Nicole King, Associate Professor of American Studies, Bill Shewbridge, Professor of Practice in Media and Communication Studies, Sarah Fouts, Assistant Professor of American Studies, and their students will continue their community-based cultural documentation across the city of Baltimore through Baltimore Traces projects.
In Southwest Baltimore, the MFN and UMBC’s American Studies and Media and Communication Studies departments have a long-standing partnership with the Arabber Preservation Society to document and preserve the work of Baltimore’s horse-cart vendors. The project will continue collecting oral history interviews and gathering archival materials for a new documentary, tentatively titled “I am Your Neighbor”: Profiles of Arabbers & Artists in Southwest Baltimore.
Additionally, UMBC students and culture bearers have been documenting the history and culture of the endangered African American neighborhood of Poppleton, as well as historic Hollins Market and Lexington Market in West Baltimore. These collaborations have resulted in podcasts, zines, and a new documentary film. The project will continue interviewing culture bearers, artists, and those involved in foodways and other cultural traditions in Southwest Baltimore. Project participants will develop a collaborative public exhibition about the Poppleton community project at the Maryland Center for History & Culture, and begin development and production on a documentary project on Maryland’s cultural and artistic heritage that will include Lost Neighborhoods: Stories of Urban Renewal in Baltimore, 1930s-Present.
Co-PIs Nicole King, Bill Shewbridge, and their students will continue ongoing projects on Maryland’s cultural and artistic heritage. We will show the recently completed documentary film “I’ve Endured: The music and legacy of Ola Belle Reed” at community events and film festivals, including a fall 2024 screening and concert at Carroll Arts Center in Westminster, MD, organized with our partner Maryland Folklife Center, Common Ground on the Hill. We are also collecting additional Ola Belle related interviews with the Paisley and Lundy families and documenting their performance at the Deer Creek Fiddlers Convention. We will continue interviews with artists and those involved in foodways and other cultural traditions in Southwest Baltimore. Grant funds will also support the creation of the next community Zine in spring 2025, documentary work, and maintain the projects’ websites.