The Baltimore Museum of Art (BMA) hosted a community workshop and discussion titled “Why Do You Live Here?” as part of its Open Hours series on Saturday, Sept. 17.
Open Hours, a monthly program hosted at the BMA, focuses on creating community through conversations, workshops and lectures.
Baltimore natives Geoff Stack and Davon Barbour, along with Native American Piscataway Elder Rico Newman led the “Why Do You Live Here?” workshop and facilitated the discussion as the event’s participants explored their personal relationships to Baltimore.
The workshop focused on the concept of ‘home’ in relation to the Imagining Home exhibit currently on display at the BMA.
The exhibition invited people to think about the place they live in not only as a physical space but also as an emotional one.
The exhibit features a wall reading the words, “Home is an idea that is both shared and deeply personal, subject to individual aspirations, beliefs, and experiences. For some, home is a sanctuary, a place of security, affection, and comfort. For others, home is unstable, precarious, and even dangerous.”
The workshop was broken down into three smaller group conversations, which revolved around the questions,“What brought you here?”, “When or where are you most in love with Baltimore?” and “How is this place unlike any other?”
Although each group was comprised of participants spanning across generations, members were able to discover commonalities in their responses as to why they considered Baltimore their home.
Participants were also surprised and excited to hear how similar their initial reasons for coming to Baltimore were.
In the first small group discussion that The News-Letter was a part of, Baltimore community member Obi Okobi emphasized the importance of living in a beautiful city.
She initially saw the event on Facebook and was interested in hearing other community members’ opinions of Baltimore.
She came from Pittsburgh to Baltimore for the Baltimore City Teacher Residency. She came to the city looking for a more diverse community and educational equity and has worked in the education system here now for 14 years.
The group agreed that the views from the Patterson Park observatory pagoda and the top of Federal Hill Park overlooking the Inner Harbor best showcased the beauty of Baltimore.
The group also discussed the opportunities and abundant resources available in a city like Baltimore that are both educational and occupational.
The group expressed a collective desire for a location where events and festivals were always taking place.
In another small group discussion that The News-Letter was a part of, the group explored the different ways Baltimore brings together disparate groups and creates a unified community that encompasses many different perspectives and opinions.
The group noted that many of the city’s annual food festivals and events bring people from different backgrounds together.
Lexington Market and the Sunday Farmer’s Market under the Jones Falls Expressway were both mentioned as essential conglomerations of the eclectic and the quirky aspects of Baltimore.
The group also agreed that the local city farmer’s markets were a perfect mixture of community and diversity, offering something for everyone.
Because the markets were located in centers of the city, the group found them to be accessible from many neighborhoods.
Stack spoke to the friendliness of Baltimore City, using the analogy of the foundation of a physical house.
“It’s like a house. The dichotomy of the hard rough exterior of crime and poverty, but with a warm and friendly inside of a welcoming community,” Stack said. “Getting through the door is difficult, but once you’re inside you don’t ever want to leave.”
Many community members mentioned the loving feeling of growing up in Baltimore and how there are families that have lived in Baltimore for generations, a concept colloquially known as ‘Smalltimore.’
Stack expanded on this idea by explaining the experience of Baltimore locals.
“If you put down roots here, it’s hard to leave. If you ask someone from Baltimore where they went to school, they assume you mean high school,” Stack said.
This workshop kicked off the Story of Baltimore, a project that aims to bring community members together by finding the core values of Baltimore and inspiring a common love of the city and their home.
The project will offer various platforms for discussion, compile maps and data and collect personal stories to further develop the story of Baltimore.
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