Voices of Women and Girls in the Baltimore Story

African American women and girls figured prominently in the events leading up to and during the Baltimore unrest. Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake and the Baltimore State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby became household names but many other women were visible and vocal. Young women publicly spoke about their lives; older black women spoke to help get people into their homes before curfew. The public roles of women, including the founders of #Black Lives Matter, are contrasted with the silencing of women in the movement of the 1960s and their erasure from the historical narrative. For example, we have only recently come to understand that women invented many of the strategies of the earlier movement.

Participants will consider together the roles and positions of women in the Baltimore narrative, and how the roles and positions of women and girls have historically been included or excluded in social change narratives. Panelists: Sheri Parks, American Studies, UMD; Rita Walters, VP of Advancement, MICA; Margaret Musgrove, English and Director Women’s Center, Loyola University, Baltimore; Tanafe Wallace, cultural organizer and curator and young women activists. Invited young women who spoke at rallies are Shameeka Smalling, Ama Chandra and Erricka Bridgeford. This event is co-sponsored with the Maryland Institute College of Art.

2 - 3:30 p.m.  Culture Work: Black Women's Roles in Movement Work
Sheri Parks, American Studies, UMD; Rita Walters, VP of Advancement, MICA; Margaret Musgrove, English and Director Women’s Center, Loyola University

3:30 - 5 p.m.  Black Girls Rock!: Centering Black Girls in the Baltimore Narrative
Sheri Parks, American Studies, UMD; Tanefe Wallace, Shameeka Smalling, Ama Chandra, and Erricka Bridgeford

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.

Join the Facebook event page here.

To register: http://goo.gl/forms/QKV4g8cLUn

Questions: arhusynergy@umd.edu