ExplOring Baltimore

Anthropology by the Wire Claire Emery

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A look at Sharp-Leadenhall's youth cleaning up their neighborhood as a part of their summer jobs. The Clean and Green team is a South Baltimore Partnership p...

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Dr. Gill is working with us today to help make our final videos. He has had some great film and editing advice on making our videos great!

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Photo Essay Clean and Green Team

The Sharp-Leadenhall community has been very welcoming. The young men working as part of the Clean and Green Team are inspiring to observe and work with. These up and coming leaders in the community are learning how to be more responsible while having vibrant, enthusiastic, and energetic interactions with each other and members of the community. 

Gateway to Sharp-Leadenhall. Beautifying the buildings as well as the streets.

"These are our streets" The Clean and Green Crew welcomes us.

Getting down to business. First day on the job sweeping the streets clean for the community meeting. 

The motto; located in Solo Gibbs park.

Edward weed whacks this mini grassland overflowing from a residence’s backyard.

Say hello to my lil friends. Stefan brings out double leaf blowing power to erase all of the cut grass and weeds.

Play Ball! We all get to enjoy the summer afternoon at Solo Gibbs Park 

  Hustlin’, hustlin’ to get that third out. #Darius

Comparing the trees of Sharp Leadenhall to the iconic tree in the Green Team shirts.

But first let me take a selfie #Martelle #Stefan

Back to work on Creek street. #Martelle

Take 5. Darius(right), Stefan(back) and Devin(left) relax in the shade on a stoop under the overcast of the trees planted near St.Stephen and James Lutheran Church.

3 strikes your out! Edward at the mound.

Edward can sweep the game and sweep the streets clean too. He is preparing the streets for the community meeting.

Lunch break at 10:30am, prepared by the team’s nutritionist, Ms. Edwards. Ms. Betty is still hard at work organizing, using the kitchen as her office.

Team work makes the dream work, as Eric(front) and Edward(back) sweep up Henrietta street.

Montrelle, the dare devil, risks getting cut as he uses the high speed weed whacker to beautify Creek street.

Playin’ around at Solo Gibbs Park after a long day cleaning up the playground that is normally utilized by the younger children in the community.

Team photo after a longer photo shoot of the young men. The team finally persuaded Mr. Sam, the director, to get in a photo.

"South Baltimore Partnership Green Team" The teams uniform and beautification symbol for the community.

The community is alive and active and organized. The Clean and Green Team is a great opportunity for young men to earn money and become more independent financially while helping the community and their families. Other programs like Sharp kids also started by Betty Bland-Thomas feed into the Clean and Green when the younger kids see the older kids taking a leadership role and having a blast while doing it.

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Cleaning up the playground

Today was a very nice day at Sharp Leadenhall. We arrived at lunch and then followed the young men to the playground at Solo Gibbs Park. We got to interview the young men on their start in the Clean and Green Team, what it means to them and some additional thoughts on their impact in the community. Before we even started Eric, a very quiet and reserved guy came over to clean the tennis courts where i was filming B-roll of the mural. He asked me out of the blue, "Are we gonna get the cameras that everyone else got?" He sounded so concerned that he was left out and would not get a chance to use the technology to tell his story. i quickly reassured him that we planned on giving them to him and the other two young men after the day was finished and apologized for the miscommunication. We just gave them out to those who came to play baseball because that is what we had them. His response was a soft ok and he continued to sweep the storm debris. I walk over to the fairly large playground and begin to shot some B-roll of the young men cleaning. Raul with the audio recorder and me with the HD camera begin to interview the guys. There was a sense of jealousy as everyone wanted to be filmed. Even the shy ones like Eric and Will would slowly walk towards up to try and be in the shots. The range of personalities gave us different quality and length of interviews. Darius is a very outgoing youth and had not problem rolling from one question to the next without us having to even ask the question. Due to his rambling nature we asked him a few more question on his future and schooling than some of the other guys because he seemed more eager to talk. As soon as we did on of the guys shouted out, "Darius gets asked all the questions." So we wrapped up his segment and moved one. Most of the responses were the same. They ran along the lines of how that feel good about helping beautify their community, how the residents appreciate their efforts, how the younger kids look up to them. When asked about how they are spending their hard earned dollars. The responses varied. Some focuses on helping their parents, some talked about saving up for college or a car, and some said they just want to be more independent and be able to buy their own clothes and sports gear. We were able to get most everyone on camera but will wrap up the interviews tomorrow when we head down for a full day with the Clean and Green Team.

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Sharp Leadenhall Community Meeting

At the meeting on tuesday evening the community brought up many issues. This first on the agenda was the youth center opening on July 8th. There were two representatives from the company opening the youth canter to answer any questions. The overall information discussed was that there are only 50 spaces form children ages 5-13. A major concern was that the packets to sign the children up was not available inside the community but  because of the repeated concern Betty told me today that she picked up the packets herself and they will be available at Martini Lutheran Church as well as her home. What i found to be disturbing about this issue was the age restriction. Only kids 5 to 13 are allowed to join the activities. This excludes all of the Clean and Green members as well as all of the other teenagers in the community. The high school students are the ones with the most time after school and need something to do. I though possibly the could be leaders at the center but the representatives alluded that getting paid to work at the youth center would be a hard job to get. But still the high schoolers could volunteer to earn service hours.

The next item on the agenda was the Sharp Leadenhall Elementary school. This is the only school in the community and is primarily for kids with special needs. The vice principal was there to speak and ask the community to let him know basically anything that might be of concern. There was also a woman representing DIVA and organization helping homeless youth by putting on a fashion show production. I though these two guest speakers were very interesting because to the community they were more of outsiders but because of Betty's good deeds and organization were brought in to say a very words and network. I also found a parallel to the Wide angle youth because of the video they produced on homeless youth last year.

Finally, the elephant in the room, the mixed-development proposal...Natalie started off the topic by reading the first, and at the time most surest, Baltimore Sun article on the topic. That sparked the typical discussion. It also sparked some controversy when a member of the Leadenhall Baptist Church who's Pastor, Rev. Dr. Alvin Gywnn knew about the development in its initial planning stages and who also agreed to have a community center built on part of the church's parking lot. The woman form the church defended her pastor by saying the community center was a public space for the entire community but the other woman who is on the planning community for the community argued that what was wrong in is action was that he knew about the development plan and did not tell the community about it and kept everyone else in the dark. Ms. Betty Bland-Thomas did a wonderful job keeping the peace by regrouping and reminding everyone that there is still a lot more information to be found and simultaneously advocated for people with an interest to join the comity. While we were recording there was an overwhelming sense of distraught because of the ominous fear of displacement. Some omen sneered at signing up because the though of extra work was pointless if they were not even going to live int heir community. It seemed as though the community was taking an effort lead by Ms. Betty to take down this giant. To them it is as if Godzilla is on the horizon and they know they can cut a deal and move out or they can fight. But most seemed to tired from taking care of their kids and other's kids and working one or several jobs to take on the task of organizing and arguing non-stop with the developers.

The wrap-up of the meeting was nice. The asked all of the kids what their thoughts were. Most were to shy to speak out but the ones that did gave simple suggestions like having a writing group at the new rec center and more sports. There was also a raffle. One ticket cost a dollar and at the end there was a total pot of 33$. My general impression was that most were there to observe and would be active in other ways outside the meeting. The meeting was a place to voice simple and general concerns. In the beginning there was an entire row int he front empty and as people straggled in Ms. Betty would say to each, "I reserved a front row seat just for you!" But the usual response was, "I am a back row kind of guy." or and awkward agreement as they shuffled to other seats in the back. There was a larger turn out than i was expecting. it was full house and the pastor even hard to set up a few more folding chairs as people arrived late. I thought it was a great opening discussion to the crucial issue of the mixed-development plan and as Betty emphasized a start to the discussion of how to make this development work toward the benefit of the community.

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America's past time in Sharp Leadenhall

Today's baseball game was a lot of fun. We were all running a bit late on this extremely hot humid summer day. We walk over to the field that has the ravens and orioles parking right behind it and the highway above and behind it making a very noisy backdrop but also providing a steady breeze of car fumes. Only 4 of the 7 guys came out to play but there was a sense of normalcy about it. All of had superior baseball skill to us, particularly in the outfield. Before yet start they had to establish bases. They picked up the biggest flattest purses of debris and trash markers. Home plate was still left their luckily. First base was an old rotten red and stripped piece of wood with nail popping halfway out. Second base was a flatted plastic gallon of milk container. Finally third base was a combination of a small fish met bag and a bag of chips. We began playing and it took a couple inning for everyone to get in the Ruth of things. After a while it became a home run derby because of the lack of available defensive players, the simmering and suffocating heat, and all of us running around. We stopped the game at 21-16... At least I think. But the score didn't matter. As Darius said, "it's about having fun. Don't worry about the score, man." After word we got some shots of them swinging and they really seemed to get into production mode. The quickly suggested a couple other scenes of them walking and one of them saying a quote they thought of. After wards we handed them the zooms and talked about colleges and school for a bit. Their faces lit up when we told them we were giving the zooms. I am very confident they will film some great footage and insightful quotes.

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A Promise to Keep:

This video discusses the community of Sharp Leadenhall and its struggle against the encroachment and exploitation from outsider influences on this historically black community. The video discusses the displacement that took place as a result of the highway project and the impact that it had on the community. 

A parallel could potentially be drawn to the current development plan that is in the works currently. The 250 dollar development plan could result in the displacement and relocation of a large group of the Sharp Leadenhall members. Even if it doesn’t result in the relocation of the actual people, it will definitely affect the neighborhood and potentially in a negative manner. 

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This is a great video and really highlights the efforts of the community to better itself. I hope the community can come together to control he direction of the new development plans to benefit the community.

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Development catches up to Sharp-Leadenhall

Roland Brown likes to remember old Leadenhall Street and the people who lived there when he was a child: the Harts, Miss Mary, Emma Jane.

Newest article by the Baltimore Sun about Sharp Leadenhall and the mix-development proposal. The article talks about this history of displacement when the plans to run the highway through the neighborhood displaced thousands of residences. I found the article informative and compelling as Dr. Durington and Betty Bland-Thioomas is represented as leaders and researchers in the area. The comments section was a bit concerning as some ignorantly posted with enthusiasm for displacing the stereotypical inner-city black community that "causes" the crime.

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This video done by ABTW in 2011 of the Clean and Green Team is engaging and shows the young men in a very positive light for the good work that they do. The video starts with live music and cuts to the youths sweeping to the beat. The rest of the video cuts from cleaning scenes to interviews with Betty Sam and the young men. The audio quality of the interviews are not great but the subtitles do help. Overall the video show the communities efforts and initiatives to come together and make their community better without investment or redevelopment from outside companies.

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This article is a proposal for a clean water initiative partnered with the continuation of the Clean and Green team. It starts off by saying that the top three community concerns are vacant warehouses, unemployment, and housing(not enough options).

It then proceeds to outline the assets within the boundaries. There is one elementary school which is for special education. One rec center that is re-opening July 8th, no libraries, no health centers, 3 religious organizations, the Hamburg light rail station, the after school program Sharp Kids, and a post office, as well as a few others.

It then describes the pyshical resources and landscape of the community. There are 6 vacant lots and few green spaces and a few businesses. This article was written in 2009 so there have been improvements since. The outline also discusses the traffic, pollution, and trash problem due to the proximity of the stadiums.

Finally the proposal discusses the efforst of the Clean and Green team to pick up trash to help water flow and prevent flooding in the streets. The team also helps the pollution problem by planting trees and flowers.

Next there is a chart outlining the location, specific problem, and solution possibilities. It also talks about education the community and gathering more information needed, as well as, more about the Clean and Green team and the continuation of their efforts.

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The photos above are Sharp Leadenhall's Clean and Green Team out and about making the streets cleaner for tonight's community meeting. The young men seemed very happy to be working together with each other and invited us to play a pick-up game of baseball with them tomorrow!

In the short amount of time that we were there they made a huge improvement in the aesthetics of the street. I noticed that the main streets had a lot more litter where as side streets like the ones above were filled mostly with fallen tree debris from summer storms.

Before they continued their work after lunch the young men attempted to have a rap battle but the presence of new comers and cameras made the young men a little shy. However by the end most everyone was very vocal and light spirited as we talked and laughed and bonded. Hopefully tonight these young men will take their leading role in the community one step further and voice their opinions at tonight's community meeting!

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ExplOring Honfest

My first honfest experience  so far has been driving aroud for 20 min to find parking and finally parking at the end of a giant grocery  store parkinglot. I get onto the street and am walking behind this lovely family wife, husband, baby in a stroller, and the wife's parents. Turning on Rolland ave I see a couple of yard sales. I also notice local politicians making the rounds. I arrive at the festival and there are so many shops of food, drinks, beer, stage with a street performance, clothes, and vintage jewlry. A mixture of smells overwhelm the air along with truck fumes and body odor. There are pink boas and bright colors everywhere you turn. I pass a woman with a white wig bee hive hair with bees in her hair. I look up and see SPCA has a tent set up with cute dogs around. Maryland lottery has some gambling going on. There is baltimore art work being displayed. M&T bank has a tent with a game to attract. A man near a store front is painting a picture of what seems to be two Mexican or Latinos with a wool colorful stripped poncho as one carries the other on his back also wearing a cowboy hat. So many different peopl but I notice mostly Caucasians. I pass by a BBQ stand and my eyes water from the wind blowing the smoke from the smoker into the crowd of people. I arrive at falls rd where the music stage is and my step moves to the beat of the music and my hand start to clap my leg to the sound of light electric guitar. Two ladies in a bright green and blond bee hive wig and a black and cherry dress with cat sun glasses start to dance and then meet a group of their friends dress similarlly in costumes an all start dancing while taking photos. There is no crowd in front of the strange  but a line of old men in blue jeans and tennis shoes. I have begun to notice more gay couples as they are most likely out enjoying the day before pride fest begins later.  I get a delicious savory hot dog and start to head out but then notice some soft serve ice cream. Naturally I stop and get a cake cone with a chocolate vanilla twist and stand up against the street shop window to watch the performer on stage sing about Baltimore and all of its culture. A good beat from the guitar fills my ears but his scratchy voice lessens the ambiance. His lyrics are not too catchy but very interesting as he sings about the inner harbor, honfest, Preakness, and how DC is missing out. After I finish my cone I begin to head back. On my way a very elderly man with horrible rotten teeth and baggy clothes asks me in a very nice demeanor if I came from honfest. I tell him yes and he asked if it was crowded and I say not too crowded and proceed to move closer to show the with the distance of our bodies of how crowded walking next to everyone in honfest was. I told him about the street stands and to get something at the BBQ stand and he compliments me saying I am a very nice outgoing girl. I say thank you and have a fun time. I walked no more than 3 feet when the woman sitting outside her home ask me if I had come from the featival. I say yes and she asks if it was crowded. I tell her not too crowded and she should go check it out. She tells me she has a hard time walking and her niece will drive her tomorrow. She then out of the blue she compliments my eyebrows and we talk about that for a minute or two. Just before I am about to say goodby and have a nice day she mutters watch your purse. I immediately think of the old man with a nice demeanor and crooked and cracked smile. I spasticly check my purse... Every thing is there. Phew! I shrug off the old woman's comment. I continue walking and slow down to check out the yard sales again but notice nothing new. I finally arrive back at my car and head out of the city back home.

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Walking on the tour today I was thinking about how much education the residences of these different neighborhoods have. Many run down streets we were on had residence loitering in the middle of the day on a Wednesday. I thought where and when do they work? Or do they work? A store in an abandoned movie theater had shirts on sale for 2 dollars. Then a man dressed in a casual but more expensive outfit than the 2$ shirts asked about our group and got into preaching about the rally at City Hall for housing rights and revitalization. This post made me think of the connection to the education and the poverty of these areas. Education is a right that people of all statuses should have. Linking property tax to education is a way to link socioeconomic status and money to education. This then makes education a barrier in some cases rather than and enabler to a better class status. If education was linked to state or federal taxes it would make self gentrification of run down an impoverished areas a lot easier because the residents of those neighborhoods could invest with the service sector jobs they attain after college. Education not only in the sense of mandate schools but also general information that should and easily could be more accessible to those who would benefit most from it. Informing residence of existing programs and ways to easily organize and start new programs would benefit the future residence of the area. Then maybe developers would not have to keep reinvesting in new buildings and displacing the former residence just to revitalize the area.

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This picture shows the famous Natty Boh that I’ve heard so much about. I think that it is so pervasive in Baltimorean culture that we talked about it on the first day. Everyone said that it is one of the things that makes Baltimore..well, Baltimore.

Fun fact: about 90% of Natty Boh sales…

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I have found it funny that there is so much hype around National Bohemian even though it has been brewed here for quite some time.  It definitely has become an icon, and not necessarily a good one even though I get down on a Boh here and there.  God I could potentially get blasted for this, but honestly, to me, it’s a subpar brew through and through. It’s alright ice cold on a hot summer day but other than that, meh is my two cents to this once Baltimore brewed beer.  Currently we have Union, Clipper City, Flying Dog, Brewer’s Art, and DuClaw among other up and coming craft brewers that run circles around a beer that is now made else where.  All I’m saying is, give the real local breweries some sunshine, we have plenty to enjoy besides the boh of yesteryear. Over and out.  Duckpin for the win!  

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I hate you.

there’s only one true way to settle this: beer war.

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Nati Boh always taste better at an Orioles game! I think we should test this theory out...

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This photo is of the end of our two day walking tour. Eli was a very informative guide on the history of Baltimore. It was interesting to hear the history of the different areas, yesterday of Upton and Eutaw place and today of Charles Center and Hopkins plaza. These areas have a long history of racism, unequal economic distribution, deindustrialization and gentrification. The sites provided great b-roll of both abandons houses and historic landmarks of Baltimore. After the tour today a group of us went to Lexington Market. It was my first experience ever there and I have to say it was very exciting and overwhelming. There were so many food stands and people doing business transactions. It was as if the culture of Baltimore was condensed even further into this indoor market. Overall the walking tour experience was great! We had great whether both days and were able to get some insightful historical context to the neighborhoods of Baltimore.