Baltimore Creatives Become the Forefront Activists For Perception of Baltimore Housing and Community Change (Support Vacants Tour and The People United Exhibition)

From arts and culture to small business successes and housing developments, the entire country is looking at Baltimore, MD with a microscope wondering what defines who we are and how we compared to other metropolitan areas. 

I’m proud of my city being a leading example of peaceful protests after the death of George Floyd because sometimes a painted narrative that Baltimore is bad and vastly promoted negative visuals of violence and crime in a 3rd-world-looking neighborhood does not help create an optimistic view for potential. It’s good people of Baltimore that can prove to doubters the positivity that comes out of here.

Since the world had it an eye on Baltimore during the 2015 Uprising, outsiders discovered it to be a visually neglected community which faced years of increasing neighborhood blight. National and international media caught images of an area that had many in disbelief in the conditions of the neighborhoods in Baltimore. But what people were seeing was how the population declined rapidly for decades and the city’s inability to keep up with the costs of these growing vacant communities appeared.

In 2017, it was reported over 16,000 vacant homes in Baltimore City with plans from organizations like Project C.O.R.E. to rebuild in underdeveloped neighborhoods suffering blight. Over 16 thousand vacant buildings is a large number. But that’s an improvement from 1997 when the city’s census was depleting and over 40,000 abandon buildings were accounted for as vacant homes. Even still two decades later, the city continues to have a declining population but at least the vacant numbers reach a point of stabilization. In June 2019, Baltimore celebrated a breakthrough from blight as it marked the 4,000th building unit demolished over a four-year period through a special state-city partnership started by the governor.

Some of the city’s largest organizations, corporations, and institutions get involved in the evolution of the Baltimore architectural emergence. Big names like John Hopkins helping bring new homes to East Baltimore, and Underarmour’s $5.5 billion investment in the waterfront development plan for Port Covington, just to name two, play a major part in the improvement. There are questions about how some organizations get approved for funding projects and raise eyebrows about the inequality of urban investments. In 2017 there was an analysis done by the city, “Looking at budgeted capital spending over five years in neighborhoods where more than 75 percent of residents were either white or black, the analysis found that white neighborhoods got an average of $15 million for projects and minority neighborhoods got only $8 million.” It raises concern for why lower-poverty areas receive more funding than that of communities with high poverty rates.

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Multiple Baltimore creatives step to the forefront being the activists for the perception of Baltimore. Many are creators who live, breathe, and eat everything that is the Baltimore city lifestyle. The creatives who take pride in Baltimore continue to bring everyone back to the message and show onlookers what needs to be done to make a difference.

Outsiders to Baltimore are intrigued by how people still have pride in neighborhoods that look like this. They wonder what possesses someone to stay in these neighborhoods or get involved with sharing the history of Baltimore. But these creatives become activists to share a message that people see what is only surface level and a result of years of neglect in broken promises, not the proper resources being put into the communities, and a simple disinterest in preserving these neighborhoods. There are people who take pride in where they come from and how it’s shaped their life experiences. These people are working to improve and create new origins for emerging generations. 

Vacants Tour

Cheyanne Zadia created a project coined from Baltimore’s housing crisis called “Vacants” with a group of other Baltimore artists to “spread the message which is really to spread love, to seek self and to spread community.” Starting Juneteenth, they performed six pop-up styled concerts on street corners from East to West Baltimore. The project has now evolved into a tour featuring Zadia, Al Rogers Jr, Josh Stokes, Brandon Woody, Bobbi Rush, Mike C, TAli, Prettiman and AyeFinney; all accompanied by live instrumentation.

[Donate to the Vacant Tour.] 

Another project you can support in Baltimore is The People United Exhibition located in the display windows of the Baltimore art gallery Current Space.

I went to The People United exhibiton to support some photographer friends who are advocates of documenting the changes in Baltimore city’s neighborhood developments. 

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Each photo exemplifies life in Baltimore. Each image possesses the in your face message that can never go ignored if you’re a resident of the city. These artists document history, a story of how Baltimore was and its current status. They do it in hopes of a bringing attention to these neighborhoods for an optimistic future because these streets and blocks are home. 

Check out the work of some of these awesome artists at their Instagrams below:

Devin Allen @bydvnlln

Cynphany Brown @curiouscyn_

Rob Ferrell @bmore_radical

Andrew Koritzer @drew.koritzer

Charles Mason III @traem3

Shae McCoy @shae.mccoy.photos

Philip Muriel @philip.muriel

Would you donate to artists with these very visions to share their love for their hometown? Visit the Vacants Tour GoFund Me page.