Chicago's Cabrini Green housing project is internationally infamous as a cesspool of gangs, violence and inner-city neglect and has earned a place at the center of the Chicago Housing Authority's $1.4 billion "Plan For Transformation," purportedly intending to replace the dilapidated tenement with a vibrant, mixed-income neighborhood.

While the slow demolition of Cabrini that began three years ago has drawn the attention of film makers who have documented the fall of Cabrini, human rights activists advocating for former residents who are now homeless and even suburban horticulturists, who are working to supply the new community with urban landscaping, the neighborhood, like the people who inhabit it, has always had an existence all it's own.

A group of young women who grew up in Cabrini-Green have been working to preserve their neighborhood as they remember it, through collecting photographs, interviews and writings. Their work will be displayed publicly this Friday, September 21, in an exhibit that offers a rare glimpse into what the neighborhood looked like through the eyes of the children who lived, played and grew up there.

Born out of softball practice discussions, the Neighborhood Project has spent the past three years gathering evidence of the spirit of Cabrini that Jasmine Freeman, 14, says "always brings people back, no matter what." Out of a classroom in Shiller Middle School, directly across from the Division St. towers, girls involved in the project are aiming to display “the good in Cabrini," says Nina Hatter, 13, "because they just think it's all bad, that it's all shooting and fighting."

They will have a collection of 110 photographs, a slideshow and transcribed interviews with past residents on display at CCT Gallery through September 28, with an artists reception this Friday.

Sarah Anderson, the first grade teacher and softball coach who facilitates the project, sees it "more about historical preservation than activism."

The Cabrini Green that the girls describe, and the one that they have been meticulously documenting, is quickly becoming history. Except for the Frances Cabrini Row houses, pricey condos and town homes boasting skyline views and proximity to the Loop are already at or near completion, and Phase I townhouse buyers began moving in just after Labor Day of this year.

Their apartments are peppered with subsidized apartments, ostensibly for the old residents, less than 5,000 of whom still remain. The completion date for CHA's Plan is now slated for 2015 -- at which point, who knows where the girls, and their old friends, will be?

"We miss it a lot. We don't be having parties like we used to," explained Nina, who lives in one of the last standing towers. "The police are a lot stricter now. you can't have a party on CHA property anymore. You can't barbeque. Like if we put up a flyer for a party, the police will say they're gonna shut it down and stuff. "

This project is important, explained Rosie Ricks, "because it's not gonna be here no more. The people aren't gonna be here no more. Cabrini green was a great place to be. The events were special times for us -- talent shows, baseball tournaments and birthday parties that the whole neighborhood would show up to.

"To me, I think when I was little, Cabrini Green was the safest place in the world, 'cause it was home, and you knew that couldn't nobody tell you that Cabrini Green was not your home," said Jasmine.

"We knew everybody," Rosie chimed in.

"They knew my mama, everybody knew Miss Briggs," said Nina.

"Ebony!" and they all began to laugh.

"Miss She-she," Jasmine said.

"Yeah, Miss She-she."

Now, as they move onto high school, some will be heading to Lincoln Park, Roberto Clemente, or schools on the south side or in the suburbs.

When asked to pick out their favorite pictures, most of them selected images of buildings, or empty lots where the buildings once stood. But some of them picked more lively pictures of kids doing handstands, playing basketball, or goofing off on the playground.

Ricks picked one she titled "Hangin on to What's Left," featuring a friend, hanging from the monkey bars. She wrote under it "When I hang on to the bar, I feel like it will be there forever."

But she knows it won't.

And though the girls can't change any of that, they are proud of what they have done for their dispersed community, by trying to help preserve some of the "good" of Cabrini, just for the record.