Fieldwork Prep

     I left last weeks class feeling kind of emotional. The walking tour of Poppleton, the video of Angela Banks speaking, and our discussion all weighed heavily on my mind. I guess if I had to describe the feeling it would be a combination of sadness, worry, and excitement. Feeling sadness about what has happened to the current and former residents of Poppleton. Not to mention the countless others affected by these development practices across the country. Worrying about not saying or doing the right things as we being our fieldwork. Yet also some excitement about being involved in this project and doing more than just writing from behind a desk.  

    This week's readings covered the importance of oral history and how to prepare for the fieldwork involved in a project like the one will be conducting this semester. I found the oral history reading to be particularly interesting. I have yet to utilize oral history for a project in my academic career. This is partially because my senior project in undergrad was interrupted by the covid-19 pandemic. One of our assignments in my capstone course was to conduct an oral history interview. Given the circumstances this was scratched from the syllabus and we instead focused on digital research to complete our final papers. I thought it was interesting to read about the imprecise nature of oral history, in both its definition and interpretation. This complexity makes this whole process feel simultaneously exciting and intimidating.

    In the Shadow of the Ivory Tower was probably my favorite piece that we read this week. I immediately recognized the similarities between the Checkerboard lounge story and the universities that have shaped Baltimore City. Last semester I read an article about Hopkins use of eminent domain in East Baltimore around the hospital. Now its clear to see that this is the same process occurring in Southwest Baltimore around the University of Maryland BioPark. Prior to reading this I guess I had never put together the fact that higher education institutions have such a powerful position in the development of cities. I really liked Bernard Lloyd's phrase "town-gown friction," to describe this relationship.  

    As we move into the fieldwork I imagine my role in this project being primarily behind the scenes. I think that would include operating the video or audio equipment during the interviews. Conducting historical research as needed to supplement the stories and narrative that we will be creating. Writing some of the profiles and the narrative for the final project. 

Small Assignment 1 - A Walk Down West Baltimore Street

 

The A Walk Down West Baltimore Street project provides readers with a glimpse into the lives of residents and business owners along West Baltimore Street. The project was a collaborative effort between UMBC students and members of the community. Together they created a public history zine, several video interviews, and a virtual walking tour. This project was designed to provide the audience with an authentic history of West Baltimore Street. The zine calls it out from the very start that this history “…is really a collection of stories or glimpses and pieces of people’s stories as they lived out their lives.” These stories are used to create a narrative, making the project more relatable to the audience.

This narrative is used to argue that this negatively perceived area is still a vibrant community filled with real people who are desperate for inclusive change that will bring new residents to the surrounding neighborhoods who can benefit those already there. Being primarily mixed-use commercial West Baltimore Street many of the stories gathered for this project are from business owners. These business owners all agree that change is necessary for them to remain operational. Unfortunately for Littlepage’s Furniture Company this change came too late, and they were unable to keep their doors open.  

The West Baltimore Street project focused on the stories of current residents and business owners who provided insights on the structures that are now gone and those that remain today. I found the Cecil Clarke, Lisa Gee, and Lonnie Coombs interviews to be very enlightening. They all supported enhancements to the community like the La Cite development if the current residents were included in the decision-making process. As investors and business owners they understood that new residential construction can improve their business by drawing in new customers. Though as we have seen current and now past residents were rarely invited to the table and have suffered because of it.

Perhaps one of the most interesting buildings that remains on West Baltimore Street is the Lord Baltimore Theater. I enjoyed hearing Mr. Clarke discuss the theater in his interview and agree with his belief that if rehabilitated the theater could serve as a lynch pin for the community. Providing not only entertainment for residents but also a communal space for events that could bring people from the community together. It could also have the added benefit of drawing in people from outside of the neighborhood, like Curtis hoped for at the end of his recorded interview. As someone who is interested in architecture and old theaters I also enjoyed being able to see what the theater originally looked like after having seen its current state on our walking tour.  

This project does an excellent job at painting a picture for the audience of what it would have been like to walk down West Baltimore Street in the past while simultaneously conveying what it is like today. This is achieved by moving from east to west along the street itself stopping at various landmarks, giving the reader the ability to take the tour without having to leave the comfort of their own home. While I think everyone who is able should take the tour themselves, those who are physically or geographically unable to do so are thus included in the experience. Providing this kind of access is vital for the public humanities moving forward, granting access to a wider audience can only serve to benefit a project like this.

The zine portion of the project poses several questions to the readers, thus including the future into this study of past and present. While the reader in most circumstances cannot directly voice their answers to us. Raising questions gets them thinking and in turn ideally inspires them to participate in future projects. I thought this small detail was powerful and hope to push for this to be included in our project. I assume we will do this in our interviews, but I think that we should also try to pose those same questions to the readers as well.

I enjoyed the fact that this zine utilized a collective voice rather than the individual voices of those who worked on the project. I think that this collective voice suits the collaborative nature of the project itself. In my opinion it gives the reader the impression that this was created by the community. While we do get the individual stories from those interviewed, they are members of that community which to me gives them more weight. Being a project focused on neighbors and neighborhoods, I think that our project should aim to use this collective voice to convey the same message onto our audience.

I also noticed that his zine utilized advertising space to presumably raise money for a related cause. These ads seem to have been purchased by businesses on West Baltimore Street which is perfect for this project. Whether this was intentional or not I think that it fits very well with the theme of business owner stories. If there is a worthy cause presented to us, I think that we should try to utilize this in our project as well.

The A Walk Down West Baltimore Street project was a unique way to learn and tell the history of a street. Oral history projects like this one are needed to preserve the stories of those who have often been voiceless in historical accounts of the past. Presenting history in this way effectively creates connections between the audience and the subjects, These connections can ideally inspire a kind of empathy in readers who might join the fight to create change. While simultaneously empowering the subjects to take pride in their neighborhood’s history.

A Walk Through Southwest Baltimore

     This week we've been asked to define what a neighborhood is. To me the most basic definition of a neighborhood is a shared residential area bound by various geographic and political constraints. Though our readings this week have given me the impression that a neighborhood is also an idea. A symbolic space that represents American communal life and values. Whether or not a neighborhood is able to enjoy the benefits of that idea is the most troubling fact to me. 

    Last week we took a walking tour through Southwest Baltimore. I always enjoy exploring an area that I'm reading about. It really enhances the experience when you are able to occupy the space that seems so abstract on paper. We did this quite a bit last semester in my History of Baltimore course and I found the practice to be very beneficial. On the tour I was really shocked by the number of vacant lots. I can only assume that the majority were purchased by developers who have held on to them and have no plans to build on them. 

    I really enjoyed reading Dr. King's work this week. Like most people in my cohort I have been thinking a lot about my thesis topic. I've begun considering researching something related to the housing and development practices in Baltimore. Maybe public housing like the Poe Homes, The Baltimore Plan, or something more recent. But this is all just based on surface level Wikipedia research. I'm just drawn to the idea of using this research to help people affected by these practices.   

    As far as our class project goes I've been trying to think of  unique ways that we could present the neighborhood profiles. Print formats like a zine or a newspaper are timeless. I wonder if some kind of digital format might draw wider attention. Though while its easy for me to say that, making it a reality is a different story. I'll have to keep brainstorming and discussing with my classmates to see what we can come up with. 

Introductory Post

     Hi, I'm Josh. I'm a graduate student at UMBC working towards my masters in history. I'm in my second semester as a full time student in grad school. The majority of my research is focused on 19th and 20th century U.S. history. With an emphasis on social, cultural, urban, environmental, and architectural history. I'm interested in historic preservation and hope to find an internship for the summer that will allow me to explore this interest further. Having lived in and around the city of Baltimore all of my life, I hope to concentrate my graduate thesis on the city. I believe that Baltimore has a rich history and I hope to contribute towards its preservation. I'm currently taking a class with Dr. Nicole King called American Studies 622: Preserving Places, Making Spaces in Baltimore. One of the assignments for the course is to create a blog. Through this blog I will reflect on my experience throughout the semester.

    Our readings this week had several common themes: racial equity, protests, reckoning, spatial racism, community, and forced displacement. Racial equity has recently become a buzzword thrown around by politicians and business owners who rarely understand or embrace it. However as Lawrence T. Brown explains in The Black Butterfly racial equity is required to dismantle American apartheid. In the introduction Brown lays out the steps for implementing racial equity. It begins with acknowledging and reckoning with the injustices that minorities have endured throughout American history. I completely agree with this sentiment, while people may never be able to completely move past their generational trauma, they may be able to learn from it grow. 

    To better understand and eventually reckon with this trauma we must listen to peoples stories. We saw examples of this in Dr. King and Wesley Morris' work. Morris interviewed individuals affected by highway development in Philadelphia's Chinatown. These residents were adapting to life after their neighborhood was literally ripped in half. As part of our semester long project we will be listening to the residents of Baltimore's Poppleton. These interviews will allow us to create profiles on these individuals which will then be used for a larger collaborative project. This project could take the shape of a podcast like Morris' Still Processing, a zine, or even a story map.  

    As a side note one topic that I hope to explore further is Afrofuturistic ecological thinking. The phrase was mentioned in Brown's introduction. I've never heard of this before and hope to learn more about it throughout the book.