Remember The Projects?
Consult A Professional- Dazee Dizzle
12/15/2014
Chicago, IL
Public housing. I did not grow up living in public housing but, I have the memories just the same. When I was younger, public housing had stigma. It was full of crime and poverty. We were not supposed to go to the “Projects”.
At the same time, I got a job at the Robert Taylor Boys and Girls Club working for Ken Dunkin who was not yet a politician. Right near 55th and Federal. (For my out of town readers The Robert Taylor Homes was where this particular Boys and Girls Club was located). At the Club was where I also met, Torre Torrey and she gave me her demo. (later she sang a chorus for Kanye West). At the same time started publishing my poetry on my first site (I also reposted stories from AP) in addition to my day job.
Ken Dunkin marched and did activism for public housing. I was making beats and struggling with my website.
He decided to run for public office, I decided to go work for a start-up.
I realized that I needed to learn how to do production and decided to go back to school and study multimedia production.
One of my relatives is part of a documentary video production team that did work on a video about public housing. I got to look at the B roll. I saw images of Cabrini Green. There were ratholes and trash. It was a scene out of a horror movie.
The work was so compelling that they went and documented the “projects” in other cities. I submitted music for the soundrack.
A couple of years later, as outcry over the squalid conditions of the “Projects” became more visible, my city decided to tear down the “Projects” for a plan that favored mixed income housing.
Soon after, I ran into State Representative Ken Dunkin at my cousin’s dance recital.
