Illinois 20

Listen to Illinois 20, a 20-year-old man from Chicago, Illinois, United States. Click or tap the triangle-shaped play button to hear the subject.

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BIOGRAPHICAL INFORMATION

AGE: 20

DATE OF BIRTH (DD/MM/YYYY): 24/08/1997

PLACE OF BIRTH: Harvey/Calumet Park, Illinois (south suburbs of Chicago)

GENDER: male

ETHNICITY: African American

OCCUPATION: actor

EDUCATION: high school graduate, some college

AREA(S) OF RESIDENCE OUTSIDE REPRESENTATIVE REGION FOR LONGER THAN SIX MONTHS:

The subject has never lived outside the Chicago area. He gives the following description of the places he has lived: “I was born on the far south side of Chicago in Calumet Park. When he was 5 years old, my mother and I moved to Matteson, Illinois. It is a south suburb of Chicago that is 15-20 minutes out of the city. When I was 13, we moved to Homewood, which is a few miles north of Matteson and maybe 10-15 minutes out of the city. When I turned 18, I moved back to Calumet Park and have lived in Chicago for the last three years.”

OTHER INFLUENCES ON SPEECH:

Although the subject moved to Matteson, his mother (who is a school teacher) kept him in schools that were on the south side of Chicago for about five years because those were the schools at which she taught. He grew up mostly around people from Chicago’s south and west sides until he was about 10. He then interacted with a mix of south suburban families and other families who used to live in Chicago but had moved. Most of the schools he attended were majority African American until he went to high school, where the ethnic background was very mixed.

The subject’s passion for acting and public speaking might have had an effect on his speech.

The text used in our recordings of scripted speech can be found by clicking here.

RECORDED BY: Jabari Khaliq (subject)

DATE OF RECORDING (DD/MM/YYYY): 08/06/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF SCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

ORTHOGRAPHIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH:

For the first few years of my life, I grew up on the far south side of Chicago. Mmm, my mom was a schoolteacher, so she taught, um, at certain CPS schools, and I would attend the schools that she taught at. But then she decided that she wanted me to go to, um, some better schools for me that were a little more, um, a little more better for me educationally. And we moved to the suburbs so I can go to school out there. I went to schools in the south suburbs, so Matteson, Illinois; Homewood, Illinois — those were primarily the schools I went to growing up.

Um, the neighborhood that I lived in: We lived in a very small apartment, um, two bedroom — real nice, real cool. It had a very nice neighborhood with a lot of kids, lot of families, and I lived there for about eight years. And when I went to high school, I moved to Homewood, Illinois, which was a little more of a wealthier environment and a wealthier neighborhood, and that was cool as well.

My favorite food is probably pizza, and then my sec-, like a close second is like chicken. Like, I love pizza; I’ve been eating pizza since I was a baby. Like, my dad used to tell stories about how even before I had teeth, I would like have two front teeth, and he would feed me the cheese to a slice of pizza, so I definitely love pizza. I think Chicago pizza has the best pizza. Chicken is great. Any type of chicken is good. If it’s baked, if it’s fried, you know, mild sauce, barbecue sauce — you can’t go wrong with any type of chicken. I love it. Love it a lot.

Certain things I like to do: Um, obviously, I love acting; that’s like my number-one art. My second one would probably be photography; a lot of people, um, know that, and then some people don’t know that. I own two cameras. I love doing different types of photoshoots. Uh, portraits are fun. I love architecture; I love nature; I, I consider myself like, you know, a jack-of-all trades when it comes to that, when it comes to photography. So, yeah, acting and photography. I also enjoy writing and public speaking. I love a lot of things that can give me a platform to share my voice in different ways. So, yeah, if it’s an art form where I can share my thoughts, feelings, and emotions with other people and make them feel something, then, you know, I’m, I’m down for it, and it is something I really enjoy doing a lot.

TRANSCRIBED BY: Jabari Khaliq (subject)

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION: 08/06/2018

PHONETIC TRANSCRIPTION OF UNSCRIPTED SPEECH: N/A

TRANSCRIBED BY: N/A

DATE OF TRANSCRIPTION (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

SCHOLARLY COMMENTARY: N/A

COMMENTARY BY: N/A

DATE OF COMMENTARY (DD/MM/YYYY): N/A

The archive provides:

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• Text of the speakers’ biographical details.

• Scholarly commentary and analysis in some cases.

• In most cases, an orthographic transcription of the speakers’ unscripted speech.  In a small number of cases, you will also find a narrow phonetic transcription of the sample (see Phonetic Transcriptions for a complete list).  The recordings average four minutes in length and feature both the reading of one of two standard passages, and some unscripted speech. The two passages are Comma Gets a Cure (currently our standard passage) and The Rainbow Passage (used in our earliest recordings).

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