There is a Little Village Arts Fest being held on Oct. 2nd – 4th 2009
Come out and spend your weekend attending FREE art exhibits, workshops, and performances.
For more information visit www.myspace.com/littlevillageartsfest
or contact Jose Aleman 773.450.9624 | littlevillageartsfest@gmail.com
Laura Nuñez 312.972.3808
SEE YOU THERE!
Check out the article that came out on the front page of Hoy September 16, 2009
http://www.vivelohoy.com/noticias/localidades/chicago/vvl2-pp._4_y_5_parquesep16,0,1742158.story
Our youth group (YAOTL) will be having meetings for our News letter “El Cilantro” every Thursday at 5:30 pm. New comers are welcome, you can receive service learning hours for contributing
to our news letter and coming to our meetings. Don’t miss out!
Where: LVEJO 2856 S. Millard Avenue. Chicago, ILÂ 60623
Phone: (773) 762 – 6991
100,000 in Little Village wait for an open space they can enjoy
Illustration by Bushra Kabir
A park isn’t too much to ask for.
In Little Village, we have just one park, the 11-acre Piotrowski Park at 31st Street and Keeler Avenue, to serve more than 100,000 people, half under the age of 21.I am a youth organizer at the Little Village Environmental Justice Organization and I am in the open-space campaign. I am currently pushing for a park in my community since we have a lack of open space.In 2000, Ald. Ricardo Munoz (22nd) promised us a park. Father Foley from St. Agnes of Bohemia, our local church, was willing to buy a site at Central Park and 31 Street for a youth center, but the city said the price would be too high. We later found out the city had sold the site to the owners of MRC Polymers for 50 cents per square yard. My community members were very upset and decided to protest in front of the site by using it for cookouts, soccer tournaments and other activities. The city responded by putting a gate up to prevent people from gaining access. “For too many years, the only green space available in Little Village has been Piotrowski Park at 31st Street and Keeler Avenue,†said Jaime Seoane, president of the South Lawndale/Little Village Community Park Council. “Now this new park will provide a multitude of recreational and social programs that will impact the greater Southwest Side.†Seoane is referring to the 24-acre property (bounded by 27th and 31 Streets and Sacramento and Albany Streets) the city has promised to the community. Once the Celotex Superfund site, it was remediated by the Environmental Protection Agency last year. Now it is private property, and the city is negotiating with the property owner, Joanne Urso, who is renting it to truck parking businesses without a permit. “ Every time I go to apply for a permit, they tell me about something else I need to do,†Urso told the Chicago Tribune in July.“We would not be able to give the special use permit for parking trucks because it’s not what the community wants for the land,†Ald. George Cardenas (12th) said. The city is offering her $7.1million but she says she wants a fair price.“ Urso has never objected to selling the property; she just wants to get a fair price,” Urso’s attorney, Stephen Helm said. “All the appraisals I have say it’s worth in excess of $10 million; some are substantially more. The sale has stalled because the city has yet to disclose the appraisal that it is going to use in court in the eminent domain case.†The city and the Chicago Park District have each pledged $4 million for the project and the state $8 million, according to Cardenas. So we the people of Little Village carry on, waiting for the sale, the cleanup and a park we can enjoy. Maybe by next summer.
(Sources)
Extra News
http://www.extranews.net/news.php?nid=2225&pag=0
Chicago Tribune
http://archives.chicagotribune.com/2009/jul/01/local/chi-090701little-village-park
North Lawndale’s Green Youth Farm plants seeds that bear many fruits
By Brenda E. Becerra
Photos by Brenda E. Becerra
Past vacant lots and urban concrete, stands a quarter-acre garden of healthy produce. Strawberries, squash, basil and cucumbers and other crops grow as a sign of aspiration in one of Chicago’s most oppressed neighborhoods. Each summer, about 35 high school students put their hands to work in the Chicago Botanic Garden’s Green Youth Farm at 3539 W. Ogden Ave., in North Lawndale. The Botanic Garden sponsors two other farms in the city.
Since the program’s initiation in 2003, the farm has given the North Lawndale teens a summer job and a chance to learn the value of organic farming.
“Some of the things we grow here, I’ve never even thought about eating,†said Sharice Lee, 18, as she finished watering some plants.
Lee, an enrolling freshman at Northeastern Illinois University, was among about 20 teenagers, ages 15 to 18, at the farm on a recent afternoon. Working between mid-May and mid-October, up to four days a week, the students earn a four-figure stipend.
The benefits for the teens far outweigh the wages they earn. For one, the students learn how crops get from the farm to the table, said Eliza Fournier, manager of school and community gardening at the Botanic Garden. Every Tuesday, the North Lawndale teens take what they have grown to use in weekly cooking sessions with another group of students at the North Chicago Farm. They have made chicken salad among other dishes this summer.
Fournier said the final lesson every summer is: “It prepares them to be leaders in school and in future jobs.â€
On a recent hot morning, the sun was bright as kids with dirty hands worked vigorously as a team. Some students watered the plants on raised beds. Others picked out the ripe crops, such as red delectable strawberries. Another group welcomed and attended customers buying fresh produce from their market stand.
“When you work here, they want you to try everything you grow, harvest and plant,†said Kameesha Thomas, a freshman at Collin
Academy High School.
After each planting season, the group’s work serves as a beacon in a neighborhood with lots of vacant lots but rarely any gardens. Last fall, the North Lawndale Green Youth Farm won first pl ace in the city’s Landscape Award, which honors Chicagoans who help make the city more environmentally friendly.
The greatest compensation for Clifton Coleman, 18, an incoming freshman at Chicago State University, has always been helping his community. Coleman has been volunteering at the garden for three years.
“What I enjoy about the program is that it’s different,†he said while selling fresh produce in a farmers market stand outside the garden. “What’s so different about it is that you do things that you wouldn’t normally see a teen doing.â€
(Source)
Green Youth Farm
http://www.chicago-botanic.org/greenyouthfarm
The green movement has excluded low-income people of color with the over exaggerated prices for eco-friendly products. It seems that the bias trendy green bug only bites the rich. Many of the eco-friendly cleaning products help save the Earth and are also better for your health. I provided the example of how my mother used bleach and ammonia for cleaning purposes around the house and how this contributed to her respiratory problems. She knows how these products can be deteriorating to her health but until today, it is difficult for her to get her hands on an eco-friendly product. This is a common story that happens in most of our communities. Therefore, I will provide cheap healthy alternatives for cleaning that are also environmentally friendly. Many folks have told me that baking soda does wonders! Baking soda cleans and disinfects. People have also recommended using white vinegar because it cuts grease, removes mildew, odors and some stains. Lemon is one of the strongest food-acids effective against most household bacteria. Borax cleans, disinfects, and cleans wallpaper, painted walls and floors. Instead of using air fresheners that diminish your sense of smell and coats nasal passages, have fresh flowers in the house and bowls of fragrant dried herbs. Another recommendation is fresh coffee grounds on the counter or shimmer water and cinnamon or other spices on the stove. I hope these recommendations help you live a healthier life while doing your chores and while helping the planet at an affordable price.
By: Carooh
Resouces: http://www.eartheasy.com/live_nontoxic_solutions.htm
By: Perla Cervantes
When it comes down to choosing the right product for your face, young ladies go with what they think is more popular or what their instinct tells them.
Yet, many young ladies don’t realize how much harm they are doing to their skin.
One thing I definitely learned in my chemistry class during my junior year was how the products we use in our daily lives affect our environment and us in the long run.
The purpose was to understand how we could better our lives and the lives of those we love.
As we conducted our projects we had to replace the product we were using with another one that was healthier for both, our body and the environment.
One of the things I was really interested in investigating was the different elements being used in the Covergirl products.
The reason I chose Covergirl out of all the other labels was because I used to use those products for my persona.
Covergirl is a company that focuses on producing cosmetics for the face, lips, and eyes.
As I started to conduct my research I noticed that many of these products involve elements that we have no hint of what they are doing to our skin.
The process I took was investigating the different effects every element had in the body of a human being.
On of the most shocking things to find out personally was that as I went down the list of elements, 80% percent of those were cancerous and 20%
cause some type of birth delays and defects to our system. Not only was this hard to believe for my self
but it was frustrating to know because coming from a community in which many of the people don’t have much knowledge of the English language
or even about chemistry makes it difficult to make a change in their lives.
Indeed, another important fact I learned from this research was that there are organic products that we can use to better our lives.
Many people don’t pay attention to these products because they are Cosmetics that are very expensive.
When it comes to Organic products I learned that they are eco-friendly and they use 93% less plastic than Covergirl or any other prestigious company.
I made my choice of bettering my life as well as passing the knowledge I gain to the people in my community and those I love.
I have chosen to use organic make-up because I believe that if I can make a difference than the rest can absolutely contribute to it.
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