Baltimore is resilient and in her first piece for Baltimore Beat, Multimedia Journalist and Editor Sanya Kamidi writes about one way that resilience shows up: in our small business community.
Business owners took a massive hit when the lockdown stage of the pandemic forced many of them to close their doors. This was an especially tough time for Black business owners who face systemic challenges to their success. Now, Kamidi writes, Black business owners hope they can help the city’s downtown neighborhoods not just survive, but thrive.
“Despite their anxieties, small-business owners downtown recognize how promising the investment in their neighborhood right now is,” Kamidi writes. “They want it to feel like a real neighborhood again, where businesses outnumber vacants and where they have strong connections with residents who live on their block.”
In this issue, Arts and Culture Editor Teri Henderson talks to DJ and producer Tromac about his lifelong love of music and his bustling career. He told her that music is part of his legacy on this planet.
“I feel so strongly and passionately about music and art, that I feel like no matter what I’m going through in life, that’s what I have to do, that’s what I’m going to end up doing at some point in some way,” he said.
Bry Reed writes about Hanif Abdurraqib’s latest offering “There’s Always This Year.” She says Abdurraqib offers up cultural critique given through the lens of a basketball game.
“The strength of this book lies in Abdurraqib’s ability to assess basketball as a game and culture, subject to the same myth-making as other performances in American society,” she writes.
We’ve been tracking the growing student protest movement over the conflict in Gaza, and this issue offers more on that, plus tips for protesting from the organization Baltimore Action Legal Team. Check baltimorebeat.com for further reporting.
As always, we have a poem from a participant in Writers in Baltimore Schools. This one is titled “Conversations With The Moon” and is written by Keith Skyes.
The post Letter from the editor – Issue 39 appeared first on Baltimore Beat.