Category: Community

Blues/Lamentations for George Perry Floyd, Oct 14, 1973-May 25, 2020

From Mama Linda’s Chapbook, 29 June 2020

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?
They put pressure on his neck
With their knee
Poor George went on to Calvary.

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

PAIN & TRAUMA!!!
George called for his
Angel Mama.

PAIN & TRAUMA!!!
George called for his
Angel Mama.
She opened up her arms
“No more hurt! No more harm.”

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

People came together & marched.
They shouted & they torched.

People came together & marched.
They shouted & they torched.

“NO JUSTICE! NO PEACE!
STOP THE SYSTEM OF
RACIST POLICE.”

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

They rallying cry was hurled
All over the world.

The rallying cry was hurled
All over this world.
Thousands gathered in
Cities & towns,
And some statues
Came tumbling down.

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

SOMEHOW! SOMEWAY!
WE SHALL OVERCOME SOMEDAY?

SOMEHOW! SOMEWAY!
WE SHALL OVERCOME SOMEDAY?
A change has got to come
From the heart,
Or this country will fall apart.

O MY LORD!
Did you see what
They did to George Floyd?

– Mama Linda
Copyright 2020 by Linda Goss

> Find a complete interview with Mama Linda about the creation of this poem

Now listening. We’re gathering stories about this historic moment.

Two people wearing face masks and sweatshirts stop to pick up food.
East Baltimore residents pick up takeout lunches. Photo by Daisy Brown

In a nutshell, 2020 has been momentous. From the pandemic to the protests, this year has been so historic, so unprecedented that it can be difficult to make sense of everything that’s happening in real time. Have you stopped to really assess how you are feeling?

How are the people in your life or in your neighborhood coping with isolation, economic uncertainty, social unrest, etc.?

It’s our mission to listen.

The Peale remains committed to outreach, even as we work remotely, away from the museum building at 225 Holliday Street.

We want to hear from you. The Peale invites YOU to share your experience⁠—at this moment in time⁠—with us and with the rest of Baltimore. Tell us what are you doing to cope, how you’ve been affected, and what your outlook is for the future. Your story will be included in our story archive for future historians and may be included in an online or onsite exhibition. In addition, we publish most stories on the Peale’s SoundCloud Channel, Be Here Stories.

It’s easy to share a story. There are three ways you can record your thoughts. Choose the one that’s easiest for you:

*Please note that you DO NOT have to be professional storyteller, public speaker, or historian to participate. We welcome everyone’s stories, and we want to help make sure the whole story of Baltimore is told. Check out a sample story from a previous project.

Jeffrey Kent’s Black Lives Matter paintings on the front of the Peale

On June 7, 2020, Baltimore-based artist Jeffrey Kent, along with friends and family, installed his latest work on the front of the Peale building: two large Black Lives Matter banners. Jeffrey’s artwork is conceptual, informed by the historical and the personal, inextricably linked. His passionate investigation of issues related to the political and economic foundations of freedom and the role of responsible citizenship is the thread connecting all of Kent’s collections. We now find this same thread connecting different communities and peoples in this nation, all with the same call, simply: Black. Lives. Matter.

The artists Chris Wilson (left) and Jeffrey Kent (right) with one of Kent’s “Black Lives Matters” paintings at the Peale.
A white man holds a ladder for a black man who is installing a large "Black Lives Matter" painting on a boarded up window.
Titus Bicknell holds the ladder for the artist Jeffrey Kent as he installs one of his “Black Lives Matters” paintings at the Peale.

Artist’s Statement

> Listen to Jeffrey talk about his work in an interview by Noreen Smith

These paintings are originally painted to simply express the message, “Black Lives Matters.” After beginning the paintings, it became much more. Initially important was that I used materials that would withstand external exposure. Exterior paint in tar black applied to a painter’s drop cloth heavily enough to drench the fabric so that the black bled through to the back of the fabric provides the foundation of the artworks. The metaphor of a black foundation, as the United States was founded on the backs of enslaved and freed black labor and intellect, continues through to the starkly white letters almost floated on top of the black canvas, applied from the tube. The white letters float above and are supported by the black foundation: a reminder that anti-racism work impacts us all, and whose souls are at stake.

–Jeffrey Kent

WBAL Reporters Tour “Renovations” Exhibition

Renovations artist Christopher Kojzar, who is standing in front of a camera.
Artist Christopher Kojzar talks to reporters about the “Renovations” exhibition.

Last week, Lisa Robinson of WBAL TV stopped by the Carroll Mansion (our temporary home during our building renovations) to chat about another kind of renovation–the Renovations exhibition, currently on display at 800 E. Lombard Street.

The show, on view through March 1, 2020, is an exploration of African American education through the lens of contemporary art and has been lauded by visitors, arts organizations, and historians. Not only does the rarely explored topic resonate with locals but the exhibition makes innovative use of modern technologies to tell its stories–from augmented- and virtual reality to creative video presentations.

Conceived of by Christopher Kojzar, Mollye Bendell, and Jeffrey Gangwisch of the strikeWare Collective. The artists weave together traditional and new media to present a visual experience about the institutions, educators and progenitors who shaped how Baltimore’s Black community acquired formal training and knowledge. The entire project was inspired by the Peale building’s history as “Male & Female Colored School No. 1” in the 19th century.

Check out the interview! 

Holiday Shopping Made Easy! Out of the Blocks Cards

You don’t need a radio show or podcast to have meaningful conversations. Get to know strangers, neighbors, and even friends and family better with your very own deck of questions asked by Aaron Henkin for Out of the Blocks on WYPR. This standard deck of playing cards is an interview toolkit, tried and tested in hundreds of interviews across Baltimore and beyond. Available online here or at the Peale Center for US$10.00 each + shipping!

Learn more about Interviewing Neighbors and Strangers in this video with Aaron Henkin and find more resources for storytellers here.

BIG NEWS! Green Grant from BGE

Extra! Extra! We’re thrilled to announce that the Peale has received a Green Grant from BGE to add gardens and greenery to Watchhouse Alley, the areas between the Peale and its neighbors on Holliday Street. The additional green spaces will not only help nature by encouraging pollinators to visit but will also help beautify the community! We’re super grateful to BGE for this opportunity! Read more about the BGE Grant.

The project will create:

  • An engaging space, connecting to the streets beyond. The Peale Center is improving and extending an existing garden by bringing in new plants and trees. It will also add seating to the area. Between a coffee shop planned for the museum and the nearby Ida B’s Table, a highly praised restaurant, Proctor expects the alley to be a destination itself, as well as a gateway to the museum and other neighborhood businesses.
  • An invitation to birds and butterflies. A group of artists first revived the long-neglected garden as part of a 2017 exhibition about the effects of light pollution on birds, supported by a BGE Green Grant. Today, the goal is to extend the pollinator plantings to attract beautiful flying creatures to the neighborhood.
  • A place for stories and exploration. The garden area will be the perfect place to tell stories about Baltimore culture and natural history; about where birds go when they migrate and how we can help bees and butterflies; and about the vibrant community that is Baltimore today. It also will be a place for hands-on learning and workshops.
  • A place for experimentation. Initially, many of the plants and trees will remain in pots. Staff and volunteers will be able to move them around to determine the best permanent locations. They also will monitor which creatures – human and otherwise – visit and enjoy the plantings.
  • A safer place. Vintage-style gates to be locked during the museum’s off-hours will help prevent the accumulation of garbage and vandalism and protect against fires.

Renovation Update: Taking Out the Trash

A heap of trash includes lots of cardboard boxes found in the basement of the Peale!

Help us take out the trash!

This summer an intrepid team from BGE cleaned out the basement of their company’s birthplace – the Peale Museum. We now need to haul the broken chairs, dented metal cabinets, and other detritus from the Museum’s 20th century life away for recycling and safe disposal. A generous board member has offered up to $1,500 in matching funds for the costs of removal. Can you make a donation or offer in-kind help for this essential renovation clean-up? Email us if YOU can help!

Call for Entries- No Walls, No Bans, No Border

CALL FOR ENTRIES: Exhibition applications are due March 31! Submit here: https://www.rebellensbmore.org/entries

The exhibition will be held May 9-June 2, 2019.

“No Walls, No Bans, No Borders” is a benefit photography and art exhibit featuring the work of Baltimore-based activists connecting ideas of the violence of capitalism, colonialism, and the racist/fascist state both locally here in Baltimore and globally. A portion of artist’s sales will go back to the groups doing the work on the ground.

This is a call to activists for their photo and video documentation of movements they are a part of, along with art made made in response to those issues and movements. Submit your entries online at: https://www.rebellensbmore.org/entries. Artists may submit up to three available artworks for inclusion in the exhibition.

The theme focuses on the work being done to dismantle walls/bans/borders of oppression, whether through physical state walls, walls of a prison, walls of stigma, or institutional walls. The goal is to tell the story through the eyes of those on the ground doing the work.

The event is being curated by Rebel Lens Bmore – a group of on-the-ground activists using photo and video to document social movements in Baltimore – in collaboration with a number of other great artists in Baltimore.

For more information about Rebel Lens, or to submit works for the Benefit Exhibition, please visit rebellensbmore.org.

Questions? Contact us at rebellensbmore@gmail.com.

“Pealed Every Which Way” Projects

On view earlier this spring, the Pealed Every Which Way exhibition was created by by Goucher College students and featured site-specific individual works, sounds, performances and stories that responded to the Peale Museum building and history.

Not only did students have an opportunity to create installations, they also produced digital publications and stories. Check them out!

An illustration showing the interior of what the Peale Museum may have looked like in the 19th century, juxtaposed with a drawing of Charles Willson Peale, lifting a curtain to reveal his museum.
An illustration from “Flip Me,” a Goucher College student project.

Scary Story
By Tia Resham Cheema, Katie Chen, Marissa Grant, Dina Diani
An interactive website and digital ghost story!

Camera Obscura
By Will Kirby
A comprehensive photobook showing Camera Obscura techniques as employed at the Peale

Flip Me
By Alexis Liszewski
A beautifully drawn custom flip book, featuring the Peale and its patrons

Peale Center Project
By Maddy Romberger
A combination of drawings and photographs, covering the Peale’s long history and impressive architecture

(Peale)ing Pictures
By Camryn Agostino
Coming Soon!

Story of the Floor
By Melina Albornoz
Coming Soon!

Perspectives
By Vela Culbert
Coming Soon!

BootPrints: Immersive Performance 30 June 6pm

An African American woman in a purple shirt sits in a chair in a dark room, speaking to the audience.Join us at the Peale on Saturday, June 30 at 6pm for the final live performance of BootPrints, including a staged reading with chorus and the immersive exhibition, followed by a conversation between the playwright, Latonia Valincia-Moss and Angela Carroll of BmoreArt Magazine. A vegan tasting is included in the ticket price, and drinks can be purchased additionally during the event.

Tickets are $15 in advance and $20 at the door.