Overview:
The Shriver Center at University of Maryland-Baltimore County, partnered with a city arts collective to present Arts Ryzing, a youth-driven event designed to teach, entertain and demonstrate the healing powe of art.
A decade ago, after Freddie Gray, 25, was fatally injured while handcuffed in the back of a police van, the city of Baltimore erupted in angry protests that spanned nearly a month. Known as the “Baltimore Uprising,” the angry demonstrations tore the city apart, casting a harsh light on police use of deadly force and the lack of opportunity in poor, largely Black communities.
For some, the problems that triggered the violence are still there, and the wounds the protests called attention to are still raw. But a University of Maryland-Baltimore County program is using visual and performance art to teach the community its history, help it heal — and inspire its young people to continue the ongoing fight for justice.
Art Rysing, an arts festival sponsored by UMBC’s The Choice Program, is helping bind Baltimore’s wounds by connecting the city and its neighborhoods to performers, educators and artists for a day of arts and activism.
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Administered by the Shriver Center at UMBC, The Choice Program partnered with WombWork, a theater collective, and DewMore Baltimore, which celebrates poetry and spoken-word performance, to present Art Rysing: an afternoon of arts and activism for youth justice. The Choice Program has sponsored Art Rysing every year since its beginning in Baltimore.
Culture, Trust and Change
“Freddie Gray’s murder was the tipping point of the Baltimore Uprising but tension between the black community existed long before due to decades of police corruption and brutality in black neighborhoods. The uprising was the community expressing ‘enough is enough,’” said Eric Ford, executive director of the Shriver Center.
Held in late March at the Institute of Marine and Environmental Technology in Baltimore’s historic Inner Harbor district, the goal of the event was to teach culture, build trust and foment change, particularly among young people in underserved neighborhoods.
“If we want to really shift the minds of our young people, the first thing we need to do is make sure these children and young adults know who they are.”
Mama Rashida Forman-Bey, Founding Director, WombWork
“If we want to really shift the minds of our young people, the first thing we need to do is make sure these children and young adults know who they are,” said Mama Rashida Forman-Bey, a founding director of WombWork Productions. “That means knowing about their culture.”
WombWorks and The Choice Program have a close partnership through the Shriver Center, the UMBC institution founded in honor of Robert Sargent Shriver, architect of the Peace Corps under President John F. Kennedy, and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, creator of the Special Olympics.
Stories Told, Voices Heard
Ford was long aware that WombWork had done impressive work with at-risk kids in some of Baltimore’s most overlooked neighborhoods .
“We reached out to WombWork because we knew we needed to partner with a grassroots organization that had a history in the community and a history in storytelling,” Ford said.
“We are now building culture. Culture is where people establish their norms, habits, values which can lead to behavioral change,” Ford said. “So we’re going to continue to partner with WombWork and establish culture within our program, within our young people and within our staff.”
Among the afternoon’s highlights was Nu Generation, WombWork’s teen social justice performance ensembles. Consisting of teenagers and youth adults aged 13 to 20. Nu Generation’s performance filled the room with drums, dance and testimonies of real stories and life experiences faced by Baltimore residents at the hands of law enforcement.
“[The members of Nu Generation] shared their stories, learned dance, learned how to drum. The process itself gives young people a platform to tell their stories and have their voices heard,” said Forman-Bey.
New Generation Rising
WombWork has produced performances that have touched the lives of many community members in Baltimore, producing art that touches on a range of topics, including adverse childhood experiences, domestic violence, gang violence, sexual assault and mental illness.
Other participants that came together to make Art Rysing possible include master of ceremonies Larry Caudle, producer Uday Sharad Joshi, DewMore Baltimore, Jaela Morris and Youth in Action.
Joshi facilitated sessions employing therapeutic narrative techniques that aided with the development of youth leadership skills. Joshi is also a social work fellow with The Choice Program at UMBC.
Nu Generation Art Ensemble integrated youth leadership work from Youth in Action. One of Youth in Action’s testimonies was a story about Alysha Williams, a resident of Cantonsville in nearby Baltimore County.
In jail for allegedly shooting at people with a BB gun, Williams pleaded guilty in part to get home to her daughter. If she had fought the case, she says, it would have meant spending more time behind bars and away from her family.
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Now a Choice Program staff member, Williams knew it was important for her to share her story because she couldn’t stay silent “when the system tries to silence us.”
DewMore Baltimore, a program under the Black Arts District, uses spoken word poetry as a form of advocacy and community engagement. Youth in Action provided youth with the opportunity to convene and develop leadership skills in order to fight for emancipation of all people.
“I hope the audience knows that our children are going through things,” said Forman-Bey. “Sometimes when you see our children and they look angry, it’s because they are grieving something. Sometimes when they are laughing about something serious, it’s because they don’t know what to do with their emotions. So this creates a space for young people to heal in every way.”