My American (Chicago) Culture: Chi-Town Steppin'
The video taped at Taste Entertainment Center on Chicago’s South Side, features its regular friday night eveen, stepping in Chicago. And if you don't at least know what stepping is, you AIN'T from Chicago.
Chicago Public Radio featured in the video above, Poet Lamar Jordan, 22, who grew up in the hip-hop generation but has old school steppers for parents. For him, the dance culture is synonymous with a kind of Chicago pride that becomes the point of entry for his poem We Step:
This ain't the typical hoe-down
you're accustomed to in your town,
this is Chi-Town.
The greatest city in the nation.
And steppin' is its physical representation.
Jordan is a former member of the Steimenauts, the award-winning spoken word team from Steinmetz High School whose intense, gut-wrenching final performance steals the show in the Louder Than a Bomb documentary film. The text above is excerpted from this article.