“But what if God doesn’t want you covered in muck for a living,” our brilliant film critic Dominic Griffin writes in his review of the 2024 film “The Nickel Boys.” “How are you supposed to endure in a system that doesn’t want you to exist?”
The film, set in the 1960s, guides the viewer through the lives of two young African American men as they attempt to live their lives within the boundaries that race has already etched out for them.
Journalism is a majority-white industry that favors stories told in a way that anticipates a white audience. So, creating and maintaining a news outlet like Baltimore Beat — one that prioritizes an audience of color, an audience that cannot necessarily afford to pay for subscriptions at The Baltimore Sun or Baltimore Banner — has always felt harrowing. As the world shifts to the right and Donald Trump zeroes in on accommodations that make it slightly more attainable to support yourself if you are Black, or queer, or a woman (for example) the path forward feels even more precarious.
The racism in this country that outlines all of our lives for me feels like a series of doors slammed shut. It feels like lost potential. The film, and Griffin’s writing about the film, captures that feeling exactly.
Right now, when it feels like we are on the precipice of potentially losing so many important cultural artifacts, it feels especially important that we lift up the work of people like Evan Woodard. Woodard, a self-taught historian, is working hard to establish the Salvage Arc Museum. Through his organization, the Salvage Arc Foundation, he helps make Baltimore’s historic past a reality for us in the present day. He does this by putting little bits of everyday life on display — bits of pottery, soda bottles, and even leftover teeth from a slaughtered animal, for example.
“In 2020, looking for a way to stave off boredom, he and his friends began to dig through privies: 19th-century outhouse vaults where glass items and household wares were commonly discarded,” Grace Hebron writes about Woodard and his mission.
Angela N. Carroll chronicles Govans Presbyterian Church’s mission to correct some historic wrongs through art. A permanent installation by mixed media artist Ky Vassor depicts Black and brown people alongside the church’s historic stained-glass panels that only depict Biblical figures as white.
“Govans’s work to address oppression began in 2021 with an internal review of their diversity, including the figurative representations presented in the art they display, the racial makeup of their ministers, and the focus of their ministry,” Carroll writes.
Be sure to also check out photos from the Baltimore School for the Arts’s Black History Month showcase, the March tarotscopes, and our roundup of important news stories.
Thank you for reading.
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