationality and the ethnic makeup of Uptown and other neighborhoods in Chicago. Overall, it was a privilege to interview Prince Noble El and to listen to what he had to say about the Uptown community.

MAVReC Group Discussion 7/14: Michael Pfleger

Men Against Violence Research Collaborative discusses Michael Pfleger’s recent comments calling out Chief Keef after the death of his friend Capo and 13-month-old, Dillon Harris.

Introduction to MAVReC 2015

Hello! We are the Men Against Violence Research Collaborative.  Our mission is to promote a counter space for youth who are marginalized, oppressed, and looked down upon by society, through Youth Participatory Action Research (YPAR).  YPAR encourages these oppressed youth to work together to understand and spread knowledge of the issues that affect our communities.  YPAR also encourages youth to prevent violence in their communities and to fight against the negative stereotypes of young people and people of color.

Currently our projects are covering two major issues: police brutality and gentrification.   Police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Gentrification is the process of renewal and rebuilding accompanying the influx of middle-class or affluent people into poor neighborhoods that often displaces poorer residents.

Men Against Violence Research Collaborative’s hopes to accomplish our goal of spreading information about these issues through informative oral history and getting as many people as possible involved in our fight against these problems in our communities.