MARTHA IRVINE
AP National Writer
CHICAGO (AP) — With the echo of African drums, Fairfield Avenue comes alive.
Men, women and children, drawn to their front porches by the pulsing beat, witness an impromptu parade led by 60-year-old Hasan Smith. A long line of well-wishers follows him to the home that he helped rebuild — the first home he has ever owned.
"Hello, neighbors!" his wife, Mary, shouts.
They all wave, and celebrate another chapter in the rebirth of a neighborhood.
Today, the area known as Chicago Lawn is a place where kids ride bikes, where revelers gather for block parties and street dances, where shoppers frequent a farmers' market and a resale shop in a once-vacant storefront and where neighborhood teens find work at a screen-printing business.
Though still a work
