@page { margin-bottom: 5.000000pt; margin-top: 5.000000pt; } A MESSAGE FOR STUPID PEOPLE REGGIE Reggie—not his real name—is a 19-year-old who grew up in Chicago’s Back of the Yards neighborhood, which takes its name from its location east and west of the old Union Stockyards. Once the center of Chicago’s meatpacking industry, this Southwest Side community is now filled with abandoned buildings and vacant lots. Reggie and his twin brother were raised by their maternal grandmother in a household that included several cousins and uncles. More recently, it includes the boys’ 2-year-old sister. They also have three siblings they do not know who grew up in foster care, as well as some half-sisters through their father. Reggie’s interviews took place at the Precious Blood Community Center at South 51st and Elizabeth Streets, near Sherman Park. Housed in a former school building, only yards from the border separating one gang’s territory from another, Precious Blood serves as a kind of peace zone—providing young people with a safe place to hang out, while offering them creative outlets in music, art, video and writing.
