Cultural Event 4: Indigenous Community Archiving and Collective Memory

I attended a UMBC-hosted panel online earlier this evening. The first panelist, Ashley Minner (Lumbee), former UMBC Professor and now assistant curator at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian, discussed her motivation to make archival materials she found about Baltimore Lumbee history available to other members of the Lumbee community. The new Ashley Minner Collection at UMBC (discussed further here) was founded to do just that; the second panelist, archivist Tiffany Chavis, did a lot of work to set up plans, a finding aid, etc., for that collection. Jessica Locklear (Lumbee), inspired by Minner, has begun to do similar work in Philadephia. One of the audio recordings she played during tonight's panel consisted of reminiscences of the American Indian Center there, which closed in 2004. Of particular interest to me was that it was often a site for activism, among many other uses.

Finally, Siobhan C. Hagan discussed how she helps communities preserve audio/visual records; the local records digitized through the organization she founded are freely available at her company's website. She also encouraged attendees to protect their own family recordings; for instance, Memory Labs in public libraries enable digitization of otherwise short-lived home videos at low or no cost. She also encouraged folks to consider sharing those home videos, pointing out that the only results she could find for the search term "Native Americans" in this public archive of home movies were filmed by White people. Some of those films, she reported, even show nothing more than White folks attempting to appropriate Native culture.

A Community Digitization Day is planned in future; potential volunteers can sign up and get on a mailing list to receive more information about the Ashley Minner Collection through this link.

[image from an article about Minner's new position at NMAI)

Event & Project Plans

For the May 21st Save Our Block party, I plan to bring 5-6 family members with me. My parents will be visiting from California and haven't seen the films yet. My younger son (age 10) will be thrilled to get to play with the other kids himself. My older son (age 20) will probably be willing to supervise the kids, especially if I pay him -- but he likes kids anyway and cares about this campaign. I couldn't ask him about it before posting tonight, though, as he went to bed early. We'll invite his girlfriend too if she is home from college by then.

Mandatory photo with husband, kids, older son's girlfriend, Dec 2021

I will share the event promotions, once they are available, through the GWST social media account.

The Save Our Block Twitter account

On the day itself, my husband and I will help wherever we can. I could help with interviews. We could also bring some lawn games if that would be helpful. We could bring some food too -- maybe some cookies as an easy dessert -- if needed. I would like to be able to contribute in that way since I'll be adding half a dozen mouths to feed.

I have also already contributed to this event as leader of the zine revision group project.

This week, I need to shift that group to revising the Poppleton Plan pamphlet. I will be out of town and unavailable from Thursday evening through Monday (28 Apr - 2 May), though, and I won't be able to attend class the following Thursday (5 May) due to one of my children's health care appointments, so that will give others in the group the opportunity to step up more this time.

Cultural Event 3: Baltimore City Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation (CHAP) hearing, 12 April 2022

On Tuesday, 12 April 2022, at the monthly Baltimore City CHAP session -- the first held in-person since the pandemic began in the U.S. over two years earlier -- the first scheduled hearing of the afternoon involved the consideration of the Sarah Ann Street homes for Historic designation. Two excellent outcomes of in-person meetings: we were able to audibly applaud after others' public comments, and the developer, who is not in fact local at all, was not present.

I arrived a few minutes late to the meeting to find the room already so full that some attendees were forced to stand. A woman was delivering the staff report on the Sarah Ann Street alley houses; she indicated that they recommend approval to the next step in the consideration process, which would entail "a full and proper study" of the properties, because, as rare surviving alley homes significant to Black history, these homes qualify under criteria 1 and 3:

1. That are associated with events that have made a significant contribution to the broad patterns of Baltimore history

3. That embody the distinctive characteristics of a type, period, or method of construction, or that represent the work of a master, or that possess high artistic values, or that represent a significant and distinguishable entity whose components may lack individual distinction

(Baltimore City Historic Preservation Rules and Regulations, p.8)

She also mentioned that they had received 170 e-mails in support of this step, 168 of which also supported including the Eaddy home as well.

Eric L. Holcomb, one of the CHAP Commissioners, then explained that the Eaddy home was excluded because of the city's agreement with the developer, but several of the public comments that followed explicitly addressed that objection. Every single one of these public comments expressed support for including the Eaddy home in the study.

(This photo appeared in the Baltimore Sun Tuesday evening as part of an article about the hearing.)

Johns Hopkins, Executive Director of Baltimore Heritage, was signed up to speak first. He directly addressed Holcomb's objection, indicating that that hadn't precluded development elsewhere, the development is moving slowly, the houses need historical designation, and CHAP needs to serve people with their work.

Tony Scott, Executive Director of Southwest Partnership, spoke about how the Sarah Ann Street homes and the Eaddy's home represent Black history.

Prof. Nicole King spoke to what history the homes offer together, Phoebe Stanton's documentation of these homes and her explicit appreciation of them, the relevance to Arabber history of the Eaddy home, and its representation of Black generational wealth building, which are all further reasons to save them.

Curtis Eaddy, Sr., spoke to what the family has put into this home.

Sonia Eaddy spoke of elderly displaced neighbors and her own lifetime of memories in Poppleton, illuminating the inseparable human aspect to history. This woman is a source of Baltimore history herself.

Ronald Miles pointed out that Sonia is "a human developer" too, not out for profit. He reminded the audience that the developer has missed his deadline. He described how, as a former city employee (1985-2000), he saw Poppleton neglected and the community excluded from rather than assisted in participation in this process of redevelopment from the beginning, as they should have been.

Carrie van Shefsky (name may be misspelled) read a letter from Scott Kashnow, Historic Preservation Committee Chair of Southwest Partnership, in support of a historic district for the whole "superblock," a word I learned from a later comment that day. Dictionary.com defines it as "an area of city land larger than the usual block, treated according to a unified plan," and the Free Dictionary.com defines it as "an urban area, usually closed to through traffic, which has interrelated residences and industries as well as commercial, social, and recreational facilities." This definition accords with and supports Prof. King's characterization of the connected block of land on which are both the Sarah Ann Street alley houses and the Eaddy rowhouse.

A reporter named Woods referenced the comment lament regarding Freddie Gray: "if only we would have known." He pointed out that CHAP has the power and opportunity to prevent this displacement and destruction.

John Murphy called the redevelopment "a gentrification scheme" and "a first-class tragedy," which, he argued, are reason enough to save the Eaddy home. He also related that the Sarah Ann Street homes had been designated for preservation in homeownership in 2006, and instead the city evicted the residents, who were renters--but those were their homes. He called for inviting them back, which suggestion gained substantial traction and interest from the CHAP board.

Blanca Gonzalez, who described herself as a representative of Baltimore, appealed to the CHAP board as elected officials to facilitate "development without displacement" because we "should appreciate the life of people and the community they create."

China Terrell, a Harvard-educated lawyer running for office, pointed out that contracts "are made to be broken," which is why the developer has broken it repeatedly. She also mentioned the importance of building Black generational wealth, asserted that "historic preservation is about telling stories," and called for CHAP to "close the gap between the city's rhetoric and the city's action" and "preserve people in place."

Shannon Darrow, one of the authors in the book collection Baltimore Revisited, urged CHAP to "use historical preservation as a tool" to help Black families the way it has helped Whites.

At this point, Laura Penza made a motion to table the Sarah Ann Street homes proposal to the May meeting so that the Eaddy house can be reviewed by staff and added to it; she also called for the families previously evicted from those homes to be offered right of return to them. John Bullock, another Commissioner and a City Councilperson representing Poppleton, seconded the motion. Kate Edwards abstained because of her concern with the redevelopment contract, but all other Commissioners voted in favor. The board took a break, and the many people who had come in support of the Eaddy family and all of these homes gathered outside the conference room to enjoy the celebratory atmosphere. It is a victory.

Reflect on Next Steps

The mission statement for the final class project is as follows:

During Spring 2022, students in AMST 380: Community in America continued work on the A Place Called Poppleton project. Students updated the Save Our Block zine and the Poppleton Plan for community-led development. We worked directly with Poppleton residents to document, analyze, preserve, and raise awareness about the stories of the Poppleton neighborhood and the movements to preserve a historic block and reopen an important recreation center.

My part in this project will include attending the 12 Apr 2022 CHAP hearing (tomorrow) to help add a brief summary to the zine, as well as the mayor's letter. I will also work with my group, individually and collectively, to revise the zine and the Poppleton Plan for clarity and concision. If we get the opportunity to do interviews as well, I will participate in that process to the extent that seems appropriate in consideration of my fellow group members preferences. As the only graduate student in my group, I see my role as facilitating the other students' interests in the project while also trying to keep focus on what Prof. King has asked us to do and ensuring the highest quality of the work in the end.

[Image from Fall 2021 class whose work we continue]

Cultural Event 2: Cathy Park Hong's visit to UMBC

Writer Cathy Park Hong visited UMBC Thursday evening to discuss her Pulitzer-nominated creative nonfiction book Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning. Her interviewer, UMBC Media & Communication Studies professor Fan Yang, asked Hong to speak about significant moments from the book, such as the words "minor" and "reckoning" in the book's title, which enabled Hong to elucidate the multiple meanings each word encompasses and how they relate to the work she sought to do in the book. Hong also discussed the importance of inter- and intra-racial understanding and introspection to process the complex and layered implications (such as tokenism) of living with Asian American identities in a racist society.

Yang's approach to questioning, as above; the positioning of the speakers, who were seated in chairs on the low stage; and the substantial time allotted to audience questions facilitated an intriguing taste of the book for those who hadn't yet read it, some added meaning for those who had, and a wonderful sense of conversation between Hong and audience members.

I appreciated learning more about the perspectives of people different from myself, especially as I am myself raising a Korean American child and, because I have the benefit of positionality as an intimate outsider to DJ's adoption, I can take up -- and have taken up -- the otherwise neglected responsibility not only of his socialization as an internationally and effectively interracially adopted Korean American person but also of frank critique of all those processes as needed. Some of Hong's comments affirmed some of what I have recently said to DJ myself, although he wasn't as engaged in the recording as I might have wished. He is a 10-year-old, after all. At least he got to see a prominent Korean American featured at a public university event.

You can watch the recording here:

An Excerpt from My Article-in-Progress: "A Mom by Any Other Name: Fulltime Stepmoms, Adopted Children, and Invisible Families"

In this autoethnography, I discuss my and other fulltime stepmoms’ experiences and perspectives and the implications for notions of who is family and to whom “belong” maternal rights and responsibilities themselves. I also consider some of the challenges that come with the particularity of my own situation as a fulltime stepmom to an internationally adopted child.

I have somewhat arbitrarily defined fulltime stepmothers as women who live with their partner along with their partner’s child(ren) at least 2/3 of the year for at least two years. Just like any other kind of mother, one does not necessarily love the children from the first moment, and some adjustment period is warranted. In many cases this period may require more than two years; nonetheless, after two years we have achieved substantial understanding and ability to reflect on our situations as necessary to my current project. Amy Janan Johnson et al. would characterize us as either mostly residential or fully residential stepmothers (130). I further note that in Jason B. Whiting et al.’s ethnographic study of self-identified “Successful Stepmothers,” all had been married for at least 5.5 years (99); these authors indicate that “research suggests that it takes 5 to 7 years for a family to stabilize following a remarriage” (107).

In August 2021, I gained IRB approval, with the invaluable guidance of Dr. Sarah Chard, and interviewed three other self-identified fulltime stepmoms, whom I met through a social media group (of which I had been a member for almost 2 years), who meet my criteria, as above, and who volunteered to participate. I do not claim a representative sample and did not even collect demographic data. I was concerned that reporting with too much precision and detail would compromise my participants’ confidentiality; fulltime stepmoms’ situations tend to be unique as it is, in my experience. Instead, I just want more of our perspectives heard and realities recognized. I hope that other scholars are motivated to pursue further ethnographic research with this population.

Johnson, Amy Janan, Kevin B. Wright, Elizabeth A. Craig, Elaine S. Gilchrist, Lindsay T. Lane, and Michel M. Haigh. “A Model for Predicting Stress Levels and Marital Satisfaction for Stepmothers Utilizing a Stress and Coping Approach.” Journal of Social and Personal Relationships, vol. 25, no. 1, 2008, pp. 119–142. DOI: 10.1177/0265407507086809

Whiting, Jason B., Donna R. Smith, Tammy Barnett, and Erika L. Grafsky. “Overcoming the Cinderella Myth: A Mixed Methods Study of Successful Stepmothers.” Journal of Divorce & Remarriage, vol. 47, no. 1/2, 2007, pp. 95-109.

Cultural Event 1: Commission for Historical and Architectural Preservation monthly meeting today

Today I (virtually) attended part of the Baltimore City CHAP meeting. I was running late from a previous meeting and then struggled to log in, so I missed the first 8 minutes and stayed later to make up for it. The entire hour and a half that I was in attendance, the discussion centered on BGE's claim that, to maximize safety, they have to install natural gas components outside historic homes, which seems to have only become the case within the past couple of months. This installation represents, at the very least, aesthetic and very possibly structural integrity problems for these homes. Speakers included the commissioners, community members, and BGE representatives. I found the community members more convincing than the BGE representatives; I was inevitably thinking of my own recent experiences with BGE as I made that assessment though.

On 6 Oct 2021, Verizon, without notifying anyone (including Miss Utility!) ahead of time, sent contractors to dig up our and our next-door neighbor's front yards to hook up service for someone ... around the corner? (At least, the contractors claimed that they worked for Verizon. Verizon later claimed that they had no record of having sent anyone to do that work and could not identify these workers.) In the process they hit the gas main and caused a gas leak in my front yard but didn't attempt to inform my family, who was mostly home at the time. The fire department quickly arrived, followed by BGE, who checked near our front door (for leaking gas?) with some kind of gauge, which I witnessed thanks to our Ring doorbell system. BGE also called Miss Utility to report the emergency dig they had to do after the leak. After we all left, BGE turned off our gas, requiring us to call them to arrange an inspection to get it turned back on, which we did. Later, BGE informed us that whatever they did to turn our gas back on that day was temporary. They were going to need to make another appointment with us for another visit out here to fully repair the damage.

On 12 Oct, BGE made their third trip to our home in a week to explain that the repair that they still need to do is actually replacing our entire gas line because the current one is too close to the surface. Also it runs oddly diagonally across our yard. This project will involve ripping up part of our street and our yard, although they promise that they will fix all of it eventually. They will leave the old line where it is, but they will no longer use it at that point.

However, when a company came to do landscaping repair on the yards, as BGE had promised, they told us that they had not been told to do anything in our yard. We called BGE, who sent someone to our house again, unannounced, while I was in between back-to-back meetings. Their argument was that the ticket they'd given to the repair company included our yard, and that ticket was marked completed, so the landscaping company must have repaired our yard.

... Not everyone understands logic.

Of course, if grass doesn't grow in the spring, we can call BGE, and they'll get it fixed then, right?

A larger concern is the fact that all the houses on our street were built by the same company around the same time (in 1972). Shouldn't one at least suspect that their gas lines were also too shallow and in need of replacement then? Or are they really going to only do what they saw they have to do and not even check everyone else's? It seems, unfortunately, that the latter is the case. No one else's lines were replaced while the street was ripped up -- just ours. We did deliver a note to all of our neighbors urging them to consider demanding that BGE inspect their gas lines too.

The important takeaway for me, however, was that BGE is indeed more concerned with minimizing costs than with any sort of responsibility to the communities they serve. That is why I found the community members more credible.

Of course, I did not stay long enough to learn the outcome of the discussion, and I couldn't quite read the commissioners during the meeting well enough to determine where they seemed to be leaning on this issue. I realized when I looked up the above link for CHAP that it is part of the Baltimore City government. Consequently, I have to wonder how well they serve their intended purpose and the community members who come before them. How much power to supersede BGE does this committee have? How do commissioners get these positions? And do they typically go way over the planned times for discussions? If so, what happens to the discussions they don't get to when the meeting finally ends? Is there a risk that that may happen next month, when the Sarah Ann Street homes are on the agenda?