Baltimore's Black Arts and Public Humanities with Mary Rizzo and Rejjia Camphor

This event features Mary Rizzo, associate professor, History Department, Rutgers University-Newark, and Baltimore artist, org anizer, and educator Rejjia Camphor for a conversation about Black arts, vernacular poetry, and public history in Baltimore. Convened by the Winston Tabb Special Collections Research Center, the conversation takes its starting point from Rizzo's new co-authored book, Baltimore's Black Arts Then and Now: Behind the Scenes of a Collaborative Public Humanities Project \(University of Iowa Press\), a case study of the Chicory Revitalization Project. The project revived Chicory, a Black grassroots poetry magazine published in Baltimore from 1966 to 1983, to catalyze intergenerational dialogue about place, race, and social justice through exhibitions, a digital archive, workshops, social media, and a relaunched maga zine. Rizzo and Camphor will explore the history of Black cultural radicalism in Baltimore and the practical and ethical questions raised by collaborative public humanities: building equitable partnerships, navigating the racial politics of public history, restorative justice, developing shared values, and assessing impact. The event has special resonance at Johns Hopkins University: Chicory's longest-serving editor, Melvin E. Brown, is an alumnus of the Writing Seminars. The program offers points of connection across Special Collections, museum studies, the Writing Seminars, public humanities, and the university's Common Question: "What is Art?" Co-sponsored by the Program in Museums and Society; The Writing Seminars; and The University Common Question.