AltWeeklies Wire
The Fight for Freddie Graynew

Freddie Gray has become not just a man who was killed in police custody, but a symbol of all of the injustice endured by African-Americans in poor, drug-ravaged Baltimore. City Paper reporters have been on the streets throughout. Here are our dispatches.
Baltimore City Paper |
Evan Serpick, Baynard Woods, Brandon Soderberg and Caitlin Goldblatt |
04-28-2015 |
Features
Tags: baltimore
Exploring a Century of Baltimore's Racist Real-Estate Deals and Developmentsnew

It started with a routine transaction. Few people noticed when Attorney W. Ashbie Hawkins bought the rowhouse at 1834 McCulloh St. on a rainy June Thursday in 1910, but three weeks later, Hawkins was big news. He was black.
Baltimore City Paper |
Edward Ericson Jr. |
03-23-2010 |
Housing & Development
Homeless and Hungry: Portraits by Michael Northrupnew
"I think what interested me was their blatant exposure," the writer says of the men and women who use small squares of cardboard, or even just a plain Styrofoam cup, to make a very public appeal of need. To him, "they just screamed, hey, somebody take a picture."
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Northrup |
03-16-2010 |
Economy
On Sheila Dixon: A Liberal's Lament for What Might Have Beennew
Perhaps my original expectations of Mayor Sheila Dixon had been so low that mere competence had moved me into her cheering section. But she'd gone beyond competence. At the very least, her administration was really good at managing public perceptions, which is a crucial skill in governing a morale-challenged city.
Baltimore City Paper |
Tom Chalkley |
01-19-2010 |
Commentary
People Who Died: Our Homage to Late, Little-Known Greatsnew

What we're doing here, as we do in this space each year, is take a moment to remember a few of the less celebrated citizens of the world who helped shape it in a way disproportionate to the size of their renown. They each deserve a public RIP in some way, and here it is.
Baltimore City Paper |
Baltimore City Paper Staff |
01-05-2010 |
Commentary
Madison Smartt Bell Brings the Civil War to Your Doorstepnew

Devil's Dream's frontispiece includes a photograph of the small-eyed, dark-bearded Civil War general Nathan Forrest. Prepare to flip back to that single photograph over and over again as you read.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
12-08-2009 |
Fiction
After DJ Nights and Day-Glo, the Band-Band Makes a Comeback in Baltimorenew
This "new" breed is influenced by groups as disparate as uncompromising postpunk band Shellac, psych-pop favorite Animal Collective, and Baltimore's own art-aggro trio Double Dagger, but they don't sound like them, or, for that matter, each other. And they're churning out a sound as exciting and unbound as early Dan Deacon-in-a-warehouse -- as un-retro as the Wham City scene, but working with the DNA of far more deeply rooted music.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Byrne |
09-08-2009 |
Music
Toxic Gases Seep from the Ground in One Baltimore Neighborhoodnew

According to recent federal court documents, the Chemical Metals Industries site continues to pose a cancer risk to long-term residents of nearby homes subjected to "vapor intrusion" of chemical-laden air rising through the soil from contaminated groundwater below.
Baltimore City Paper |
Van Smith |
07-28-2009 |
Environment
Parasite City: A Gnawing Bed Bug Problem Grows in Southeast Baltimorenew
People whose homes have been infested say they have noticed a pattern: Spanish-speaking immigrants rent a rowhouse, and soon it becomes overcrowded. Mattresses are discarded on the street, leaning against fences or in areaways. Then neighboring homes are infested with bed bugs.
Baltimore City Paper |
Edward Ericson Jr. |
07-07-2009 |
Science
Baltimore Bookstore Works to Create a Free Schoolnew

The latest endeavor for Red Emma's, a Baltimore bookstore and activist hive, is building a free school to introduce an alternative to the usual institutional school tuition system.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
06-02-2009 |
Education
Vengeance Is Better Than Romance in This Jacobean Thrillernew
'Tis Pity She's a Whore is at its best at its bloodiest, and the end is, for those who can take it, worth the ride. Unfortunately, the other half of the production--the actual love affair that sets the ball rolling--isn't visceral enough to merit all the blood surrounding it.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
03-31-2009 |
Theater
State Budget Cuts Could Change Baltimore's Cultural Landscape Forevernew

Development directors at orchestras, museums, and theaters across Baltimore are worried that in a year of tough choices, Maryland may be making a $6 million choice it can never take back.
Baltimore City Paper |
John Barry |
03-31-2009 |
Economy
Baltimore Hip-Hop Vets Offer a Way Forward For The Scene--Looking Backnew

If you follow hip-hop journalism, you've heard this story before: Once there was a grassroots movement that established criteria for what made hip-hop matter. Now it's just people repeating the same old nonsense about big-screen TVs, money, and bitches.
Baltimore City Paper |
Bret McCabe |
02-24-2009 |
Music
Group Show Presents and Examines Women's Voice and Identitynew
In what is the largest project to date undertaken by the current curator of Baltimore's Park School, Rick Delaney, If I Didn't Care: Multigenerational Artists Discuss Cultural Histories is an exhibition that adds up to more than the sum of its numerous and diverse parts.
Baltimore City Paper |
Alex Ebstein |
02-24-2009 |
Art
Considering a Radical Education Strategy's Potential in Baltimorenew
The model of the Harlem Children's Zone represents a growing social scientific consensus on the nature and seeming perpetuity of urban poverty. The "Zone" is a 97-block area in Harlem that has been turned into a European-style social democracy, a cradle-to-college conveyor belt to the American middle-class for Harlem kids.
Baltimore City Paper |
Michael Corbin |
01-27-2009 |
Education