This week’s news includes: ARPA Grants, Baltimore artists in DC, Mary Proctor exhibition announced at AVAM, news from Goucher College galleries, three new exhibitions at The Walters, recent acquisitions at NGA, Courting Art Baltimore, #T4T4T Festival, 20th Annual ResFest, Art with a Heart Shop & Bop, Anne Tyler kicks of The Banner’s book club, Leigh Davis performs Grief Karaoke, and Crushing Colonialism wins an award — with reporting from Baltimore Magazine, Baltimore Fishbowl, The Baltimore Banner, and other local and independent news sources.
Header Image: “My Grandmas Old Blue Willow” by Mary Proctor. Photo by Dan Meyers. from AVAM’s upcoming exhibition
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Baltimore Awards $324,000 in ARPA-Funded Individual Artist Grants to 81 Local Creatives
Press Release :: July 17
The City of Baltimore, in partnership with the Baltimore Civic Fund, proudly announces the 81 recipients of the 2025 ARPA Artist Grant. Each artist will receive an unrestricted $4,000 grant, totaling $324,000 in direct support to Baltimore’s creative community.
The ARPA Artist Grant Fund is made possible through the City’s American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) allocation, part of Mayor Brandon M. Scott’s strong commitment to arts and culture recovery. This initiative supports Baltimore artists in recovering from the economic disruptions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic—acknowledging both their creative contributions and their role as essential members of the local economy.
“Local artists and creatives help to shape and define Baltimore’s identity,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “We know that these folks were disproportionately impacted by the pandemic, which is why we’ve made the arts an especially high priority in the last few years. This grant program is a direct investment in the people who bring our city to life through storytelling, expression, and community engagement. Supporting their recovery helps drive our city forward.”
“Through investing in individual artists and grassroots organizations, the City’s ARPA funding has played a crucial role in sustaining Baltimore’s entire creative ecosystem,” said Elizabeth Tatum, Acting Chief Recovery Officer for the Mayor’s Office of Recovery Programs. “These investments demonstrate a deep understanding that the arts are vital to our city’s recovery—economically, culturally, and socially. We are proud to support the people and projects that make Baltimore a more vibrant, connected, and inspiring place to live.”
The Baltimore Civic Fund is an independent 501c3 organization serving as the fiscal sponsor for the City of Baltimore, the Baltimore Civic Fund is proud to be the financial backbone for public-private partnerships between innovative city programs and the philanthropic community. In this role, the Civic Fund manages $20 million annually for more than 100 city programs that promote business and economic development, education, culture and the creative economy, job growth, and more. Working alongside the mayor of Baltimore and city leadership, the Civic Fund helps realize a vision of an inclusive city where all Baltimore residents prosper.
Administered by the Baltimore Civic Fund, the grant program received over 165 applications from across the city. After reviewing the applicants’ submitted documentation, 81 eligible grantees representing a wide range of creative disciplines were selected:
- Visual & Design Arts
- Public & Placemaking Arts
- Performing Arts
- Fashion & Textile Arts
- Makers & Craft Arts
- Recording & Sound Arts
- Digital & Media Arts
- Culinary Arts
- Literary Arts
“This grant is about creative resilience,” said Tonya Miller Hall, Senior Advisor of Arts & Culture for the Mayor’s Office of Arts, Culture & Entertainment. “It reflects our belief that artists are not only cultural visionaries but small business owners and community anchors who deserve investment and infrastructure.”
The art world loves Baltimore artists. This free D.C. exhibit shows why.
by Wesley Case
Published July 18 in The Baltimore Banner
Lately, the art world is recognizing what many Baltimoreans have known for a long time: This city produces remarkable artists.
In March, the TENT museum in Rotterdam — Baltimore’s sister city in the Netherlands — debuted “Walk on By,” an exhibit curated by Creative Alliance Visual Arts Director Joy Davis that explores Black diasporic communities in the two port cities.
Boston’s LaiSun Keane gallery in May premiered “Baltimore to Boston: Neo Contemporary Art,” which centered on works by local artists including Ainsley Burrows, Heejo Kim and V Walton, the ceramicist who last week also celebrated her solo New York City debut, “I Find Rest.”
Then there’s “Strong, Bright, Useful & True,” the must-see exhibition at the Johns Hopkins University Bloomberg Center’s Irene and Richard Frary Gallery in Washington. The collection, on display for free through Sept. 6, is a treasure trove of works created by some of Baltimore’s finest artists, from Joyce J. Scott and Derrick Adams to Soledad Salamé and René Treviño.
The exhibit is modest in size but packs a visual and emotional wallop, with roughly 20 works ranging from oil paintings and photography to a video installation. It’s a potent dose of exquisite talent from an area that can at times be overlooked, given its proximity to larger cities.
“Baltimore has a charisma that can’t be found anywhere else in the United States,” Caitlin Berry, director of the Frary Gallery, said during a recent visit.
The exhibit’s title comes from an 1876 speech given by the Johns Hopkins University’s first president, Daniel Gilman. “Our simple aim is to make scholars strong, bright, useful and true.” That description felt apt, Berry said, when applied to the creativity of Baltimore artists.
The curation was patient and intentional, with pieces selected over the past two years by a committee of Johns Hopkins students, alumni, faculty and staff, along with help from BmoreArt’s Connect + Collect program. Other artists included in the exhibit: Kandis Williams, Kei Ito, Nakeya Brown, Se Jong Cho and more.
The recent wave of attention on Baltimore artists doesn’t surprise Berry. She thinks it could just be the start.
“This is a long-overdue moment for Baltimore artists,” she said. “I hope they just continue to receive this critical attention, nationally and internationally, because the work is terrific.”
And, to think, it’s all just an $18 round trip on a Maryland Area Rail Commuter train away. Here are highlights from “Strong, Bright, Useful & True.”
Adams has earned his reputation as one of Baltimore’s busiest multi-hyphenates, from leading the arts nonprofit Charm City Cultural Cultivation to co-curating the Scout Art Fair, a welcome edition at May’s Artscape. So it’s nice to take a beat to appreciate some of the work that has made him an international name in contemporary art.
These stately side portraits, which come from his 2019 exhibition at New York’s Luxembourg & Dayan Gallery, appear like meticulously constructed collages, creating a snapshot of humanity bursting with depth and personality.
“When I deal with portraiture or things that are reflections of looking at communities, looking at people who I see in transit moving about their day, they are always the most inspirational subject for me,” Adams said.
Phaan Howng is often considering our relationship to plants, from her dad’s obsession with lawn care as she grew up in South Florida to the more recent deluge of “plant porn” on Instagram.
Her immersive, 7-foot-tall painting on stretched linen envelopes the viewer, recalibrating our relationship with nature by reminding us that this sprawling life form isn’t here merely for human entertainment or interior decoration.
“They have their beautiful ecosystem for a reason, and maybe we should not treat them as objects but more as living organisms,” said Howng, whose snake plant art installation recently debuted as a part of Station North’s Inviting Light public art project.
This oil painting by Jerrell Gibbs, a Maryland Institute College of Art alum, stopped me cold.
In such a small space (2½ feet by 2 feet), so much emotion is expressed as a Black male of indeterminable age covers his face with both hands under a running shower.
It immediately conjures numerous scenarios and questions in an observer’s mind — from the cause of the pain to wondering how long the subject waited for the moment to release it. The potential answers proceeded to shake me all over again.
This story was republished with permission from The Baltimore Banner. Visit www.thebaltimorebanner.com for more.
:: See Also ::
Baltimore-based artist Linling Lu on weaving color, culture, and music into her work
Published July 17 in Johns Hopkins University News and Media
AVAM Announces “The Strength to Be Joyful,” A New Solo-Exhibition
Press Release :: July 23
The American Visionary Art Museum (AVAM) will debut “The Strength to Be Joyful: Messages from Mary Proctor” on Saturday, August 2, 2025. The two-year landmark solo exhibition, located on the 3rd floor of the Zanvyl A. Krieger Main Building, is dedicated to the astonishing life and luminous work of Southern visionary artist Mary Proctor, also known to many as “Missionary Mary.”
“I am thrilled that The Strength to Be Joyful is the first exhibition to open under my leadership,” says Ellen Owens, AVAM’s new Executive Director. “It stands as a potent symbol for both AVAM’s incredible past work while demonstrating our future commitments to honoring diverse living visionary artists and promoting human creativity as an anecdote to hardship. Mary Proctor has never been honored with a solo exhibition at AVAM, and in this show her authentic voice shines not only through her artworks, but also in videos and quotes directly from Proctor herself.”
Raised by her grandmother in rural Florida, Proctor turned to art after a fire took her grandmother’s life. In the wake of this tragedy and during a deep depression, a spiritual vision told her to “Paint the door.” Using salvaged materials and deeply personal memories, she creates powerful, joy-filled works layered with handwritten messages, broken china, house paint, and all sorts of odds and ends from her flea market past.
Owens notes, “Proctor’s work uses common objects to communicate powerful messages: Buttons, broken teacups, and well-worn toys adorn old painted doors, narrated by her inspirational writings. Featuring 35 works in an immersive environment that mimics Proctor’s actual homestead, visitors journey through her personal experiences, uplifted by her buoyant attitude.”
In a world too often darkened by despair, AVAM is proud to shine its brilliant spotlight on a woman whose life and work sing like a gospel choir to the redemptive power of joy, love, and spirit-led creativity. The Strength to Be Joyful invites viewers to reflect, heal, and carry forward the courage and joy that Mary has so generously shared for more than 30 years. Her doors don’t just open—they speak.
“The Strength to Be Joyful reminds us never to lose hope, even during the most difficult of times,” Owens reflects. “I hope that people will pause their doom-scrolling to come and bask in positivity and raw artistic expression.”
News from Goucher College (Art Galleries, Jane Austen, & Pete Buttigieg)
Press Release :: July 21
Art Galleries @ Goucher
The Art Galleries at Goucher College is proud to announce that we have a new full-time exhibitions director and curator. The new curator is working to organize and catalogue Goucher’s art, which includes works by women artists such as Louise Nevelson, textiles by Alexander Calder, and a wide range of works on paper from the 17th to the 21st centuries, including pieces by Piranesi, Rowlandson, Whistler, Matisse, Picasso.
About Liz Faust
Liz Faust is the exhibitions director and curator for the art galleries at Goucher College. She is an art historian, independent curator, and a professor of contemporary art whose career is centered around weaving diverse narratives and transforming art spaces globally. She has curated over eighty exhibitions ranging from solo exhibitions of living and deceased artists such as: Kei Ito, Marja Pirilä, William Christenberry, and William S. Dutterer; and group shows featuring: Jess T. Dugan, Tommy Bruce, Isao Hashimoto, Wendy Maruyama, Jerrell Gibbs, Qinza Najm, and Kate Kretz.
From 2018 to the present, she has taught at a number of academic institutions including the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), the University of Maryland Baltimore County, and the University of Cincinnati. Her courses focus on hands-on exhibition-making (with extra emphasis on disability and accessibility), interdisciplinary curatorial models, museum studies, Postmodernism, and contemporary Japanese Art. In 2019, she co-founded a commercial art gallery Catalyst Contemporary in Baltimore, MD. where she put a number of theoretical curatorial frameworks and community engagement into practice.
Current Exhibit
We are proud to share that artist, Camila Franco Ribeiro Gomide is presenting saudade. Born in Brazil and now living in the United States, Gomide’s photographs trace the emotional residues of assimilation—the parts of self-surrendered in the crossing of lands and languages. Please find attached more information about the exhibit, open and free to the public until August 2. For more information, please email Liz Faust, Exhibitions Director and Curator, at [email protected].
Libraries and Kraushaar Auditorium (Fall Events Calendar is attached)
The Jane Austen Collection at Goucher College
The year 2025 marks the 250th anniversary of Jane Austen’s birth as well as the 50th anniversary of Alberta Burke’s bequest of much of her Austen collection to Goucher. Commemorations and celebrations will take place at Goucher, in Baltimore, and in New York—home to the Morgan Library & Museum, to which Alberta Burke bequeathed the Austen manuscripts she owned.
Goucher College holds the largest collection of Jane Austen literature and historical documents in the Western Hemisphere. This year, a part of the collection will be on loan to the Morgan Library in New York City for their exhibit, “A Lively Mind: Jane Austen at 250.” This is the largest loan the Morgan has ever received. Additionally, Goucher College will host the Jane Austen Society of North America’s conference in Baltimore and Baltimore County in October.
More information can be found here: Austen In 2025 – Jane Austen Collection | Goucher College
Events in Maryland, include:
• If I Loved You Less: Celebrating Jane Austen’s 250th Birthday and the 50th Anniversary of the Goucher College Jane Austen Collection
September 13, 2025 at the Hyman Forum, 1–8:30 p.m. (Goucher College)
The Complete Works of Jane Austen, Abridged [play]
October 13, 2025 at Merrick Lecture Hall, 4:30pm (Goucher College)
• The Irwin C. Schroedl Lecture in the Decorative Arts and Material Culture: “What Sugar Taught Us : Gender, Race, and the Afterlives of Abolition”
November 20, 2025 at the Batza Room, Athenaeum, 2:30pm (Goucher College)
Other upcoming events:
• An Evening with Kate Quinn (partnership with Baltimore County Public Library’s New York Times Bestselling Author Series)
• The Robert and Jane Meyerhoff Visiting Professor: Pete Buttigieg [tickets: https://goucher.
• Salsa Night with Hermanos Galvan Salsa Orchestra
The Walters Art Museum Presents Three Animal-Inspired Exhibitions
Press Release :: July 16
Three upcoming exhibitions at the Walters Art Museum center around animals and their representations in art, providing visitors with a fascinating look at how people have related to wildlife and their own animal companions across cultures and time periods. Paws on Parchment will open August 6, 2025, Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt, organized by the Brooklyn Museum, will follow on September 27, 2025, and Art From Wildlife [working title] will round out a year of animal-themed offerings on November 5, 2026.
This trio of exhibitions, featuring works ranging from Egyptian antiquities to medieval manuscripts to contemporary video installations, masterfully weaves together narratives that leverage artworks both from the wide breadth of the Walters’ permanent collection as well as essential loans from organizing and partner institutions to tell stories about animals, including those related to their irreplaceable and enduring place in society and their sometimes fraught relationship with humans.
“The presence of animals in our daily lives is an enduring but fragile phenomenon, and that’s exactly what makes these new exhibitions so intriguing,” said Ani Proser, Chief Curator and Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Quincy Scott Curator of Asian Art. “The dynamic between humans and animals is varied, and the diverse objects on view in these exhibitions demonstrate just that. By centering animals and art objects related to them, we are able to connect with people from ancient civilizations. Through these works, we can learn about the daily lives of the people who commissioned, created, and used these objects, and we can better understand the myriad roles animals played across time and throughout the
Paws on Parchment
The first of the animal-themed exhibitions to open at the Walters is Paws on Parchment, which will be on view in the Walters’ Manuscript Gallery from August 6, 2025, to February 15, 2026—opening just in time for International Cat Day on August 8. Centuries before cat memes took over the internet, the antics of fanciful felines were already popular in the margins of medieval manuscripts. This exhibition explores how medieval people thought about, engaged with, and admired cats through the animals’ presence in manuscripts from the period.
“Cats filled many important roles in the medieval era,” said Lynley Anne Herbert, Robert and Nancy Hall Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts. “Like today, some cats were considered beloved pets whose behavior amused and exasperated their owners. However, felines also served an important function as hunters that protected valuable books and textiles, food stores, and even people from disease-carrying rodents and other vermin. Cats could also carry symbolic and moral meaning in this period, which is reflected in the manuscripts we will have on view.”
In Paws on Parchment, visitors can discover depictions of cats preserved in the pages of European, Islamic, and Armenian manuscripts, including a 15th-century “keyboard cat.” Most notably, visitors can see real pawprints left by a cat walking across the pages of a Flemish manuscript as the ink dried in the 1470s. A handful of these “pawprint” manuscripts are known around the world, but this is the first time the Walters’ example has ever been on view.
This presentation is another six-month rotation in the Walters’ dedicated Manuscript Gallery, which debuted in 2023. Following this exhibition, the gallery will host Medieval Mindscapes: Interiority and Imagination in Books of Hours [working title], on view from February to August 2026.
Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt
From September 27, 2025, to January 11, 2026, visitors will have the opportunity to better understand the practice of animal mummification in Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt. This major exhibition, organized by the Brooklyn Museum, explores the important role animals played in ancient Egyptian society—both in life and in the afterlife. Millions of mummified animals, including dogs, cats, birds, snakes, and more, have been excavated at burial sites across Egypt, leading to questions about how and why these mummies were made.
Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt seeks to explore those questions and reveal the stories behind animal mummification. Visitors can uncover the cultural context of animals in ancient Egypt, from predators to pets to symbols of the gods; find out why animals were mummified; learn about the technical process of animal mummification; see what secrets have been exposed about these mummies through modern imaging; and more.
“We’re looking forward to bringing this exhibition to the Walters because it complements many of the objects we already have on view in the museum, including our own case dedicated to animal mummification,” said Lisa Anderson-Zhu, Curator of Ancient Mediterranean Art and Curator of Provenance. “This is a wonderful opportunity for visitors to learn more about this aspect of Egyptian culture, as well as the complex role of animals in Egyptian society.”
Soulful Creatures presents more than a hundred objects, including a decorative falcon coffin and an elaborately wrapped ibis mummy, from the renowned Egyptian collection of the Brooklyn Museum and complemented by objects from the Walters Art Museum’s own collection, such as a delicately carved dog statue from Roman Egypt. These objects exemplify the important place animals held in ancient Egyptians’ worldview and provide a fascinating look at how humans have related to the animal world across time.
Soulful Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt is organized by Yekaterina Barbash, Curator of Egyptian, Classical, and Ancient Near Eastern Art, and Edward Bleiberg, Curator Emeritus, Brooklyn Museum.
Art From Wildlife [working title]
Some of the most luxurious objects in Asian, European, and American art were made from four rare materials: kingfisher feathers, tortoise shell, rhinoceros horn, and elephant ivory. For centuries, these materials were desired by the powerful and wealthy due to their scarcity and the difficult nature of obtaining and working with them. However, the cost to wildlife, coupled with a growing environmental consciousness, led to all four materials being banned from use in artworks starting in the 20th century.
Art From Wildlife, on view from November 5, 2026, through January 31, 2027, includes a number of objects drawn from the Walters’ collections of Asian, European, American, and African art. The exhibition showcases remarkable examples of each of the four materials and looks at how art and luxury goods made from wild animal materials testify to the enduring human desire to capture the beauty and power of wild animals while exploring contemporary responses to society’s evolving relationship with nature.
“Art From Wildlife provides the opportunity to address questions we receive from visitors regularly about materials such as tortoise shell and elephant ivory and why we preserve the artworks in our collection that are made from these materials,” said Dany Chan, Associate Curator of Asian Art at the Walters. “The exhibition will also allow us to contextualize the historical appeal of these materials, the impact of their use, and contemporary responses to the traditions that popularized them in the first place, providing an opportunity for reflection and reconciliation.”
These exhibitions are generously funded by Supporters of the Walters Art Museum.
:: See Also ::
Past Meets Present in ‘Arte Latinoamericano’ at The Walters
by Kerry Folan
Published July 21 in Baltimore Magazine
The National Gallery of Art’s Recent Acquisitions Introduce New Artists and Perspectives to the National Collection
Press Release :: July 23
The National Gallery of Art today announced a wide-ranging group of recent acquisitions, adding more than 200 works to the nation’s art collection. Acquisitions across media expand key areas of the National Gallery’s collection and create opportunities to forge new art historical connections through exceptional works by leading artists across time and regions.
Highlights of the acquisitions include a major work by French academic painter Jules Breton that was recently featured in the exhibition Paris 1874: The Impressionist Moment, a monumental sculpture by American abstractionist Richard Hunt that will be installed in the Sculpture Garden, and an array of works by celebrated contemporary artists, including Graciela Iturbide, Nicolas Party, Kay WalkingStick, William T. Williams, and others.
“The National Gallery’s acquisitions advance our commitment to artistic excellence by allowing us to continually expand the depth and breadth of our collections,” said Kaywin Feldman, director of the National Gallery of Art. “The exemplary works entering our collection showcase new dimensions of major artistic traditions from the 18th century to the present, in American art and beyond. We are grateful to the many donors who have enabled these gifts to the nation.”
The recently acquired works, which enter the collection through a combination of gifts and purchases, will offer the National Gallery’s audiences new ways to engage with artistic achievement, innovation, and the exchange of ideas throughout art history. Many of the recent acquisitions bring artists into the collection for the first time; others build on the National Gallery’s holdings of works by particular artists or movements in meaningful ways. The museum’s first work by a female artist associated with the Hudson River school, Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome, is a significant addition to its holdings of 19th-century American landscape paintings, while a triptych arrangement of Niagara Falls by Native American artist Kay WalkingStick and a fantastical work by Swiss painter Nicolas Party create contemporary throughlines with the landscape tradition. Other works exemplify themes, such as the iterative nature of the creative process, different approaches to abstraction, various documentary practices, and experimentation with new media.
“The National Gallery continually seeks to add perspectives and depth to our collection across time, place, and media, identifying artists and works whose contributions will enable us to expand how we tell the living history of art,” said E. Carmen Ramos, the National Gallery’s chief curatorial and conservation officer. “This grouping brings together major historical works by artists including Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida, Jules Breton, and Elizabeth Gilbert Jerome alongside recent work by living artists including Graciela Iturbide, Nicolas Party, and William T. Williams, who are continuing to advance the field of contemporary art.”
For Baltimore high school students, this arts competition offers more than scholarships
by Wesley Case
Published July 22 in The Baltimore Banner
This story is published as part of the Baltimore News Collaborative, a project exploring the challenges and successes experienced by young people in Baltimore. The collaborative is supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation. News members of the collaborative retain full editorial control.
Excerpt: The Eastside District Court Building on North Avenue looks like any other municipal building on first glance: worn wooden benches, speckled floor tile and taped-up signage that reads, “Please wait to be called.”
But a closer scan of the Baltimore courthouse reveals unexpected bursts of color amid finely detailed drawings and paintings. The works — ranging from realistic portraits to stylized still lifes — add vibrancy and liveliness to the eggshell-colored walls.
Remarkably, they were all made by Baltimore City Public School students, many of whom gathered at the courthouse on a recent overcast evening for an emotional awards reception. Now in its ninth year, Courting Art Baltimore gives scholarships to high school students while providing a public platform for their impressive artistic abilities.
For these students, seeing their art, framed and prominently displayed, is a validation of their budding talents.
… this story continues. Read the rest at The Baltimore Banner: For Baltimore high school students, this arts competition offers more than scholarships
:: See Also ::
Opinion: From ‘useless’ to unstoppable: Arts education empowers Baltimore students
by Leonard Pitts Jr.
Published July 22 in The Baltimore Banner
T4T4T Festival, Baltimore’s FIRST Trans and Gender Non-Conforming Theatre Festival
Press Release :: July 15
#T4T4T Festival, or Trans For Trans For Theater Festival is Baltimore’s theater festival by and for trans voices. At this moment when trans voices are actively being erased, silenced, deported, and defunded; it is more important than ever to uplift our brilliance, tell our stories, and dream bright futures together. As trans and gender non-conforming artists who have worked in Baltimore’s performance scene for years, we wanted to make a space by and for us in this city that holds something so dear and special to the trans community.
#T4T4T is taking place this summer at The Voxel from July 25-27, 2025. The 3-day festival is produced by four local trans/gnc artists – Chania Hudson (they/she/he/chania), Bex Vega (he/they), Sabine Decatur (they/he), and O’Malley Steuerman (he/they)! The festival will feature multidisciplinary performances, readings, workshops, panels, networking opportunities, and so much more! The goal is to celebrate and provide real resources for Baltimore’s vibrant trans creative community, while putting a long overdue spotlight on local trans artistry.
All are welcome to #T4T4T; passes can be acquired here. Festival passes are donation based and sliding scale, all funds from the festival passes will be donated directly to TRAC, Baltimore Safe Haven, and CASA Baltimore.
#T4T4T Schedule
Friday, July 25th:
7pm-10:30pm: Festival Kickoff: Vision Boarding for Trans Futures led by Chania Hudson, Performances, Reading Snippets, and Community Lobby Curation led by Bex Vega
Saturday, July 26th:
11am #T4T4T Artist Market Opens & Workshop #1: Writing a Script Is Hard
12pm Lunch
1pm Workshop #2: Vocal Performance for Trans Voices
2pm The Supremez! Live at Rookie’s by Paige Wilson, directed by Vicky Graham
4pm Industry Round Table moderated by Chania Hudson
5pm Workshop #3: Stick Together! a stick fighting and self defense class for all bodies!
6pm #T4T4T Happy Hour featuring DJ Afr0delic & Market Close
7pm Daddy by Lyam B. Gabel, directed by Chania Hudson
9pm Hormonal Rage Theatre (H.R.T) Hosted by Bratz LaVey and Laezy Lynx
Sunday, July 27th:
11am Theater Networking Brunch
1pm Mahamoha by Jaya S. Basu, directed by Mekala Sridhar
3pm #T4T4T Open Mic, hosted by Bex Vega
Keep up with #T4T4T on instagram @t4t4t_festival for vendor, workshop, and casting announcements!
About The Voxel
The Voxel is a theatre, incubator, and resource for performing artists in Baltimore and across the country, as well as the teaching center and research laboratory of Figure 53 — a small but mighty Baltimore company whose software runs live performances in over 100 countries around the world. www.voxel.org
About The Voxel
The Voxel is a theatre, incubator, and resource for performing artists in Baltimore and across the country, as well as the teaching center and research laboratory of Figure 53 — a small but mighty Baltimore company whose software runs live performances in over 100 countries around the world. www.voxel.org
ResFest Turns 20: Celebrating Two Decades of Bridging Gaps and Cultivating Community in West Baltimore
Press Release :: July 21
On Saturday, August 2, from 11 AM – 3 PM in German Park, St. Francis Neighborhood Center (SFNC) will proudly present its milestone 20th Annual Reservoir Hill Resource Fair and Music Festival, otherwise known as ResFest. Open to the public and held rain or shine, ResFest is Reservoir Hill’s largest yearly community celebration—drawing hundreds of residents, families, and local leaders for a day filled with live music, local resources, food, and family-friendly fun. The free event connects people to vital services like healthcare, education, employment, and housing while showcasing the artistry, talent, and entrepreneurship that define Baltimore.
This year’s landmark ResFest will feature a dynamic musical lineup including performances by the Love Groove Band, local blues guitarist Quinton Randall, the Baltimore Twilighters marching band, DJ TNT, and more; 50+ resource and community vendors; FREE resources including school supplies, backpacks, and groceries; delicious offerings from local food trucks like Soul Smoked BBQ, Bird Box Express, and Keyvin’s Kitchen; and engaging activities for all ages.
A cornerstone of ResFest is the annual Backpack & School Supply Giveaway, one of SFNC’s long-standing traditions. In 2024, the Center distributed 130 stocked backpacks to West Baltimore families as part of their effort to ease the financial strain of the back-to-school season and help Baltimore City students start the school year feeling seen, supported, and ready to succeed. This year, with the support of generous donors and volunteer teams from NCIA, the goal is to give away 200.
Born out of a need for access and equity, the Reservoir Hill Resource Fair began in 2005. Two decades later, it has grown into ResFest: a joyful, high-energy festival that reflects the power, pride, and potential of our neighborhoods. “In uncertain times like these, gathering as neighbors, partners, and friends is more important than ever,” says Angela Miller, Community Engagement Manager at SFNC. “None of this—not ResFest, nor the work we do year-round—is possible without the person-power of our community. That dedication, creativity, and generosity fuel everything we do.”
ResFest is hosted by St. Francis Neighborhood Center in partnership with the Friends of German Park and the Reservoir Hill Improvement Council. For the third year in a row, WYPR/WTMD is a proud media partner of the festival. For more information, visit stfranciscenter.org/
Shop & Bop at HeARTwares — Art with a Heart’s Hampden store
by Aliza Worthington
Published July 18 in Baltimore Fishbowl
Excerpt: Art with a Heart (AWAH) will hold its annual Shop & Bop — an art sale and free open house — on Friday, Aug. 15, from 5 to 7:30 p.m. at HeARTwares, the organization’s new social enterprise store at 1104 W. 36th St. in Hampden.
Shop & Bop is kid-friendly, so children are welcome. Visitors can shop for hand-made and one-of-a-kind items like artwork, jewelry, houseware items, garden ornaments and meaningful gifts. Each unique item was crafted with enthusiasm by community volunteers, students, and apprentices in AWAH’s HeARTworks workforce development program, now in its 21st year. The event will have an interactive art activity, games, a DJ, food, and drinks, including beer, wine, and nonalcoholic choices.
Meet literary icon Anne Tyler, the first author in The Baltimore Banner Book Club
by Leslie Gray Streeter
Published July 21 in The Baltimore Banner
Excerpt: Author Anne Tyler was not born in Baltimore, but over several decades hers has become one of the city’s signature voices. From the Pulitzer Prize-winning “Breathing Lessons” to “St. Maybe” to “The Accidental Tourist,” the inspiration for an Academy Award-winning 1989 film, she’s spun stories of people living ordinary lives navigating extraordinary moments, often in the Roland Park neighborhood.
These stories, though universal, are imbued with what she described to me in an email exchange as “Baltimore’s quirky sense of self.”
“One of my early conversations in Baltimore was with an elderly Roland Park woman who complimented my two small children when I was out walking with them,” Tyler wrote of her adopted neighborhood. “I told her that the baby was our only true Baltimorean because she was the only one who’d been born here, and the woman drew herself up and said, “Oh, my dear! That does not make her a Baltimorean.”
Artist Leigh Davis Premiering Grief Karaoke at Historic Congressional Cemetery
Press Release :: July 15
On August 1st, artist Leigh Davis will premiere Grief Karaoke at Historic Congressional Cemetery, the first installment of her ongoing series Karaoke in the Cemetery. This new series is an open invitation to commune and release the burden of carrying grief alone, instead offering a joyful connection through song to help release some of the isolation that grief can often carry.
Davis’s artistic practice explores elements of mourning and the spaces we embody in bereavement. With Grief Karaoke, the artist brings a spirit of connectedness to themes of loss. As there is no one or “right” way to grieve, we welcome a chorus of voices to connect, comfort, and find compassion in the company of others moving through their own process of mourning. Grief Karaoke will activate Historic Congressional Cemetery’s chapel with light and sound, making this a gathering space for laughter, tears, and a place to acknowledge the different kinds of losses and many ways we grieve. To request a song, please visit the project website Karaoke in the Cemetery.
Hosted by Davis and Andrew Herndon you can sign up to sing, witness or listen. You can choose from titles in the artists’ collection or request a song ahead. Grief Karaoke is curated by Ashley Molese as part of Historic Congressional Cemetery’s public art program. Congressional Cemetery is an active hub for community outreach including historic preservation projects, unique cultural and educational programs, and environmental stewardship efforts.
Grief Karaoke opens Friday August 1st from 7:00 – 10:00 pm, with doors opening at 6:30 pm This event is 21+, cash bar. Tickets are free but RSVP is requested.
Crushing Colonialism Wins WorldPride Impact Award for Decolonized Beatz Series and Is Invited to WorldPride 2026 Amsterdam
Press Release :: July 18
Crushing Colonialism has been honored with a 2025 WorldPride Impact Award for our performance series Decolonized Beatz, with special recognition of Decolonized Beatz Indigenous World Pride (DBIWP). This award, presented by Rainbow Advocacy acknowledges Crushing Colonialism’s exceptional contributions to Indigenous arts, performance, and storytelling—particularly uplifting the voices of 2SLGBTQIA+, disabled, and multiply-marginalized Indigenous artists across the globe.
This momentous recognition comes on the heels of a history-making edition of DBIWP, held on May 30 and June 1, 2025 on Piscataway Land (Washington, D.C.), which brought together IndigiQueer and multiply-disabled artists from around the world for two days of performance, storytelling, and solidarity. Artists and community members traveled from Brazil, Palestine, Fiji, Kenya, Canada, Finland, and across Turtle Island to reimagine Pride through Indigenous sovereignty, disability justice, and creative expression.
“All IndigiQueer people have a voice, and Crushing Colonialism ensures we have a platform to make that voice heard,” said Tatiana Villegas (Tlingit and Haida), a youth participant in DBIWP’s film workshop.
From drag shows and musical performances to youth film premieres, panels, and a pop-up Indigenous market, DBIWP offered a fully accessible and celebratory space rooted in intergenerational healing and transnational resistance. The event centered Indigenous, Two-Spirit, Queer, and Trans creativity on a global stage—setting a precedent for future 2SLGBTQIA+ events worldwide.
Photos and video highlights from DBIWP can be found on our website.
Full panel recordings and performances are available on Crushing Colonialism’s YouTube channel.
Following this recognition, the students from the Indigiqueer Youth Film Training Workshop have been invited to present their films in special screenings and Q&A sessions throughout October and November 2025, including at the Charter’s Global Youth Conference and other events marking 2SLGBTQIA+ History Month.
Next Stop: WorldPride 2026 Amsterdam
Crushing Colonialism is proud to announce that following our award-winning work and transformative programming, we have been invited to participate in WorldPride 2026 Amsterdam. Crushing Colonialism will contribute to global conversations, performances and programming around Indigenous 2SLGBTQIA+ Pride,, gender, arts, and decolonization—continuing the mission to uplift multiply-marginalized Indigenous voices at the highest levels of international 2SLGBTQIA+ advocacy and celebration.
This invitation builds on Crushing Colonialism’s successful hosting of the “INDIGIQUEER: Storytelling in Arts & Media NOW!” panel at the WorldPride 2025 Human Rights Conference in Piscataway Land, so-called Washington, D.C.. The panel, moderated by Founding Executive Director Jen Deerinwater (Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma), featured artists Fabiana Gibim (Guarani-Kaiowá), Rivolta Sata (Afriqiyah & Abya Yala), and Elton Naswood (Navajo Nation) in a visionary discussion of Indigiqueer media, erasure, and resurgence.
“This panel wasn’t just about representation—it was about reclamation. Our stories, our art, our sovereignty, and our joy belong at the center of global human rights conversations,” said Deerinwater.
Following our participation in World Pride, Crushing Colonialism proudly took the global stage at the EuroPride Human Rights Conference in Lisbon, Portugal, on June 20, 2025. We were honored to join 2SLGBTQIA+ leaders and changemakers from around the world for urgent conversations about queerness, colonization, and liberation.
Representing Crushing Colonialism, our Director of Development and Communications, Fabiana Gibim, delivered a powerful speech titled “Queerness and Indigenous Sovereignty as World-Building.” These words called for a radical reimagining of Pride, beyond state recognition and colonial visibility, and back into the hands, lands, and lineages of our ancestors.
Crushing Colonialism is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit in the so-called United States dedicated to uplifting the stories of Indigenous, 2SLGBTQIA+, and Multiply-Disabled people through art, media, and traditional storytelling.
For media inquiries or more information about Crushing Colonialism’s ongoing work, please contact: Fabiana Gibim (Director of Development and Communications): [email protected]
Follow us online @CrushingColonialism and visit the website.
