Beyond Baltimore Street Exhibit | Opening Reception

Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies, a public exhibition of the year-long Library of Congress American Folklife Center Community Collections Grant project of community artist Ashley Minner Jones (Lumbee) and photographer Jill Fannon Prevas, in collaboration with 16 Baltimore Lumbee elders, will open at KCA’s Raimond Cultural Center. 

The place today known as Baltimore is part of the ancestral homelands of the Piscataway and the Susquehannock peoples. A diverse host of folks from Indigenous nations throughout the land have passed through or lived in Baltimore at different times and still do. The majority of Native people living in Baltimore today are citizens of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, the largest American Indian tribal nation east of the Mississippi River and the ninth largest within the United States.

Beyond Baltimore Street is an oral history and photo documentary project that celebrates the vibrant, fascinating, everyday lives of Baltimore Lumbee elders. In their youth, they migrated from the Lumbee tribal homeland in North Carolina and settled along and around E. Baltimore Street, forming what was once affectionately known as “the reservation.” In the decades since, most have moved beyond Baltimore Street, yet remain in the region and in community with one another. Being from one unique place and having lived most of their lives in another, they created a new culture that has been inherited and riffed upon by the generations of Baltimore Lumbee that descend from them.  

Over the course of a year, Ashley Minner Jones and Jill Fannon Prevas have collaborated with 16 Lumbee elders to produce forever-accessible records of their everyday lives and likenesses. They have recorded new oral history interviews and accompanied elders to photograph them doing whatever they like to do for fun, whether walking the mall, playing bingo, buying lotto tickets, or singing in church.

The exhibition consists of 20 free-standing banner displays, each featuring a portrait of elders and a QR code to access more images, full interview recordings, transcripts, and more information about the project. The opening reception will also feature a panel discussion with Elders at 6:00 pm. A listening station, free postcard prints, and light fare will be available during the reception. The public is cordially invited!

Beyond Baltimore Street: Living Lumbee Legacies was made possible in part by funding from the Library of Congress. KCA’s presentation of this exhibition is made possible by a mini-grant from Stories of the Chesapeake Heritage Area and the Maryland State Arts Council.  Ashley Minner Jones was a summer 2024 SFW Resident Artist for KCA’s RIVERS themed residency.

The exhibition will run from August 28 – September 19, 2026 with the following special events:

Friday, August 28th at 5:00 pm – Opening Reception

Friday, August 28th at 6:00 pm – Lumbee Elders Panel Discussion

Saturday, August 29th at 1:00 pm – Artist Talk with Ashley Minner Jones

Thursday, September 10th at 5:30 pm – Cultural Program with “Native America’s Protectors”

All programming takes place at KCA’s Raimond Cultural Center and is free and open to the public.