Preserving Place In A Changing Space

[baltimorebay]

Final Adventure Blog!

The Listening Party-

I have semi-mixed feelings about the listening party. I was kind of disappointed to only have a handful of people we interviewed show up to the event, but it was still pretty awesome that they did in spite of the rain and commute. Other than this minor, tiny, aspect though I thought the event went fairly well. It was ridiculously cathartic and relaxing to listen to the series in it’s entirety because it just reinforced in my mind how much work we were able to cover in the span of our semester. 

I thought the space itself was really nice too. I am totally interested in seeing a show their now because as an ex-theater kid, I’d love to see how they utilize the very selective space they have. I think that overall the listening party was a success, and having a time where all of our classmates got together and celebrated eachother’s work made it even better. 

[baltimorebay]

Blog 11

Note before my blog: Timestamps need to be put into the radio series pages when things are copied over! The time stamp is the most important part of this collection of quotes and a large portion of them lack this.

Monday:

Monday has a fairly interesting story arch if you examine the narratives that are given by those who are original residents of the area and those that are newly moving in. In particular if you look at the Ronnie Downes interview, he recalls fond memories of the area being “full of business..not like it is now,” in contrast with the Amy Royce interview where she states how the area she moved to used to be “neglected and unsafe.” Simply from these two interviews it can be seen that there is a difference in how new and old residents view the history of the community. This needs to be highlighted in order to show the conflict that arises. Something else that could be looked at is juxtaposing landmarks in the area that have negative and or positive historical uses. An example of this would be from the Shelia Gaskins interview where she mentions how the Bromo Tower, the most recognizable landmark in the Bromo area in my opinion, was used to house slaves. In contrast with this negative aspect is the John Hopkins interview as well as the Baynard Woods interview, where both discuss positive aspects of the landscape, in particular the Lexington Market. However, the first half of the Johns Hopkins interview has not been transcribed and the Baynard Woods article has not been coded. 

Tuesday:

This section definitely does not have all the interviews in it that it needs to. For example the Baynard Woods interview would fit perfectly in here since the majority of the interview is about the Lexington Market and its history. Also, I noticed that the Michael Farley interview is definitely missing many quotes that are applicable to the Lexington Market history, since I was there for the interview. Another thing is Christina and I did an interview at the market with a vendor who hand made jewelry, and that interview had many useful quotes, however, I have no idea where it is. I don’t know if it wasn’t uploaded or just not transcribed but I do not see any record of it.  However, from the few transcriptions that are present, a clear theme of admiration for the market becomes clear. A majority of the quotes focus around the displeasure of the changes that are being proposed for the market, which is definitely where our story arch could focus. Maybe along the lines of Baynard Woods giving contextual history from his interview, with other voices inter spliced discussing their personal feelings on the planned changes.

Wednesday:

This is another section that is lacking in quotes. I’m not sure if this is because we don’t have enough people talking about changes, or if it’s just because the quotes haven't been copied into the document yet, but either way we are lacking in content with his category. An easy narrative arc to for here though is the differing opinions regarding the current change to an arts district that are felt. Ryan Mitchell discusses one side of this when he says how he feels it is a “marketing ploy” to make the district into an arts area. It should be fairly easy to find those who feel positively about what is done if we look to those that are from the arts community.

Thursday:

This is probably my favorite section of the days, both because of the amount of quotes that are in the document and the very emotional narratives that are seen. I did think however that many of the quotes could also be applied to the futures category, any mention of their fears for the future of the district. 

Friday:

I definitely felt that there were many quotes missing from this document. the narrative arc of the day though focuses on the different views of what the community may become. What needs to be highlighted are peoples fears for the possible gentrification that will occur in the area. This should be contrasted with eh positive aspects of what has happened to the district, like increased attention from the city, and the large amount of art that is currently coming out of the district. Whats most important here in my opinion is getting the hopes of original residents. I think their voices matter the most in what will happen to the community since it has been their home the longest. 

[baltimorebay]

Blog 10

I feel that Aaron Henkin’s visit to our last class was incredibly helpful. I think the most valuable thing that we learned about was how to introduce our characters during the segment to make their voices more meaningful and easy to connect with. He discussed ideas of having the individual say their name, where they are, and then include sounds of them doing something about their job. This is supposed to make it easier to relate to the individuals voice because we are shown that they are not just a talking head, but an individual with a life and who is being affected by the events that we are documenting.  

 Over this past week I have created an account on the Community Commons mapping website and looked through the different pages to gain a better understanding of what this website will give us in regards to mapping our places. I believe that this site will work just fine for our purposes so now James and I just need the all clear to start importing information and places into the site. I have just started to begin my pulling of themes from the transcriptions I have done, but will most definitely have them done by the end of the day Tuesday.

 The next steps of our project are to begin pulling themes from our transcriptions and trying to fit them into a cohesive story of the area. Since we are at the tail end of our interviewing, the main focus of the project needs to make the gradual shift over to the editing and creation of our podcast.

[baltimorebay]

Blog 9

Adventure Blog:

Light Up Lexington- First off, I really enjoyed the festival and was actually a little happily surprised by some of the things that I noticed. What surprised me first was the vast amount of people that came out to the event. And not just that, the group was made up of a mix of people representing a numerous amount of groups and communities. I feel that Light Up Lexington was a success from our side as well. We gathered many interviews, most of which seemed to voice the opinions that we had been lacking and went to specifically collect. This may address our issue of not having enough opposing voices by providing us with an easy to access area to try and get these voices from.

  Saturday Lexington Walk-

On this past Saturday some of the class and I went to Lexington Market, broke up into 2 teams, and tried to get interviews from costumers and vendors about their opinion on the market as well as the Bromo Community and arts. Our two teams gathered numerous interviews with a range of voices, and set up at least 2 other interviews with vendors on this Tuesday. During our interview I was reminded again about how much the market, particularly the arcade area, facilitates community involvement and interaction. The area is almost like a public commons, a homage to the agora’s in Ancient Greece where it was a true “open place of assembly.” All members of the community were allowed to be and participate in the space and what went on in it, just as what the Lexington Market arcade is geared toward. This seem contrasted by our visit to the bougie, which could have just been an issue of timing, but the majority of people in the market were of a certain level of privilege.

 General Updates:

This is the week for James and I to being our work on the mapping portion of our project. This will require us to review all the place based research that was done in this class and decide what way we are going to make them onto the Baltimore Traces project. Hopefully this should not take too much time since it will just consist of us putting the data we’ve collected into the webpage and inputting it.

We also need to start pulling themes from transcriptions since we have finally gotten a range of voices with opposing themes and views. Reading through these interviews and pulling themes will let us start to see a story forming in itself which we should make a rough outline of at the minim for when Aaron visits us this Wednesday.

[baltimorebay]

Blog 8

First off, I feel that we have a very strong presence of artists from the community in the oral interviews we have, but are very lacking in original residents of the community. I think we should start to prioritize looking for voices of original community members if we want to accurately tell the story of revitalization in the Bromo area. The artists were easy to get into contact too, because of the Transmodern Festival, but now we need to move on to looking for more original community members to interview. What may help with that is by simply going into the Lexington Market another few times and seeing if we can get more interviews from vendors and community members that are just there relaxing. Other than that I’m not sure what other community hubs would be good for us to focus on, but I definitely do feel that we are lacking diversity of our voices which will not give a very accurate representation of the workings of the community. 

Themes:

Silo-ing- Laure (30:00) “I mean, all those floors, that’s incredible. Um, they each have a gallery, the artists live there and they work there, they communicate to one another, they have shows there, they’re just basically, hubs of, um, cultural information or information or information about creative output, you know? Mixed with all sorts of other output.”

Even though Laure is referring to this activity in a positive light, about how the artists can share creative space and ideas, what she leaves out is the presence of the community. It is great that artists have these areas but they are less of cultural hubs and more of cultural silos because of their unintended exclusion of original community residents. This exclusion comes from numerous things, one in particular being a lack of representation that community members may feel in these art installations, as well as financial limitations and transportation limitations. 

Transportation/ Mobility - Laure (32:00) “I think, um, people have legs, and they walk around, and they have dreams, and they aspire to certain things, and they’re attracted to certain things.”

Financial Ability/ Classiest - Laure (19:00) “You come down here for whatever, 7 dollars, sometimes 5 dollars, sometimes 10 dollars, you can see a lot of different things. So it’s not really, it’s not hurting you financially, per se, it’s not like you’ve come and seen a bad show for x amount of money, you’re seeing many different acts for a little bit of your time and a little bit of money, and you’re, you get turned on to something, and you learn something.”

These statements are some of the most stirring examples I could find of the separation and clear privilege that the incoming arts community has in relation to the original community members. These statements fail to recognize the stories of community residents and their possible inability to pay such a fee to see a show of things that they are not so familiar of. It also puts forth the idea that all the community members will have the ability to leave their homes and go to a show, which disregards the possibility of these residents having children they need to stay home with or disabilities that don’t allow them to travel the distance needed. 

Updates:

This week James and I will be able to begin our work on the mapping of areas for the Baltimore Traces website since the final drafts are all due today. I feel that our next steps should be that of documenting as many original residents voices as we can. It is a lot easier for us to get the artists voice, but at a certain point it becomes lopsided, representation wise, so I feel we need to gather more diverse voices to ensure we tell a story of all the voices in the community. It might also be good to go back and redo some interviews, maybe with Laure, and ask the hard questions regarding some of the things they have said and try to dig into the idea of representation in the arts in the community since it is such a hot button topic already. 

Marc Steiner Internship: 

This week I only have to go into the studio on Wednesday because we had a pre-recorded tape play for our show today. I am really starting to focus in the work of being sort of a producer in training at the studio, because rather than creating my own radio pieces, I am assisting with the actual running of the show. This includes answering the phone, patching callers in, giving Marc time updates for when the segment will be over, and assisting with the guests getting into the studio. I have given the week of Dec. 7th to Stephanie as a good idea for where we feel the radio segment will air and will continue being a liaison between the class project and the show to ensure a smooth run. 

[baltimorebay]

Blog 7

Our trip to the Bromo District, specifically the Lexington Market and the Pratt library, was an incredibly interesting one. The memory from it that sticks with me the most was the crystal clear visualization of the current efforts of revitalization in the area and the possible current separation between original community members and the new incoming ones. What I’m referring to was the clear differences that could be seen between the Lexington Market and the private market that was across the street. 

The first thing I noted when we were in the Lexington Market was how it was a true model of a public space, something that is incredibly uncommon to see nowadays. People who were doctors were eating alongside people who were homeless, and everything in between, clearly showing that everyone is welcome in the area. This, however, was not so clearly seen in the private market we entered. The first thing I noticed when we went there was the racial demographics of both the costumers as well as the shop owners. While the Lexington Market harbored a vast mix of racial groups of people, the private market seemed to house mainly white individuals, as well as ones that were well-off financially. This simple fact made the space feel much less like a true public space and more like one where some are excluded. 

This fact once again makes how right Marc was when he said we needed to make sure to tell the story about the racial divide in the area and how it is affecting the community. It is obvious that if the new community members and original community members don’t start to have interactions and make acquaintances with each other, a conflict of some kind will definitely come about. Two groups just simply can’t healthily inhabit the same space without communicating with each other. 

[baltimorebay]

Blog 6

It seems to me that one of the most resounding themes I got from the few Transmodern interviews I listened to was the importance of spaces, in particular, artist’s spaces. Many of the artists we interviewed stated how important these spaces were to them since they allowed the artists a cheap area to create their installations and sometimes live alongside other artists further fuelling their artistic endeavors.

One negative theme I noticed however was the clear disconnect that seemed to be in many of the interviews between the artists and the actual community they were in. It seemed from the interviews that the artists, while using the spaces they loved, were silo-ing and not truly immersing themselves into the community that they were creating their art in. I feel like this should definitely be something that is addressed or possibly focused on in our radio show. Cause yeah it’s great that the artists are moving into the area and building up the arts district, but unless they connect and work with the residents of the community they are in, they’re no better than the gentrifies that may sometime in the future move into the area and force the artists out. Another aspect that is related to this that should be focused on as a possible theme is the clear racial divide in the arts scene in the Bromo District.

So because of other projects and work I may not be able to go out to do interviews in the coming week or so. However, during that period I would be more than ok with taking on some more place based research for the Bromo Area as well as transcribing any new interviews that we gain. I also will be able to start working on the mapping component with James this week since Dr. King emailed the two of us new software we can use to map the places our class has researched.  I’m definitely excited to take part in that project since I will be able to say I assisted in creating one of the visual components of the Baltimore Traces website. In regards to the radio program, over the next few weeks because of my connection with The Steiner Show I will be able to bounce any ideas we have off of Marc and get feedback from him regarding our current ideas and themes which will most certainly be beneficial, considering how beneficial our last class meeting was with him.

[baltimorebay]

Blog 5

For the next step in the Bromo Speaks project, I feel like I can be put and help out wherever I am needed most. I am more than comfortable doing pretty much any job, whether it being interviewing, mapping, or researching. There is no area that I feel like I really wouldn’t want to do. So, specifically, I’d be more than comfortable leading an interview with one of the individuals we have contact info, or being the recorder at that interview. Outside of these events, I would be glad to help out with creating a map for our project, with James’ help as we decided in class, so that we can put said map up on Baltimore Traces to aid the discussion of the places that were researched. I’d also be more than fine doing the editing that needs to take place after the interviews are done, and with the creation of the radio piece. Considering my internship and previous experience with editing audio for the very same reason, I feel like I could bring some previous experience to this area. 

Considering that I will be turing in the final version of my midterm project a day or so late, I feel that I should earn somewhere around a low to high B on it. This is because I received an 85 on my original submission and feel that with the minor tweaking I apply to it, I should receive an A, but because of my tardiness it should still be lowered down to a B. I feel like I have done a good job with taking on very practical aspects of our project in general, tangible creations such as the map for instance, that has definitely helped the class. I do however feel like I can do better to meet the deadlines I have with this class, and make sure to get my assignments finished and turned in by the time they are supposed to be. 

[baltimorebay]

Adventure Blog!

This past weekend I fulfilled my next second and third adventures for class. On Thursday I went to the Transmodern Festival at the Current Gallery at 5 so I could help set up and interview individuals for our project. When I got there it was a very quick set up since all we had to put up was a table and our fold out sunborn maps. After that my classmates and I waited around for awhile for the Fest to start, during that time Adam and I interviewed the two artists that made the sound installation that we were by. After that we all talked to some individuals about our installations and asked them about their interest or experience in the area. We finished the night by watching 6 experimental films that were curated by a film maker. 

I helped again on Saturday, which was a much slower day than the first one we had. During our time at Current Gallery were only talked to about 3 individuals about our project, but we did have a video shot of us for promotional reasons. After 8, we decided to pack up and head to some of the events that were happening elsewhere in the festival. We first went to the EMP Collective which housed an extremely fascinating and just pure awesome open art installations that was made up of free form jazz players, radio fuzz, and strobe lights. We then went to a show that was happening in the 6th floor of the H&H building. After that we went to an after party that took place on Rubie’s floor and left at around 3am. It was a pretty fun night and can definitely see myself returning to the festival again. 

[baltimorebay]

Working with Transmodern

There are a number of areas that I feel I contribute to in the preparation and execution of our project in the Transmodern Festival. I would be comfortable walking around with one of the recorders and doing some on the ground recording of people just talking about our project or their history in the area. I would also be willing to do the prep work for the festival, like creating our Sanborn maps and setting up our tables and displays. I am also comfortable just helping out wherever I am needed.

Questions:

1. Can you tell me a story about the area? Something you think is quintessentially ‘Bomo” or ‘Bromo Ats District.’

2. Are there any spots in the neighborhood that we should visit to truly understand the feeling/identity of the neighborhood?

3. How do you feel the Bomo district came to be, and what direction do you see it moving in the future?

4. With developer’s coming into the district, what do you feel is important to hold onto in the district to keep the Bromo essence as the changes occur?

5. What are your biggest concerns about the neighborhood?

6. Do you think living in an art district will benefit you?

7. Who stands to benefit from planned developmental changes in Bromo?

8. What would you have done differently? 

9. Do you think the city needs another art district or do you think something else would be better here?

10. When you think back to your history in this neighborhood, does anything stick out as a good example of what it was like to (live/work/be involved) here?

Internship:

This past week at the Marc Steiner show I was instructed to do research regarding one of the segments as well as construct numerous show pages for our websites podcasts. During the live shows I was in charge with answering the phones, taking callers information and patching them through so Marc could talk to them.

This coming week they will be having me take on the responsibility of a producer during the live show, keeping time updates for Marc, answering the phone, and making sure our guests arrive to the show on time.

[baltimorebay]

Incorporation is the Transmodern Festival

I think that the ideas that Laura Drogoul presented in her email would work perfectly with our current project. If we were able to incorporate photos of the individuals we interviewed, or photos of art pieces that some of these individuals have made, into our audio presentation; Along side with Sanborn and regular maps of our research area, I feel that we could make a fairly cohesive story that would be very entertaining to anyone seeking to learn about the history of the city they are in.

Questions:

1. When you think back to your history in this neighborhood, does anything stick out as a good example of what it was like to (live/work/be involved in) here?

2. What do you see as the future of this neighborhood? And do you see yourself in that future?

3. Have you noticed any changes in recent years to this area?

4. Are you on board with what is currently changing in the neighborhood? What would be on your list of goals for improving/changing the neighborhood?

5. Do you feel that the neighborhood should even change at all?

6. Are there any spots in the neighborhood that we should absolutely visit to truly understand the feeling/identity of the neighborhood?

7. How long have you been involved in the area? (Work, living, etc.)

8. Do you think that arts districts benefit the city?

9. Do you feel that the Bromo districts new classification as an arts district will aid the area? In what ways do you think?

10. Can you just tell me a story about the area? Something you think is quintessentially ‘Bromo’ or ‘Bromo Arts District.’

[baltimorebay]

Text Analysis and Project Beginnings.

A. The text the “Baltimore Book” and the article “Can Station North Save the City” make it very clear why our project is so important and also makes clear some very important aspects of gentrification.

In the “Baltimore Book,” it can be seen that preserving a social history is incredibly vital since it is shown that the City of Baltimore has more interest in what will be the most fiscally beneficial to them, rather than what will be most beneficial to its current residents. An example of this shifted interest is the inner harbor, or as it is called in the book, the “tourist mecca” or a “pleasure citadel.” I was also shocked by this article with the fact that in spite of the massive amount of money placed into the inner harbor, the majority of the revenue from it did not go back into the city. 

A pretty interesting point can be drawn from the article “Can Station North Save the City?” While some, like Michael Farley, feel that station north is already dead from gentrification, it can be argued that there really isn't a place to be picking and choosing who comes into Station North considering that Station North is a neighborhood, as Charlie Duff notes, with 50% vacancies. Now because of this I feel that unless the influx of individuals is controlled, as is seen with the City Arts Building not being allowed to raise rent for artists for 50 years, gentrification will almost certainly take place in this area.

B. The research on my building, The EMP Collective, has been going fairly well so far. As of now I know that the EMP Collective has been in the building 307 W Baltimore Street since 2011, and prior to that the building was a shoe factory. This shoe factory was called “Frank and Adler Company” which supplied and made shoes. In 1911 the building, still currently the Frank and Adler Company, suffered a fire that started in the building basement and eventually consumed the majority of the building causing some of the flooring to collapse injuring and killing some of the firefighters that were there fighting the fire. This fire did an estimated $20,000 worth of damage to the shoe inventory and and estimated $1,000 worth of damage to the infrastructure of the building. Then, in 1923 the building was leased, along with 308 and 309 W Baltimore Street, by the Hochschild, Kohn & Company, a department store chain that started in Baltimore in 1897, in order to use it for “storage of merchandise.” During an unknown year, I only know it was active from sometime before/during 1944-1970,  the building became “The Trading Post.” The Trading Post was a Military and Naval Outfitters store. In 2007, the City Of Baltimore decided on developers for the 400 Block of Baltimore Street and started redeveloping the 307 property.

[baltimorebay]

New Start; AMST 356

I’m am incredibly excited to begin another course that is focused on the research of the unsung stories of Baltimore, as well as the amplification of these stories onto a radio program. I’m hopeful that this radio program will bring further public interest into the history of Baltimore, specifically the history that is not commonly discussed in classes or textbooks.

I think my previous work with place based research and oral history documentation will help me bring some level of experience to the classroom. Through this class I would, however, like to expand my knowledge further on garnering and conducting the oral histories that we will put into the Baltimore Traces project since I don't have that much experience with that side of the project. I view our contributions to the Baltimore Traces project in a very good light and feel that they are incredibly necessary. Much like was stated in the introduction to “The Baltimore Book” I don't have that much desire to learn about the few rich white individuals that shaped Baltimore. I’m much more interested in the actual workers and blue collar individuals that made this city their own ad then amplifying those stories. 

I’m very excited to begin our work on the Bromo Arts District simply because I am simply not that familiar with that area of Baltimore. Considering how important I feel this city is in my life, I feel that this class is fulfilling an important duty at finding the underground history of Baltimore. 

[baltimorebay]

One very key thing we need to work out before our event is how we're going to set up the space. The orientation of the tables, the areas where we'll have the art and other products being sold, where performers will be, etc. Something that goes along with this is how all the items that we need at the event will get to the space. Who is taking what and are we sure everything will fit. 

Something that we may need to think of is just posting flyers around campus for one last organized push for publicity. Post them everywhere. And I mean everywhere. 

I think I have done fairly well during this semester. I, of course, could have done better in some fronts. I fell behind on some of the blog posts either from other work or just simply forgetting to do them. I also didn't aid that much in canvasing areas for donations/contributions. I do however feel that I did quite a pretty well with my cultural history write ups as well as the radio program. 

[baltimorebay]

This past week I have continued my work on the radio program since this Friday is our deadline. This has mainly consisted of two things, writing both the intro and outro for the Friday segment and listening through the audio looking for areas that need to be cut or changed to make it into a better flowing story. 

For the Friday intro it was discussed in a previous radio group meeting that audio short segments, ranging around 30 seconds I believe, would be used to highlight the previous days in order to give an audience members that had missed a day context into the story that we were telling. I am however not sure how this would fit into an intro for the Friday segment and because of this wrote a fairly straight forward intro as to minimize possible conflict that it could have between itself and the pervious audio recaps. The intro at the moment is...

"This week we have been having a conversation about the areas of Baybrook and Sparrows point, as you just have heard from our recap of the previous four days. In todays topic we will be talking about the future of these communities. What resident’s of these communities want to happen and feel is going to actually happen in the coming years. This all steams from the deindustrialization of the communities and the resident’s desire to bring new life into the area in many different forms. "

...there is of course much room for making it into a more complex, auditory pleasing, segment in order to hook the listener into listening to the rest of the story that day. The outro simply lists the names of the individuals that you have heard speaking that day, but if audio segments from the previous day were used this outro would have to be expanded most likely to incorporate the people that spoke in the audio segment. 

[baltimorebay]

This past week I have been working on pulling together the Friday radio program for the Marc Steiner show. I've been listening to lots of audio clips, watching many videos of talking panels, and finding ambient sounds from the Baybrook area that fit well with the radio show. 

I have been working alongside with Stephen Bradley since I have don't really have experience in editing and putting together audio programs and he is very knowledgable in the field. So far we have put together an audio program that is around 7 minutes long and flows fairly smoothy in a story like way. We will continue working on it this week and hopefully have a final cut by this weekend. 

[baltimorebay]

The History Committee is now finalizing the rest of the products we are going to be selling, i.e. buttons, at our event. The Walking Tour Brochure is beginning to be worked on and we are currently sorting out what areas to put onto it.

I am currently working on the Marc Steiner Radio Show, specifically Friday, for the event. I have been listening to audio and reading oral history transcripts trying to find quotes that are applicable to the future of the Baybrook area.