[Voices of Cabrini raw #9]

Footage for the documentary "Voices of Cabrini." Shot between 1995-1999, it documented the Cabrini Green redevelopment project proposed and carried out by the City of Chicago. This tape features interviews with Sirwanta Terry and Twanna Murdock in 1150 N. Sedgwick. Sirwanta Terry is the building president for 1150/1160 N. Sedgwick and Twanna Murdock is the treasurer. They discuss the CHA, the gang truce, and their opinions about the Cabrini-Green redevelopment. Tammy Smith enters the interview and shares the other women's sentiments. The end of the tape features several shots of the skyline.

00:03Copy video clip URL Audio inside someone’s apartment. Camera is zoomed in to full extent, cannot make out any objects.

0:53Copy video clip URL Open to Sirwanta, her son, and another woman at the kitchen table. The crew is setting up for an interview.

4:36Copy video clip URL Three women sit down at the kitchen table. Crew prepares.

8:53Copy video clip URL They begin the interview. Sirwanta: “We both live in the building…she lives in one of the highest floors and I live in the lowest.”

9:16Copy video clip URL Introductions. The woman in blue is named Sirwanta Terry. She lives in 1150 N. Sedgwick and is the building president for 1150/1160 N. Sedgwick. The woman wearing a brown hat is named Twanna Murdock. She also lives in 1150 N. Sedgwick and is the building treasurer for 1150/1160 N. Sedgwick.

11:23Copy video clip URL They start the interview over. The crew sets up the shot.

14:19Copy video clip URL Twanna and Sirwanta reintroduce themselves. Sirwanta describes the first time she heard she had to move out of the building: “It was never taken serious until they started tearing down the buildings…it was insinuated we had to…no one came and told us we had to move…they’re doing a lot of implications…”

15:48Copy video clip URL Sirwanta: “If the building was considered condemned, then they can do so [legally force us out]…”

16:24Copy video clip URL Director Ronit Bezalel asks them where they can move. Sirwanta: “The options they have given us are Section 8, scatter site, and other CHA developments. That’s it.”

16:54Copy video clip URL Sirwanta: “This is where I choose to be…I grew from a young girl to a woman here…I have learned a lot of things here…aside from the fact I don’t really feel like going some where and doing the whole thing all over again, meeting new people and meeting new friends…I just don’t feel like going through all that…I’m more comfortable being here.”

17:48Copy video clip URL Twanna: “I’ve been here all of my life and I have a lot of memories here and I believe that if I moved it wouldn’t be in my best interest for me or my children, because I would have to do all that I’ve accomplished over as far as their schooling, my housing, and that’s kinda hard to transfer them from one my place to another, and for them to easily adapt, I don’t think that would happen, cause I don’t think that I would. It’s like I’m afraid, too, because of the things that happen to people in new neighborhoods.” She gives an anecdote about burglary and fighting in new neighborhoods. Twanna has six children: four boys, 10, 6, 5, and 4, and two girls, 1 and 2 years old.

19:43Copy video clip URL Twanna describes the dimensions of her apartment and her rent: 3 bedroom apartment at $147/month. Before she started working it was $98.

20:40Copy video clip URL Twanna describes how CHA helps them move. CHA provides $1,200 in relocation funds. They deduct $500 if they move for you. Back money from rent is taken out of relocation money. She continues to describe her troubles with CHA.

30:07Copy video clip URL Sirwanta: “[If they make us move] We are gonna act a fool.” Twanna: “They’re gonna have a fight on their hands.”

31:07Copy video clip URL Twanna: “Everybody that’s here now doesn’t want to move…the people that are still here now, they’re willing to stay and put up a fight if that’s what they have to do–by any means necessary.”

31:56Copy video clip URL Twanna: “We already wrote letters, we had meetings, we have a lawyer that got the case into court as we speak..” Sirwanta: “We just told them: We’re not moving.”

32:51Copy video clip URL Sirwanta describes how the CHA is dislocating them to have access to Cabrini-Green’s land: “It’s time for them to expand and time for us to move away.” She talks about how the gang truce opened up the space to the CHA. Twanna: “If it was still gang banging and gun slinging…they wouldn’t have even thought about coming over here and taking nothing from nobody…”

35:58Copy video clip URL They describe the gang truce.

38:02Copy video clip URL Sirwanta refers to Dantrell Davis’s death as the catalyst for the truce, but that “it was no one incident…a lot of brothers were getting tired of gang banging.”

39:35Copy video clip URL Tammy Smith introduces herself. She reiterates earlier points: “We can share with them…if this is what they want to do, they’re going to have to make it affordable for us…”

42:53Copy video clip URL Bezalel notes that all the apartments look similar. The women share a sandwich.

44:16Copy video clip URL The women ask Bezalel how far the tape will go, but they hear sirens in the background. Tammy: “Police are outside.” They go to the window to look.

44:58Copy video clip URL Camera tries to get a view of the action outside, but there is too much light for the camera to focus.

45:38Copy video clip URL Skyline comes into focus. They talk about the route from John Hancock to a cemetery.

47:27Copy video clip URL Sirwanta points out a group of Moody Bible people coming into the building. They stand at the window for several minutes.

49:17Copy video clip URL Sirwanta points out all the new buildings that sprang up over the years. She yells to someone out the window.

51:24Copy video clip URL End of tape.