Preserve the Baltimore Uprising

Screen capture of Preserve the Baltimore Uprising online

Local cultural heritage organizations and university faculty members are working together to create an online digital collection related to the events surrounding the death of Freddie Gray in police custody on April 19, 2015. The public is invited to submit content to the online project.

Angela Koukoui, a UB undergraduate and Langsdale Library student assistant, is one of two interns currently working at the Maryland Historical Society on building the digital repository. She was recently interviewed alongside Maryland Historical staff member, Joe Tropea, about the collaborative initiative. You can view their online interviews on Channel 2 and Channel 13.

Upcoming Local (Un)Conference

Image credit: View of the Battle Monument, John Rubens Smith (1775-1849), 1828. Library of Congress, LC-DIG-ds-01545.

Love Baltimore? Interested in local history and culture? If so, check out the upcoming Bmore Historic Unconference, October 10th at the Maryland Historical Society. Registration opens soon and is just ten dollars for students.

According to the unconference website:

Bmore Historic is an annual participant-led unconference for scholars, students, professionals and volunteers who care about public history, historic preservation and cultural heritage in the Baltimore region. Bmore Historic is an opportunity to connect with local historians, humanities scholars, preservation advocates, museum professionals, archivists, and anyone interested in exploring the vital intersections between people, places and the past in Baltimore and Maryland. We’re bringing people together and you set the agenda.

Save the Date - Home Movie Day!

Please join Langsdale Library as it hosts Baltimore Home Movie Day 2014!

     What: Baltimore Home Movie Day
     When: Saturday, October 18, 2014 (time TBA)
     Where: University of Baltimore, Learning Commons Town Hall

Begun by the Center for Home Movies, "Home Movie Day is a celebration of amateur films and filmmaking held annually at many local venues worldwide. Home Movie Day events provide the opportunity for individuals and families to see and share their own home movies with an audience of their community, and to see their neighbors’ in turn. It’s a chance to discover why to care about these films and to learn how best to care for them."

Look for more details in the upcoming edition of the library's newsletter, the Langsdale Link, and our social media updates!

The Power of Public Archives

Photo credit: Xpressive4ever Dance Inc. 

There is something very powerful about public archives when they are used by citizens to improve conditions for the next generation.

That's exactly what Angela Koukoui and her colleagues are doing at Langsdale Library. Angela is using archival material from Langsdale's Special Collections Department to advocate for arts funding in Baltimore public schools. Her relationship to this topic is in no way theoretical. Now the founder and artistic director of a local nonprofit for city youth, Angela grew up in East Baltimore in the 1980s, where she trained as a dancer through the city's Cultural Arts Program and went on to study dance at The Baltimore School for the Arts.

According to Ms. Koukoui, "I didn’t go looking for the arts, the arts found me in my own Baltimore City community and embraced me with gifts of opportunities that I never thought I could obtain."

What drew Angela to Lansdale Library was the rich visual history of the Cultural Arts Program (CAP) documented by the photographer Robert "Breck" Chapman and held in special collections. CAP's origins trace back to the War on Poverty's Model Cities Program and the grassroots efforts of parents at Baltimore's Dunbar High School. The CAP program was the cultural education arm of city services that were delivered to residents through a network of neighborhood centers. In the 1970s and 80s, these programs were conducted through the municipal Urban Services Agency. One of these citywide centers (known as Gallery 409, and later, the Eubie Blake Center) became the performing and visuals arts hub of CAP. When CAP was eliminated from city government in the 1990s, the Eubie Blake Center transitioned to nonprofit status.

In addition to the archival material Angela is using to research the history of Cultural Arts, she's also conducting interviews with key community leaders, arts instructors, and politicians to further her advocacy efforts. This work is being done to support the Governor's Leadership Council Task Force on the Arts. "Because of the great gifts instilled in me through the arts, I’ve had the honor to give back to the community that once gave back to me."

To learn more about Angela's work, please visit the Xpressive4ever Dance Inc. Facebook page.

It’s Not Rosetta Stone, but…

Growing up, my best friend was (and still is) Bharathi Vallalar. We were two years old when we first met. The story goes, I was sitting inside the rinky-dink apartment I called home, staring off into space and feeling suffocated by boredom. I whined to my mom about how I had no friends, and she looked out of the window and as usual gave great advice.

“You have to be friendly to make friends,” she announced as she pressed her pointed finger against the glass. “So why don’t you go outside and play with that boy?”

A friendship was born.  Fate brought Bharathi and his family out of South India and into the Twin Oaks apartment complex in Lafayette, Louisiana. His father knew a fair amount of English and took the time to practice the language with his son. We spent every waking day together and more often than not got into some kind of mischief. (One time we used my watercolor-paint set to decorate the neighbors front doors.) When we turned four, Bharathi’s mother came to be my weekday sitter. Unlike her husband, Mrs. Ponita had never studied English and had to pick up the language day-to-day. Many times my bosom buddy served as a translator for his mother. As a little kid, I remember listening to Bharathi and Mrs. Ponita converse in their native tongue of Tamil and feeling jealous.

What are they saying? Why can’t I understand them? I want to learn speak like them too. 

Bmore Historic Unconference

Now's your chance to register for this year's Bmore Historic unconference, which will be held Friday, October 11th at the Maryland Historical Society.

What is Bmore Historic? According to the event website, it's "a participant-led unconference for scholars, students, professionals and volunteers who care about public history, historic preservation and cultural heritage in the Baltimore region."

The event website has all the details you'll need, including:

• What's an unconference?
• How much does it cost?
• Who are the event sponsors?
• What happened last year?

As a participant last year, I found it to be a fun and affordable way to participate in the local dialogue around historical and cultural issues. Lots of great thinkers, creators, and collaborators sharing their projects and ideas.