Blog 7: An Intro and a Light City Discovery!

Within Baltimore City, a vibrant art community thrives.  Festivals, arts districts, galleries, and theaters create an environment that inspires creativity within the city.  The following segment explores the missions and histories of the Downtown Cultural Arts Center, Contemporary Museum, Eubie Blake Cultural Center, and Arena Players. Each venue offers a different aspect of arts in Baltimore. Whether it is community arts programs, formally trained artists and galleries, jazz, or historically African-American theater performances, diversity exists downtown in the arts of this area. Through meaningful conversations with key stakeholders [I want to find another word...something more personal and explanatory], artists, and patrons we aim to answer: What does art do for this neighborhood in Baltimore?

Trying to gather information on the following things:
Intended and unintended who and how these spaces are used
Juxtaposition of Contemporary vs DCAC

In the last week, not too much has been going on in my group. Starting this week we will be visiting the venues and galleries to learn more about the missions of these groups. We will be attending several events coming up including an open mic, comedy show, and gallery opening. I plan on further exploring the history of these spaces so that Ilesh and Christina are prepared for their interviews and I'm also preparing to transcribe the interviews we get. I'm not available a lot to go to these spaces so I hope to help in whatever behind-the-scenes ways that I can.

Off topic, but not since it's art related...I went to Light City this week!  I was super surprised (and very very excited) so see that one of the art installations involved an Out of the Blocks segment.  The festival had several pieces that explored social justice issues, community interaction, and lots of other stuff I haven't yet seen.  I'm going back Friday and Saturday so I am excited to see what else is out there!

Small Assignment #2 Interviews

Amy Royce Interview:

[1:04]  we just moved back to this building in 2014, uhm as a way to be con- connect with the community. We were at Powerplant Live for a number of years uhm and it that is a more commercial district in the city uhm so just by default by moving back to this building we’re already engaging with people on the street level which, um, was a little difficult to do before and that’s been really nice. 

[ 7:20] I mean it’s gonna change, it’s it’s changing I suppose, I didn’t have any preconceived conception, I worked in a under a under represented, neglected community before coming here so for me it uh the uh it was i didn’t look at things that way, uhm I just saw that there was a need for MAP to be here and that we should be here and that now we are here so we’re moving in the right direction. 

[10:37] Uhm, I don’t think Bromo’s like Station North, nor should it try to be like Station North. Its got its own unique history, it used to be a garment district, there’s a lot of different uhm, uhm perspectives, there’s a lot of different routes the district could take in-in capitalizing on that history and integrating it into its plan

[14:14] Well, I mean I could see it becoming m-mo, I’d love to see it become more of a-a of an industrial sort of making district where, uh, you know maybe we go back to that garment making idea, you know? 

William Interview:

[1:05-1:10] If they’re going to replace it with something else…just to tear it down and have nothing else I guess that’s kinda sad

[1:35-1:49] Farmers market, yeah.  But to tear down the stores and not replace them that would be sad.  Upstairs, I mean people can really eat anywhere, but to take down the actual stores, that’s the essence of the market when you think about it

[5:00-5:11] I just videotaped some kids performing downstairs and I thought it was nice.  Like if they have different events, different things…

[5:12-5:24] I thought they put the people upstairs from keeping the actual people that frequent the market that so it’s like a little cubby hole to hide everybody away 

[5:54-6:00] There’s no need taking the stalls down if you can’t find vendors that can afford to rent the spaces 

Marvin Brothers Interview:

[0:16-0:23] I love Lexington Market, Lexington Market number one I’m telling you.  I love Lexington Market

[1:01-1:09] Don’t change nothin’ don’t change nothing.  Leave it like it is, leave it like it is…

[2:47-3:00]  The one thing I hate about Baltimore…Fucking Police.  I don’t hate the police I hate the way the treat us.  It’s not right.  That’s not right at all the way they treat us, it’s not right at all.  And they got to change real soon”

[3:10-3:15]  Stop the killing, let’s stop the killing…

Johnathen Curtis Interview:

**what’s interesting about this interview is that John doesn’t come to Lexington Market often.

[0:33-0:46]  Lexington Market is a historical landmark to Baltimore, which a lot of people don’t know.  This is one of the major places they used to trade slaves.  What it means to me is I mean there’s a lot of culture here as far as like the food and stuff.  But the people from Baltimore, they don’t really know the history of Lexington Market.

[1:33-1:50]  You’ll see all types of shit outside.  From like drug addicts….it’s pretty fucked up for this to be a historical landmark and have so much bullshit smack dab in the center

[3:48-3:56] Cross Street Market, it’s a lot less tense there but I mean oh I mean less tense in terms of like drugs

[4:40-4:46] No one’s gonna want to eat produce here.  No one wants healthy they come here for cheap, unhealthy food.  

[9:42-10:50] My biggest takeaway is that being um being not only a black man we get racially profiled just like everyone else….how can I prepare my son for something I didn’t personally go through [being profiled]

[10:55-10:57] My biggest take away is how do I raise my son in a society like this

[11:03-11:39] I love Baltimore!  it’s a great city as far as the weather, the people..Baltimore gets such a bad rep but no one knows like Baltimore’s a college town…for it to be such a small city and so much shit happens here it’s kinda crazy living here

James Interview:

[0:28-0:47] Pennsylvania Avenue was the backbone of the city for Blacks. Pennsylvania and Gay Street…now when you go one Pennsylvania Avenue you don’t see none of the history 

[1:22-1:30] Baltimore is a beautiful city.  You know the people in Baltimore they’re very friendly 

James Williams:

[1:40-1:42] Yes, a lot of cops

Blog 6: Why didn't I take more pictures?

Before I begin my actual blog, I'll start with some random (but I guess important) thoughts: I was excited to write my blog this week about our adventure to Lexington Market and to post lots of pictures with my thoughts until I looked back at my phone and realized I only took two pictures our entire walking tour.  At first I was sad...I didn't have anything to Instagram or show my friends how cool it is to still get to take field trips in college.  But then, I got kind of mad at myself.  I think I too often associate taking photos with being a tourist and with that I guess this idea of the places and things I would take pictures of just for entertainment purposes.  Taking the picture would memorialize the space in my mind as an attraction that I once was at and I would remember the space as it was in that photo and that moment, rather than as what it really is...someone's home.  It just seems kind of weird suddenly that I wanted to take pictures of someone's neighborhood, even though any other time this would be a normal thing to do.  I think maybe during the walking tour, or just arriving at Lexington Market I felt way more like a guest than I do in other parts of the city that I visit so often.  Taking pictures would have made me felt like I was taking pictures at the zoo.

But anyway, the real blog assignment about the walking tour:

I LOVED getting to meet at Lexington Market for class last week and going on the walking tour.  Arriving at Lexington Market, we were really thrown into the hustle and bustle of the market and it helped me to begin to really capture and understand the potential for stories to hear with our project.  The walking tour itself was really interesting to me.  At first I was worried that it would be as crowded throughout as it was at Lexington Market, but as we got further from the city and main transportation lines, the crowd died down almost completely.  While the lack of crowd on the rest of the tour could be due to the cold weather that day, I think it also speaks to how Lexington Market is such a centralized and important place in the community that regardless of the time or weather, there's a lot going on and people around.

Racially, the market was very diverse and I definitely felt out of place as a white visitor while everyone carried on so naturally in the space.  While I wasn't outwardly singled out, as we continued to walk around on our tour I felt more comfortable as we entered areas like Mount Vernon.  During our entire walking tour, we only actually passed a handful of people walking on the streets.  It was almost eerie how quiet it was, and I almost felt like I was intruding which may have added to my picture feelings I talked of at the beginning of this blog post.  I also really loved walking around and hearing my classmates give the history of spaces that they had researched.  I would be curious to return again on a day when it is warmer, and on a weekend, to see if more people are out around where we did our walking tour.  Maybe then I wouldn't feel so out of place.

I was also bummed that I couldn't join the rest of class for dinner, but I hope to head over to the other market some time soon to check it out.  It definitely had a completely different vibe all together than Lexington.  It is so crazy to me that all of the places we walked to are so close to one another, because I feel like the business of Lexington is so removed from the quiet neighborhoods we walked though and other shops we saw like Antique Row.  Going back, I also would want to take more pictures.  The faces of the buildings and homes made it so apparent that the streets had a history to be learned.

But here are the two actual pictures I took during our walking tour, one is of the vacant and destroyed building next to a coffee shop we passed.  The other was of the Bun Shop.  My roommate actually goes there to study a lot (we live in Catonsville so it's interesting to know she goes to the city to study), so it was kind of funny to walk by there.

Blog 5: Lots of Notes, Lots of Questions

I loved having Andrea Seabrook in class last week. I felt like we needed her to come in and inspire us with her words, but also make us really think about the project and where we were going with it. Above all, I think she asked the questions we were all thinking, whether we realized it or not: Why does Bromo matter? And even more than that, does it matter that it is an art district? The decision to not necessarily focus on how and why the space is an arts district suddenly opens up so many more questions and opportunities for us to explore the area without this label that seems as though many don't know or really care about. It's not that figuring out why residents and those that invest in the area don't have a lot of ties to the arts district designation, but our other questions seem to offer more towards the project. Andrea's lecture (although I'm sure she wouldn't call it that) about figuring out the focus of our project was really useful and narrowing our project down and figuring out what we want to do moving forward with the semester.

Another major question I wrote down during class with Andrea was:

Why did this happen this way?

I think it will be important for us to keep this question in mind while finalizing the format and outline of our project.

The working outline of exploring different aspects of the space leading up to the uprisings and culminating with a final piece on the uprisings themselves is really powerful and exciting. I think especially coming up on the one year of the events, we are in a really unique place in time to be exploring this. I think our timing in it being one year is a huge strength. However, timing on the other hand, deciding on this right before spring break, will be a weakness because we are in such a time crunch already. I also think it could be difficult to really put themes such as theater and entertainment into this timeline leading up to the uprisings, but I'll be excited to see how we are able to do this through questioning and further brainstorming and focusing in on the project.

Having experienced a version of this project in the Station North class, I laughed when Andrea said we shouldn't first transcribe and see how the pieces fit together because that's exactly what we did. And in the lab I work, that's still what we do. It is a very academic approach, but I think we can find ways to still do it and appease Andrea's anti-academia attitude. In my anthropology capstone class we recently talked about interviewing and how to utilize the information we collect during such interviews. Semi-structured interviews with a broad question that will kind of open the gates for us seems like a great way to hear peoples stories...I haven't figured out what that question is but I'm working on it. And for us to still transcribe at first since that is how we get oral histories, the method of select transcription during initial listenings to interviews might be beneficial for us.

I would like to help pick out those themes and transcribe, because that's what I'm used to and pretty good at. But I would be interested in maybe helping at least structure and plan questions for interviews.