Black Cherry Puppet Theater has been a critical cultural and community hub in the Hollins Market / Southwest Baltimore community for decades. I first learned about community-based arts here, by volunteering for festival puppet making workshops. Some of my earliest experiences of working in festivals was through working with Michael Lamason and Jen Strunge at the theater. Since 2022, we have been organizing an annual puppet build and community parade to take place as part of the Sowebo Arts Festival on Memorial Day weekend. All builds are free and open to the public, supporting the learning and sharing of skills and connections. Each year we choose a theme that connects to community building. Loam Nelson, Michael Lamason, Dirk Joseph and Nicole deWald have all been central to the group of people that make these parades and builds happen.
I grew up with lantern processions on St. Martin’s day in Germany. The magic and power of these kind of community rituals and celebrations was reignited in me after my apprenticeship with Bread and Puppet. Since 2017, I have worked with groups of people to make lanterns for the Great Halloween Lantern Parade. Since 2023, I have been teaching lantern building, though I am very much still a student of this craft!
In the Spring of 2017, I joined a coalition working to bring a Baltimore contingent to the Peoples Climate March in Washington DC. From the beginning of the meetings, it was clear that environmental justice had to be at the center of the conversation for the group. The group soon coalesced around the organizing theme of "Baltimore United for a Just Clean Energy and Economic Future." Based on the work of the group and outreach to various communities in Baltimore, I collaborated with Taylor Smith-Hams to develop a series of visuals and slogans to bring a coordinated message to the march. In a series of art builds, or open work sessions supported by community artists, the team made signs, banners and props that could be used by the Baltimore contingent at the march and also be useful to groups in their ongoing work in Baltimore.
Over 90 signs, banners and props were produced as a result of the art builds, hosted by Black Cherry Puppet Theater for one week and held at 2640 as well as the Motor House on two other nights. More importantly, the art builds provided a space for all kinds of people to gather, to meet and have conversation, to hear about each others' experiences and concerns, and learn from one another.
From 2011 to 2016, I collaborated with members of the Transmodern Performance Festival, chiefly Laure Drogoul, to organize a day of free performances in public space, including a Twilight Parade. I learned a lot in the subsequent years, especially through my work with Sheila Gaskins and Baltimore Artpartheid, about how to consider race and power more in my cultural organizing work. These events were formative, though, in my learning about diy cultural organizing and public performance, and getting to know more about the independent arts communities in Baltimore.
From 2014 on, I have supported The Mushroom City Arts Festival, organized and curated by cultural organizer Robin Gunkel. Free for the first ten years, and now on a sliding scale to support sustainability of the festival, this event is aimed at highlighting the power of mushrooms in planetary wellness and ecology. I supported the festival by offering a free mushroom cap workshop, helping people make hats and headdresses from cardboard and tissue paper. Artists who have helped me with this workshop include Sam Grossman, MC Macadar, Livi Tran and Devin Martin.
