This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.

Every Chicago summer follows a familiar pattern: Gun violence begins to spike around Memorial Day, sending municipal leaders into a fit over how to keep young people safe while community members offer up ideas and push back against efforts they doubt will help. This year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s response has centered on modifying the city’s decades-old curfew.

After 16-year-old Seandell Holliday was shot and killed in Millennium Park in mid-May, Lightfoot issued an executive order that changed the curfew from 11 PM to 10 PM and expanded its scope from those under 16 to include 17-year-olds. She also banned minors who don’t have an adult with them from entering the park after 6 PM between Thursday and Sunday, and added checkpoints and metal detectors at the entrance of the iconic park. 

Despite local pushback and evidence that curfews may actually increase crime, the Chicago City Council codified the changes in late May. And the decision to ban young people from being outside late at night came as the city struggled with access to another type of public space: A lifeguard shortage threatened the reopening of public pools.

When she learned about the new rules, Indya Pinkard, 19, felt frustrated. A youth organizer with the grassroots racial justice organization Communities United, she questioned whether forcing young people inside was the best solution to the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis. If older folks get to be outside enjoying the long-awaited Chicago summer, she wondered, why shouldn’t young people?

For 18-year-old Markell Green, the curfew changes were warranted. Green participates in Chicago CRED, an anti-violence organization. He said the city needed to address the growing trend of large crowds of young people gathering downtown, and in his mind, keeping teens indoors was a valid way to do that. 

“They was dancing on top of cars, hitting police cars,” Green said. “It was like a riot. No one was there to tell them to stop.” 

While gun violence takes a significant toll on the city’s youth, kids and teens under 19 were the third-most-impacted age group: They are 23 percent of the city’s population and 17 percent of the city’s shooting victims, according to police data analyzed by the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The people most represented in the data were between 20 and 29 years old, who made up about 39 percent of the city’s total shooting victims last year. 

But Chicago youth often feel left out of the policy decisions that affect them. So we set out to ask young people like Pinkard—teens from neighborhoods like Austin and Roseland that are most affected by gun violence—what would actually make them feel safer this summer. 

Each person we spoke with shared the more subtle ways Chicago’s gun violence crisis has altered their relationship with the city, causing them to be hyper-aware of their surroundings or leaving them wondering if they shouldn’t be outside at all. Some offered suggestions for the large-scale changes they’d need to better navigate this crisis, including curbing accessibility to guns. They also pointed to some less-obvious solutions, like expanding the public transit system so that buses and trains reach more communities and run more consistently—because in some areas, long wait times make them feel unsafe. These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Indya Pinkard, 19, from Austin 

Indya Pinkard. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

What really got me started with Communities United was I had lost my little cousin due to gun violence. She took her own life on her 18th birthday. This helps me try to get as many young people to just consider a different route.

My first reaction to the curfew changes was frustrated. I was angry. Honestly, it don’t matter if the youth is on the streets or not, our community is still going to have violence. Whether it’s young people or old, we’re still going to have violence. So what’s another way around this than just this curfew? We should have more activities, after-school programs, more mental health resources and hospitals. 

In our generation, we’re used to older people not listening to us or hearing what we have to say. We have voices, too. What if they had curfews? They would feel the same way as the youth. Not all young people are criminals. Not all young people are bad. There’s some very intelligent, good youth out here that are being punished because of the acts of a few. We only have one life. Let us live it to the fullest. 

Deanna Robinson, 17, from Greater Grand Crossing 

Deanna Robinson. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

The youth in Chicago need more respect from adults. When it comes to young people’s opinions, we can’t really get our points across and it’s frustrating and exhausting. I feel like people in power abuse their power. They feel like everything should be under their control. But we all live in this world, so we all should have a say-so in what’s going on. Anybody can have a gun. You can’t just say the youth is causing all these crimes. It’s just people, period. 

I would say the curfew is beneficial because 10 is kind of late to be outside. But at the same time, it’s limiting what you can do. It’s limiting summer fun. Personally, I like being outside. But I might be at the beach at 10:31 and a police officer sees I’m outside, they’ll be like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I don’t like interacting with police. I feel like they be trying to get down on people so I just keep my distance. 

When I’m outside, I always check in with people at home. I always make sure I know who’s going to be in a certain area or what’s going on there before I feel like I should go there. I’m rarely alone. I feel like anything can happen, so it’s better to be with somebody. 

If the city hosted more events [for young people], then it would be more controlled, which would mean people would be more safe. I feel like Chicago needs more clubs like the Boys & Girls Club. I love music, so a free music fest would be A1, especially for youth because it’s a lot of young rappers in Chicago. 

It’s kind of depressing to think about gun violence because you just know it’s so high-risk nowadays and people are just dying every day. It’s kind of hurtful to think that you can be somewhere and then you can just get shot. I don’t really know how you prevent something like that, but at the same time something should be done. 

Davione Jackson, 17, from South Shore 

Davione Jackson. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

I had a friend that passed away to gun violence a year and a couple months ago. We were close and getting closer, so to see him on a T-shirt was like, it’s really true. He’s really gone. I’m not getting my friend back. I feel like this isn’t leading youth in the right direction because all they’re going to know is gun violence, gun violence, gun violence. They’re not going to know about what it is to be a child. What it is about growing up. They’re just going to know my uncle got shot. My brother got shot. 

The amount of bodies dropping daily is just outrageous. It makes me be more cautious. I can’t walk two steps without looking behind me. Any car that comes up too slow, I get to second guessing it. Should I run? Should I stay here and just finish walking? I don’t really go nowhere unless I know I’m going to be with five people or more. I [leave the house to] do TikTok as well, but other than that, I just stay home. 

I didn’t even know we had a curfew still, so I wouldn’t say it made me feel safer. You can’t really control what people want to do with their free time. Some young people work every single day with no breaks just to feed and support their families, so they want to go outside and have fun. I’m pretty sure they’re still going to go outside. 

Being young in Chicago is crazy. There’s not a lot of things that you can do. The city needs more free things for the youth. Everything here you have to pay for. More open basketball courts. A trampoline park. Just let the kids have fun and enjoy their childhood more because that’s not something they can go back to. 

If adults are not going to hear the voice of the youth, how are you going to protect them? If we’re constantly screaming out what we need and how we want to improve our neighborhoods, then how are you going to improve it? You need to be able to hear our side of the story in order to make adjustments. 

I went to a [Latino] school and the area over there is good. But I don’t want people to think you shouldn’t be around Black people or you should only be around the [Latino] neighborhoods because it’s safer. Violence can happen anywhere. There’s certain parts of the south side, east side, west side where you can actually enjoy and be yourself. I really would want that negative thing of like, “I won’t go to Chicago. I know it’s bad. I know it’s a lot of shooting, a lot of killing and violence.” I really want people to get that out of their mind. Chicago is a beautiful city. 

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This story was originally published by The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom covering gun violence in America. Sign up for its newsletters here.

Every Chicago summer follows a familiar pattern: Gun violence begins to spike around Memorial Day, sending municipal leaders into a fit over how to keep young people safe while community members offer up ideas and push back against efforts they doubt will help. This year, Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s response has centered on modifying the city’s decades-old curfew.

After 16-year-old Seandell Holliday was shot and killed in Millennium Park in mid-May, Lightfoot issued an executive order that changed the curfew from 11 PM to 10 PM and expanded its scope from those under 16 to include 17-year-olds. She also banned minors who don’t have an adult with them from entering the park after 6 PM between Thursday and Sunday, and added checkpoints and metal detectors at the entrance of the iconic park. 

Despite local pushback and evidence that curfews may actually increase crime, the Chicago City Council codified the changes in late May. And the decision to ban young people from being outside late at night came as the city struggled with access to another type of public space: A lifeguard shortage threatened the reopening of public pools.

When she learned about the new rules, Indya Pinkard, 19, felt frustrated. A youth organizer with the grassroots racial justice organization Communities United, she questioned whether forcing young people inside was the best solution to the city’s ongoing gun violence crisis. If older folks get to be outside enjoying the long-awaited Chicago summer, she wondered, why shouldn’t young people?

For 18-year-old Markell Green, the curfew changes were warranted. Green participates in Chicago CRED, an anti-violence organization. He said the city needed to address the growing trend of large crowds of young people gathering downtown, and in his mind, keeping teens indoors was a valid way to do that. 

“They was dancing on top of cars, hitting police cars,” Green said. “It was like a riot. No one was there to tell them to stop.” 

While gun violence takes a significant toll on the city’s youth, kids and teens under 19 were the third-most-impacted age group: They are 23 percent of the city’s population and 17 percent of the city’s shooting victims, according to police data analyzed by the University of Chicago Crime Lab. The people most represented in the data were between 20 and 29 years old, who made up about 39 percent of the city’s total shooting victims last year. 

But Chicago youth often feel left out of the policy decisions that affect them. So we set out to ask young people like Pinkard—teens from neighborhoods like Austin and Roseland that are most affected by gun violence—what would actually make them feel safer this summer. 

Each person we spoke with shared the more subtle ways Chicago’s gun violence crisis has altered their relationship with the city, causing them to be hyper-aware of their surroundings or leaving them wondering if they shouldn’t be outside at all. Some offered suggestions for the large-scale changes they’d need to better navigate this crisis, including curbing accessibility to guns. They also pointed to some less-obvious solutions, like expanding the public transit system so that buses and trains reach more communities and run more consistently—because in some areas, long wait times make them feel unsafe. These interviews have been edited and condensed for clarity. 

Indya Pinkard, 19, from Austin 

Indya Pinkard. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

What really got me started with Communities United was I had lost my little cousin due to gun violence. She took her own life on her 18th birthday. This helps me try to get as many young people to just consider a different route.

My first reaction to the curfew changes was frustrated. I was angry. Honestly, it don’t matter if the youth is on the streets or not, our community is still going to have violence. Whether it’s young people or old, we’re still going to have violence. So what’s another way around this than just this curfew? We should have more activities, after-school programs, more mental health resources and hospitals. 

In our generation, we’re used to older people not listening to us or hearing what we have to say. We have voices, too. What if they had curfews? They would feel the same way as the youth. Not all young people are criminals. Not all young people are bad. There’s some very intelligent, good youth out here that are being punished because of the acts of a few. We only have one life. Let us live it to the fullest. 

Deanna Robinson, 17, from Greater Grand Crossing 

Deanna Robinson. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

The youth in Chicago need more respect from adults. When it comes to young people’s opinions, we can’t really get our points across and it’s frustrating and exhausting. I feel like people in power abuse their power. They feel like everything should be under their control. But we all live in this world, so we all should have a say-so in what’s going on. Anybody can have a gun. You can’t just say the youth is causing all these crimes. It’s just people, period. 

I would say the curfew is beneficial because 10 is kind of late to be outside. But at the same time, it’s limiting what you can do. It’s limiting summer fun. Personally, I like being outside. But I might be at the beach at 10:31 and a police officer sees I’m outside, they’ll be like, ‘What are you doing?’ And I don’t like interacting with police. I feel like they be trying to get down on people so I just keep my distance. 

When I’m outside, I always check in with people at home. I always make sure I know who’s going to be in a certain area or what’s going on there before I feel like I should go there. I’m rarely alone. I feel like anything can happen, so it’s better to be with somebody. 

If the city hosted more events [for young people], then it would be more controlled, which would mean people would be more safe. I feel like Chicago needs more clubs like the Boys & Girls Club. I love music, so a free music fest would be A1, especially for youth because it’s a lot of young rappers in Chicago. 

It’s kind of depressing to think about gun violence because you just know it’s so high-risk nowadays and people are just dying every day. It’s kind of hurtful to think that you can be somewhere and then you can just get shot. I don’t really know how you prevent something like that, but at the same time something should be done. 

Davione Jackson, 17, from South Shore 

Davione Jackson. CREDIT: Olivia Obineme for The Trace

I had a friend that passed away to gun violence a year and a couple months ago. We were close and getting closer, so to see him on a T-shirt was like, it’s really true. He’s really gone. I’m not getting my friend back. I feel like this isn’t leading youth in the right direction because all they’re going to know is gun violence, gun violence, gun violence. They’re not going to know about what it is to be a child. What it is about growing up. They’re just going to know my uncle got shot. My brother got shot. 

The amount of bodies dropping daily is just outrageous. It makes me be more cautious. I can’t walk two steps without looking behind me. Any car that comes up too slow, I get to second guessing it. Should I run? Should I stay here and just finish walking? I don’t really go nowhere unless I know I’m going to be with five people or more. I [leave the house to] do TikTok as well, but other than that, I just stay home. 

I didn’t even know we had a curfew still, so I wouldn’t say it made me feel safer. You can’t really control what people want to do with their free time. Some young people work every single day with no breaks just to feed and support their families, so they want to go outside and have fun. I’m pretty sure they’re still going to go outside. 

Being young in Chicago is crazy. There’s not a lot of things that you can do. The city needs more free things for the youth. Everything here you have to pay for. More open basketball courts. A trampoline park. Just let the kids have fun and enjoy their childhood more because that’s not something they can go back to. 

If adults are not going to hear the voice of the youth, how are you going to protect them? If we’re constantly screaming out what we need and how we want to improve our neighborhoods, then how are you going to improve it? You need to be able to hear our side of the story in order to make adjustments. 

I went to a [Latino] school and the area over there is good. But I don’t want people to think you shouldn’t be around Black people or you should only be around the [Latino] neighborhoods because it’s safer. Violence can happen anywhere. There’s certain parts of the south side, east side, west side where you can actually enjoy and be yourself. I really would want that negative thing of like, “I won’t go to Chicago. I know it’s bad. I know it’s a lot of shooting, a lot of killing and violence.” I really want people to get that out of their mind. Chicago is a beautiful city. 

Read More

For more than a decade, Chicago multi-instrumentalist and engineer Jake Acosta has been a key player in a loose federation of subversive musicians. He’s done a lot of crucial work running record labels too: beginning in 2011, he’s released a heap of cassettes via Teen River, and then in 2012 he launched Lake Paradise, which has focused on vinyl. Acosta’s labels have ushered music into the world by some of my favorite Chicago indie artists of the past decade, among them rambunctious psych-pop unit Mines, gentle singer-songwriter Julie Byrne, and mellow rocker J Fernandez. Until this month, the most recent Lake Paradise release was a 2018 EP from ambitious local rock group Fran, but Acosta has ended his label’s dry spell with a trippy album from his group Famous Laughs. On the new Total Icon, Acosta wraps up plinking synths and spry percussion in his cracking, weathered guitars. His engrossing six-string landscapes submerge you gradually, as though you’re acclimating your body to a pool by walking toward the deep end inch by inch. Acosta makes wild melodic twists and turns, but he does it gingerly enough that you can luxuriate in them—and the carefulness of his playing doesn’t let his energy leak away. On “Blues of a Kind,” his dry baritone singing plays off lighter guest vocals from Fran’s Maria Jacobson, anchoring the song as shaggy guitars burn through feral fits of anger and circle around an evanescent calm—the song’s sudden moves will keep you hooked, and they might even surprise you into a laugh.

Famous Laughs’s Total Icon is available through Bandcamp.

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For more than a decade, Chicago multi-instrumentalist and engineer Jake Acosta has been a key player in a loose federation of subversive musicians. He’s done a lot of crucial work running record labels too: beginning in 2011, he’s released a heap of cassettes via Teen River, and then in 2012 he launched Lake Paradise, which has focused on vinyl. Acosta’s labels have ushered music into the world by some of my favorite Chicago indie artists of the past decade, among them rambunctious psych-pop unit Mines, gentle singer-songwriter Julie Byrne, and mellow rocker J Fernandez. Until this month, the most recent Lake Paradise release was a 2018 EP from ambitious local rock group Fran, but Acosta has ended his label’s dry spell with a trippy album from his group Famous Laughs. On the new Total Icon, Acosta wraps up plinking synths and spry percussion in his cracking, weathered guitars. His engrossing six-string landscapes submerge you gradually, as though you’re acclimating your body to a pool by walking toward the deep end inch by inch. Acosta makes wild melodic twists and turns, but he does it gingerly enough that you can luxuriate in them—and the carefulness of his playing doesn’t let his energy leak away. On “Blues of a Kind,” his dry baritone singing plays off lighter guest vocals from Fran’s Maria Jacobson, anchoring the song as shaggy guitars burn through feral fits of anger and circle around an evanescent calm—the song’s sudden moves will keep you hooked, and they might even surprise you into a laugh.

Famous Laughs’s Total Icon is available through Bandcamp.

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The Chicago comedian and writer Dwayne Kennedy has a pretty raw joke about summer being “shooting season” in Chicago that I’ve heard him perform a few times on stage. Kennedy says, “I don’t know what it is about the warm weather in Chicago that just brings everyone out. ‘Hey, it’s 79 degrees!’” and then makes shooting noises. “I haven’t seen you all winter, dawg! [pow, pow, pow] How’s your aunt?” You can hear him do a version over on Bandcamp on his album Who The Hell is Dwayne Kennedy? and if you listen to the track, you’ll hear the same response I’ve heard at Zanies to Kennedy’s joke—nervous but sustained laughter at a problem that seems to have no end. As we went to press this week, we were still reeling from the tragic mass shooting that happened in Highland Park that left seven dead. Some of us can still feel the pangs of memory from a mass shooting that happened in Englewood last June which resulted in five deaths. Different circumstances, both horrible. And with some distance, we find ourselves asking what is the solution to all of this? How do we make the city and our world “safe”? 

Cities like ours often get “eradicating crime so everyone can enjoy themselves in peace” mixed up with “controlling the people that we think are committing the crimes so that everyone can enjoy themselves in peace—well, not everyone. Not y’all.” And it’s easy to see how BIPOC in Chicago have disproportionately been on the receiving end of a variety of mayors and police superintendents’ attempts to keep their jobs—thinly veiled in the form of mandates, blustery speeches, and, let’s face it, changing the curfew for teenagers for one specific city/private (oh, it’s public land all right—but tell that to the security guards) park that frankly they’d rather have only the white kids you used to see on 00s episodes of Extreme Makeover: Home Edition show up at. White teenagers from rural Montana or somewhere, who love Jesus and judiciously use the word “sick.” Yes, those kids are welcome in my city. But not any more welcome than teenagers who already live and work here, who need open spaces to catch up with their friends after school and jobs, who need to experience the city in the ways that we all did growing up—a crazy, busy place where there was ample room for adventure and discovery, and not the constant burden of living in fear of being prosecuted for “walking while Black teen.” 

In this issue, Justin Agrelo, in a feature originally written for the nonprofit newsroom The Trace, shares with us the perspective of three Chicago young people who already work and live here, who are from here in the way that you and I are from here, who deserve everything the city has to offer. It’s always a long summer in Chicago, and the city needs to do better by our young people so they can spend the season and beyond enjoying themselves. And learning. And training to be adults. And let’s come back to joy—what will it take before all of us make a commitment to living together in not just peace but joy? 

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