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BmoreArt’s Sixth Print Journal Explores the Theme of Home

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The BmoreArt Journal of Art + Ideas: Issue 06 Centers on Baltimore as a Creative Home by Cara Ober

For BmoreArt’s newest print journal, we asked a variety of Baltimore-based artists and creative entrepreneurs: What does home mean to you? What is its purpose and how can it be accessed? How has the idea of home shaped your creativity, your relationships, your career, and your ideas?

The concept and reality of home has become even more complicated in the past year, with legal issues of residency and citizenship at the center of legislative and ethical debate. Home has become a political rallying cry, but also remains a source of comfort and strength. For BmoreArt’s sixth print journal, a publication which has always functioned more like an art exhibition in print than a traditional magazine, a team of artists, writers, photographers, and designers explored the theme of home from a number of diverse perspectives.

Editor Cara Ober with Collector Schwanda Rountree, photo by Kelvin Bulluck

We chose the theme of home because there are so many established traditions in home décor and creative living magazines, and we wanted to showcase the beauty of living in Baltimore. However, since we are artists, we also wanted to flip traditional expectations of home into stories that complicate and broaden the way we think about individual homes, neighborhoods, and our city.

Issue 06: Home features beautiful, creative homes from all over Baltimore and the artists who live in them. It also features a collaborative essay on growing up in East Baltimore by writer Kondwani Fidel and photographer Devin Allen. It calls attention to artists like Erick Antonio Benitez, Oletha DeVane, and Zoë Charlton, who explore the history and politics of home in their work, and architect Steve Ziger, whose impact on Baltimore’s built environment has been inspired by the buildings and art he has encountered here. This issue includes a fashion shoot of five up-and-coming fiber artists who make wearable sculpture, a conversation with collector Schwanda Rountree, and a discussion of historic black culinary traditions with Chef David Thomas of Ida B’s Table. It features interviews with Homegrown Baltimore, Waller Gallery’s Joy Davis, Afro House Concert Series, and the Press Press team, with profiles on Evergreen Houseguests resident artists and Ed Berlin of The Ivy bookshop. Most importantly, this publication explores what home means to different residents, both transplants who have chosen Baltimore as their adopted home and those born here, and how this concept resonates.

Writers featured in the newest issue include Lexie Mountain, Mark Alice Durant, Angela N. Carroll, Kondwani Fidel, Lisa Snowden-McCray, Rebekah Kirkman, Michael Downs, Christine Manganaro, Sam Sessa, Maura Callahan, Michael Farley, and Bret McCabe with photos by Devin Allen, Justin Tsucalas, Jill Fannon, Kelvin Bulluck, Dave “Wavey” Anderson III, Theresa Keil, E. Brady Robinson, Rachel Rock, Joseph Hyde, and others.

Kondwani Fidel, photo by Devin Allen

This journal is not a commercial publication; it’s a collaborative, community-based art project. It could not exist without a team of talented storytellers and artists whose ideas inform and contradict each other. Design brings all these creative visions together harmoniously and we have graphic designer Tony Venne to thank for that, as well as his expertise in achieving meticulous print quality.

As with all past print journals, BmoreArt will host a magazine release party at a location that reflects the theme of the publication. For example, the Legacy issue was hosted at The Walters Art Museum and the Beauty issue at the Engineer’s Club. This time, the event will focus on the comfort that home suggests and will be hosted at Union Craft Brewing’s new space, with pizza from Well Crafted Kitchen, tacos from Clavel, a collaborative photo lounge courtesy of Homegrown Baltimore and Pixilated photo booth, and an athleisure contest with prizes from B.Willow, Knits, Soy & Metal, and Cedar & Cotton, three creative entrepreneurs featured in the next publication.

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You can join BmoreArt on Thursday, November 15 for the launch of Issue 06: Home at Union Craft Brewing’s new space! $25 Tickets include a new magazine, Union Craft beer, snacks, Skee ball and prizes for BEST ATHLEISURE attire!!

Parking is limited, so please consider ride-sharing/ Lyft and Uber.

All ticket sales go directly into paying the writers, artists, designers, and printer for the next issue.

Model Janae Edley wearing Bishme Cromartie design, photo by Jill Fannon


About BmoreArt:

BmoreArt is a Baltimore-based magazine that explores art and culture. It started out as an informal, community-based blog in 2007 and evolved into a professional webzine in 2014 and biannual print journal in 2015. BmoreArt boasts a growing online readership with an average of 60,000 visits a month and produces a full color print journal twice a year with a print run of 3000 copies. We love enaging on social media and host events like speaker series, panels, and magazine launch parties. We are an independent and experimental publication and we value creativity, innovation, and authentic storytelling.

Top Photos: Artists Ruri Yi, Erin Fitzpatrick, and Jeffrey Kent, photos by Justin Tsucalas

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