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West Side matriach turns 100
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FREE Vol. 36 No. 39
September 28, 2022
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Also serving Garfield Park
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Meet Dorothy h Powell, ll page 2
You can’t destroy a vibration
West Side artist Avery R. Young recreates the Black past on the West Side through sound By SHANEL ROMAIN Community Narrative Reporter
West Side native Avery R. Young and his music collective de deacon board performed at the Garfield Park Conservatory, 300 N. Central Ave. in West Garfield Park, on Sept. 14 and transformed the botanical cathedral into a foot-stomping Baptist church. Wearing a white robe, leather jeans, black ankle boots and a black Faaji hat, Young delivered his signature sound, which he describes as “Sousfunk.” Sous is a delicacy made of hog head cheese, which includes “every part of a hog’s head,” Young said. “My music is everything from the rooty to the tooty,” he said. “It’s the church, blues and rock.” Young, who grew up in Austin on North Avenue and Central, said the West Side heavily influenced his music. “When I was growing up on the West Side, it was saturated with Blackness,” he said. “The West Side gave me a concentration of Black voice—from the church to the houses, the juke joints, the liquor stores, the girls See AVERY YOUNG on page 4
SHANEL ROMAIN/Staff
An explosion in an Austin apartment building Tuesday morning left at least eight people injured, fire department officials said.
1 killed in Austin building explosion
A 29-year-old man died after the Sept. 20 explosion, which firefighters say was caused by a natural gas ignition
By MACK LIEDERMAN Block Club Chicago
A 29-year-old man died Sept. 20 after he was injured when his apartment building exploded this week in Austin. The Tuesday morning explosion at 5601 W. West End Ave. injured more than a halfdozen people, shattered the building’s roof, partially destroyed its roof and left bricks
WS ! NEF H S A L
and other debris strewn across the ground. The explosion was caused by “the ignition of natural gas,” the Fire Department tweeted Sept. 21. The cause of the ignition is still being determined. Eight people were hospitalized with injuries from the blast. Among them was See BUILDING EXPLOSION on page 11
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