Nine Miles West

“There's no place like home.”

Separated by just a few stops on the green line, nine miles west of the bustling financial epicenter of the Chicago Loop is Austin, one of the most impoverished and underserved neighborhoods in the city. Surrounded by violence, gangs, guns and drugs in his daily life, a graduating high school senior reflects on his experience growing up in this neighborhood and how the traumas associated with it shaped his life.