Baltimore Stories: Narratives and Life of an American City: Kick-off Event

The University of Maryland Arts and Humanities Center for Synergy, Maryland Humanities Council and their major partners had a kick-off event for Baltimore Stories, a project funded by a NEH Humanities in the Public Square grant on March 23, 2016. This project is designed to help examine the roles of narrative in the life and identity of the city and will produce an educational website to help educators and the public in other cities investigate the roles of narrative and race. This major event brought together a large and diverse audience of citizens from across the city to discuss narrative, race and power.

Morning speakers included David Simon, author, journalist and creator of HBO television series The Wire, and Dr. Khalil Gibran Muhammad, historian and director of the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture. Afternoon speakers included Dr. Christopher Bonner, historian at the University of Maryland, and a panel of local humanists, public intellectuals, activists and the audience.

The Baltimore Stories project has been made possible in part by a major grant from the National Endowment for the Humanities, and is a collaboration between the University of Maryland, Maryland Humanities Council, the University of Maryland Baltimore County, Enoch Pratt Free Library and the Greater Baltimore Cultural Alliance.

To learn more: go.umd.edu/BmoreStories