Join us on Wednesday, September 21 at 12 noon ET, for a live discussion with Baltimore Beat Editor-in-Chief and co-founder Lisa Snowden, along with Adam G. Holofcener of the Lillian Holofcener Charitable Foundation. The story of this independent news weekly reborn evidences what a future for Baltimore City might look like when power and resources change hands. Tune in for the conversation and the chance to meet our newest team member, JHU student Annabelle Headley, who will host the discussion. You can register here.
All around us, work that inspires us at Hard Histories is underway. The meaning of our work is oftentimes felt most keenly by those connected with the extended Johns Hopkins community. But the strength of our work is best felt when it joins with others, nearby and far away, who work in the spirit of challenging myths, shattering silences, and reckoning with the history of racism and discrimination.
At Hard Histories, we’re eager to make these connections and will begin our fall 2022 webinar series with one such nearby effort, the summer launch of the independent news weekly, the Baltimore Beat. Perhaps you’re, like me, picking up your free copy of the Beat. (You can find your copy here.) My go-to spot is Eddie’s in Mount Vernon) and you can always check-in on the latest from the Beat on their website (baltimorebeat.com) and on Twitter (@baltbeat).
Our discussions about history, power, and reparations echo lots of Baltimore’s fall happenings. Our friends over at the JHU’s Program in Racism, Immigration, and Citizenship kicked things off with a roundtable “A Department of Reparations?” on September 13th. On the table were questions about “the future of scholarly approaches to the study of racism, and the relationship between the academy and anti-racist organizing and repair more broadly.”
There’s still more to come! Our colleagues at Hopkins Retrospective are among the co-sponsors of this fall’s un conference, “Bmore Historic,” set for Friday, September 23, 2022. On September 25 at 3 pm ET, the “Right to the City” seminar will feature Dr. Zenzele Isoke and Dominic T. Moulden in their first meeting, at the Harriet Tubman Grove. Baltimore Heritage opens its fall season with a lecture from UMBC’s Dr. Nicole King: “Preservation for the People: The Fight for Development Without Displacement” on September 29th and you can register here.
At the Bloomberg School of Public Health, a new seminar has launched an event series, available via live-stream: “Racism in Public Health: Historical Perspectives and Current Challenges.” Coming up on Wednesday, October 12 is “Eugenics and Population Control: Racism and Reproduction in Public Health.” See the full schedule and register here.
We’ll also be tuned into two events coming out of the Universities Studying Slavery consortium. The USS consortium will hold its annual meeting from September 28 to October 1, hosted by the University of Virginia. The University of Maryland will launch “The 1856 Project” with a day-long symposium on Tuesday November 1st.
Hard Histories is honored to be one part of this powerful constellation of undertakings, each of which helps to better see the past and then use that insight to make a new future. Each asks, if racism has shaped our past, if it is part of our present, how then do we build a new a city premised in equity and justice? Our work at Hard Histories emerges from the view that a new future cannot rest upon myths or half-truths. That future requires that we dismantle stories crafted by racism. Thank you to our colleagues who are bringing that future into being. This fall, and beyond.
— MSJ.