Last Friday, on March 16, 2007, Loyola College held the second panel of Baltimore writers in McGuire Theatre. The various writers from Baltimore discussed what it was like be a writer in such a big city and what they dealt with on a day to day routine. They discussed how the challenges, responsibilities, pleasures and dangers of writing for the city of Baltimore, Maryland. Three of the writers that talked during the lecture were Gregory Kane, Elizabeth Edits, and Jane Connelly. Gregory Kane is a writer for the Baltimore Sun, Elizabeth Edits is a writer for the magazine Urbanite and Jane Connelly is a children writer in Baltimore. All three of them were able to put forth good information based on what they do for a living, to show what some of the varying writing jobs are truly like in Baltimore, Maryland.
To begin with, Gregory Kane kicked off the lectures with a very interesting discussion. Kane, a writer for the Baltimore Sun, is also the winner of the 1997 Pulitzer Prize award for journalist. Kane began his lecture by discussing how on one day last week there were four deaths in the city of Baltimore. As a writer for the Baltimore Sun, Kane has to report on the cause of the death and investigate the story to report to the public. Kane went on to discuss how public officials tell him that it is currently under investigation and that the information cannot be released to him. In one case, a seven year old was arrested and his question of “why?” was not even answered. Kane also described how it was hard to trust correction officers and public officials because they tend to cover up what really happened in order for protection. This scared me knowing that even in small investigations like this there are people who lie to cover up things that are usually unimportant in the end.
Next, Elizabeth Edits came on to give her lecture to the audience. Edits is a writer for the Baltimore based magazine called Urbanite. She led off her discussion by stating that a good portion of the readers of the magazine live on the outer limits of the city and how they are extremely interested in what is going on in the actual core of the city. Edits writing style is very similar to Jane Jacobs who is the author of The Death and Life of Great American Cities. Earlier in the year we read a chapter in the book regarding border vacuums and how they affect life in the city.
Last to speak to the audience was Jane Connelly. Connelly is a children writer from Baltimore, Maryland and read to the audience two passages about the inner city of Baltimore. The passages she read discussed the problems that are constant in Baltimore. One of these problems is the shift of ethnicity in the inner city. While a community is doing well in the city, someone will buy a house in that community. The house will then be rented out to African-Americans who can afford nothing else and this just creates a domino affect that can completely tear apart a city. This story reminded me a lot of the passage that we had to read from the book The Death and Life of Great American Cities by Jane Jacobs. In the book, Jacobs talked about border vacuums, which simply means that the areas around the borders of the cities become deserted and crime becomes a serious problem.
In conclusion, the panel of writers gave a great overview of what everyday life is like for them as writers in the city of Baltimore. Gregory Kane gave a good analysis of what it is like to write for a newspaper everyday in a city where there are constant problems. Elizabeth Edits lectured on what her magazine brings to the people who live outside the city to almost in a way bring them inside the city. Lastly, Jane Connelly read passages about the problems that are still present in the city and what could possibly be done to help them. These lectures by the various writers sent the audience off in a good direction to help turn the city of Baltimore into a positive direction.
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