Panel Discussion

Last week I attended the panel discussion held in McManus Theater. Many of the speakers’ points and topics go along with the ideas and principles we are practicing here at Loyola.
Liz Bowie is a reporter for The Baltimore Sun. She talked about her series "On Their Own" which has gotten a lot of attention from the public. She worked on this series with Andre Chung, who was the photographer for the project. The two followed two homeless teens in Baltimore who are trying to make it through high school on their own. Liz an Andre told listeners what they learned from making this series. First Liz told how she went into the project with her own stereotypes, but when she finished she had a first hand account of life in Baltimore. She described the sense of community she experienced when following the boys through the neighborhoods they lived in. She said there was a better sense of community there than in most suburbs. Andre captured what he felt through pictures, and explained how proud he was of the teens and the courage they had.
Tony Shor is a painter who portrays the people from his neighborhood in his artwork. His type of artwork, black velvet painting, is typically art for lower classes. So he used lower class people and lower class subjects to portray in his artwork. And by doing this he hopes to break some stereotypes. He has started a nonprofit community art organization for kids in Baltimore.
Ellis Marsalis is a photographer and poet and talked about his work "Discovery of Mythology" which is about his neighborhood. His pictures were of children using drugs and young teens holding weapons. He talked about the advantages and disadvantages of small tight communities. Ellis said, "Neighborhoods are saturated with mythology of the ghetto, from hip hop to drug dealers." He has encountered drug dealers who were completely normal people. They were real people with families to support.
He compared the drug trafficking to a legitiment business operation.
By attending this event I saw other peoples’ experiences with city life. The speakers are enriching others with knowledge of life in the city. Through their art and writings they are breaking down stereotypes and showing it’s easy to give to the city and let the city give something back to you. They have all given back to the community and at the same time they learned something. They were encouraging others to go out and help others, which parallels the idea of The Year of the City.