Alumni Interview with De'Andre Bright

Understanding Humanities through the Eyes of a University student

De’Andre Bright, a former student of the Baltimore Preserving spaces and Places American Studies class at UMBC was able to meet with me to help me gather a better understanding humanities research and work. Through this interview I was able to come understand that working with communities in the city is not as troublesome as some have been known to believe. It seems that taking humanities courses at UMBC has led to a deeper understanding of community systems and life within the city for De’Andre. 

How did community involvement impact your thoughts about humanities work… how did it change over time?

-It gave me more of an understanding with how to reach the community. I had to embrace their community to be accepted and it made me more comfortable with going into less that pleasant areas.

What is your focus at UMBC and how have you incorporated that into your career?

-I am currently in my senior year of an American Studies Major. I plan on using what i have learned in American studies to become an elementary school teacher and then open my own school in the distant future.

What were your thoughts about Baltimore? And how did they change?

-My thoughts about Baltimore were all over the place. At first, I was nervous about having a class there or even going there but after spending time in the community I realized that most of the troubles were over inflated and people would just assume that the community was so bad but in reality, it was good. My thoughts have definitely changed for the better.

What did you enjoy most about AMST 422?

-Working with students with totally different perspectives and experiences to coordinate public outreach.

What did you take away from 422?

-Never look at a place and assume it is just something boring, you never know what something could be just do some research on it.

What do you think about the humanities courses offered at UMBC?

-They are wonderful!!

Has taking humanities courses changed how your view humanities (working with people)?

-Yes, it has. It has made me more patient and has also made me change the casualness of my conversation habits.

What are techniques or skills you have learned in your humanities courses that you would implement in your career?

-Communicating with people from different walks of life. I also learned to see the best in things and to work with people I normally wouldn’t. It has also taught me to look deeper into something if you scratch the surface and nothing is there.

Lit Review

Throughout looking for secondary sources, I have found that there is more information about the negative impacts of inclusion classrooms than I originally thought. Yes, a lot of the research and information leans towards inclusion classrooms but some of these articles also bring up the negative side. Though some of my research will cover the necessities of an inclusion classroom, my argument is guided towards the downfalls of this environment for both special needs students as well as the general education students. The secondary articles I have chosen discusses some of the advantages and downfalls of an inclusion setting across different grade levels and disability areas. There are many challenges associated with inclusion classrooms including the level of content, the pace of the classroom, expectations of independent skills, and much more. Throughout reading some of these articles, I have come to the realization that the teacher’s attitude and ability to differentiate instructions properly have a major impact on the effectiveness of an inclusion classroom. My second article discusses the importance of continued professional development with specific components that should be discussed and implemented for inclusion teachers. There are many articles I found that discuss ways of making an inclusion classroom work. Ideas, practices and skills that can be contributed to making a successful inclusion environment, but I am going to focus on the ways this environment doesn't work. 

Mastropieri, Margo A., and Thomas E. Scruggs. “Promoting Inclusion in Secondary Classrooms.” Learning Disability Quarterly, vol. 24, no. 4, 2001, pp. 265–274. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1511115.

Vaughn, Sharon, et al. “A Collaborative Effort to Enhance Reading and Writing Instruction in Inclusion Classrooms.” Learning Disability Quarterly, vol. 21, no. 1, 1998, pp. 57–74. JSTOR, JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/1511372.

Obiakor, Festus E., et al. “Making Inclusion Work in General Education Classrooms.” Education and Treatment of Children, vol. 35, no. 3, 2012, pp. 477–490., www.jstor.org/stable/42900597.

Implications of Inclusion for General and Special Education

This is a great article for my research purposes as it summarizes critical issues in the inclusion controversy, it falls perfectly in line with the line of research I plan to pressure on inclusion education. It covers everything from the questions concerning the program efficiency, legal and financial considerations, and implications for carious populations within the educational community. It is a scholarly article published by the University of Chicago Press in a book titled The Elementary School Journal. Murphy definitely takes a researchers approach to this article, she is sure to cover a lot of historical content on inclusion, laws, movement, and general information that is prominent to the discussion. She also asks questions that she wants readers to think about and then answers them. 

Murphy, Donna M. "Implications of Inclusion for General and Special Education." The Elementary School Journal 96, no. 5 (1996): 469-93. http://www.jstor.org.proxy-bc.researchport.umd.edu/stable/1001845.

The negative side of Inclusion Classrooms

For my research proposal I am going to take on an unpopular opinion that inclusion is not as beneficial for students with disabilities as studies and research has lead us to believe. 

As a future special educator, I am interested in seeing the benefits and drawbacks of an inclusion classrooms. As I have already began working in the school system I have seen both the pros and cons of inclusion classrooms. Studies and research states that inclusion classrooms maximize the success of students with disabilities as well as benefit socially with fewer negative labels. But I have personally found this research to be untrue in many scenarios. I have seen the students with disabilities struggle to understand the curriculum they are being forced to learn, I have seen their face when they realize that everyone else in the classroom understands and they do not. I have also seen the effects this has on the general education students, the students that consistently have to slow their ideas down during group work, the students whos lessons are constantly being interrupted by the numerous questions one student has because they don't quite get it, the constant interruptions from other adults being in and out of the room to support another student. Do not get me wrong, I also see the good side of inclusion classrooms, the friendships that can be made, the social interactions that the students would otherwise go without, and the utter understanding from general education that special education students are worthy of an education. But my questions still remain;

Is placing special education students in inclusive classrooms beneficial for their success or harmful for their education? Self-contained or inclusion, which breeds success? Is an inclusion classroom beneficial for those without the special needs? Does inclusion truly benefit everyone?

Separate classrooms for students with special needs, known as self-contained classrooms, with lower student to teacher ratios, controlled environments, and specially trained staff would offer more benefits to a student with disabilities but according to research it has failed to provide sufficient evidence of the effectiveness of self-contained classrooms. Most research suggests that inclusion classrooms are favorable in the success of students with disabilities but there is minimal studies to show the negative impact inclusion classrooms can have. People are scared to ask the sensitive questions, the politically incorrect questions, of the potentially negative impact inclusion can have on both the general education students as well as the students with disabilities, which is why there is such a lack data on these questions. In my research proposal I plan to address these questions through research, personal experience, and experiences of educators and students of both abilities.

It is of the upmost importance to not exclude any students from equal education opportunities and most research suggest otherwise; inclusion classrooms pose more harm to student success with both the disabled student as well as all of the general education students in the class.

“Listening to Learn: Analyzing a Song from the ASA Dissent Mixtape”

A Place Where Love is by Andy Bey

 To me this song inspired a sense of community and love. Andy Bey, along with many other African Americans, were fighting for their equal rights as citizens. A lyrical line that stood out to me was “You live your life here. And it’s a sad, sad story; That each one, of us, awaits a day of glory” I think Andy may have been referring to his struggle in life as a young black man fighting to be seen as an equal. The specific line ”Brothers and sisters, I wish they would be, A place where love is” I feel is spot on to his wish that everyone could be considered brothers and sisters and just love each other for who they were.

This song was released in 1974 on Andy Bey’s Album Experience and Judgement. It is a considered of the genre Jazz but it is soulful music that has been loved by many and inspired many other rhythm and blues artists in the industry. This is song written from the soul. I think that many R&B artists may have been inspired through his work. Not only this song but other from his album seemed to have been written from his heart and through his experiences. A more recent artist in the industry I feel may have been inspired by Andy Bey is Rahsaan Patterson. His music holds a similar style to Beys and though it flows in a more contemporary way his lyrics are about his own experiences. I have type the lyrics as I listened through the song in case some of you would like to listen as well, there was no lyrics for it online. I did miss a small part because I could not understand exactly what was being said but for the most part I think it is correct.

You live your life here

And it’s a sad, sad story

That each one, of us, awaits a day

Of glory

But why? but why

Do you think flowers die?

Why do you think babies cry?

For people like you and me

Brothers and sisters, I wish they would be

A place where love is

Each generation, believes it will have a new day

But it can only suffer what we had today

But somehow, since white dessert has sand

And a woman has never felt the warmth of a good man

But why, do you think flowers die?

Why do you think babies cry?

For people like you and me

Brothers and sisters, I wish they would be

All of us sharing, 100 years a day

And we can’t even get together to change the hand of fate

But why, why

This is why, and for some reason we each grow old

I thought this was a future

But its only history

Brothers and sisters, I wish they would be

A place where love is

A place where love is

AMST 300 Blog 1

I am a typical essay researcher. The most I have ever researched anything outside of being for a paper was last semester in AMST 490 preserving places and making spaces in Baltimore. I actually found out that researching can be a lot more fun than the typical internet searches. Research can be interviewing people, diving into historical documents at the local library’s and even just walking the streets and observing the area. I really enjoyed taking that class and it gave me a new perspective of researching. As for this class I am interested in seeing how the research skills I learned last semester can help me with my research paper. As I am on the elementary education track I would like to research something in education, more specifically problems we find in special education. I have worked in the special education field for quite a few years now and have come across some important topics I think may be interesting for me to conduct my paper on. There is a lot of controversy about inclusion classroom and if the students are really getting the education they need to be as successful as possible. A working title I may consider is Inclusion classrooms and teaching: Helpful or Harmful. I would like to focus on something within this topic because I am receiving my teaching certificate for general elementary education but plan to continue my education into special education. With a duel certificate like this I will be likely to become an inclusion teacher at some point and I would like to have background research on how helpful I could be to my future students.

A Journey Through Hollins Reflection

Our event was held on a beautiful saturday afternoon. During our last class meeting before the event we were concerned that people would have difficulty locating our building, our original idea was to find a chalkboard to put outside advertising our event, but i was unable to locate a chalkboard. I decided to go with a balloon bouquet with information on one of the balloons, i think this idea was helpful in drawing attention. We had no complaints of difficulty finding the building.  I was surprised to find that many people showed up early for our event and were extremely interested in the walking tour. I would say we had at least 25 people sign in on our log, and a pretty decent size group went on the walking tour. It was exciting to present the information we gathered to the community. De’Andre did a great job catering our went and I heard a lot of compliments from the attendees. Zachs presentation of the website went very well and people seemed to enjoy the interactive aspect. Most people really came for the tour though. During our entire event i took a lot of photographs to document this great experience. I still have to edit them but i think i got some great shots, especially during the tour. The tour was exciting, and it was great to see in person all of the buildings we did our research on. I noted that this tour was almost completely different then our original tour with Curtis. We went to a lot of new places. We ended at Hollins Place which was a great way to end the event. De’Andre and Curtis did a wonderful job for the open mic portion and we even had some community members participate. This was a great experience for one of my first UMBC classes and I actually hope to take it again as the higher level class for my graduate degree.

Semester Reflection

              AMST 422 has been one of my favorite classes this semester. The first few weeks I really enjoyed discovering the history surrounding Hollins Market. I had the 1920-1930s, I expected to find a lot of information in that time period but only found information on the remodeling of the market and crimes from the area. Once we were finished with our decade research we really began diving into more hands-on activities. My favorite class was when we went on the walking tour with Curtis. We were able to gather a lot of information about historical buildings and residents of the area. When we did our personal research on a historical building I chose to do the bottle factory Curtis had mentioned during our tour. Unfortunately for me, I was not able to find much information at all pertaining to a bottle factory in Hollins Market. My research was slim to none on the subject and I moved onto researching the Pratt Street Conspiracy. Though there were not many articles with information, the Pratt Street Conspiracy was an extremely interesting subject. IT was a local shop managed by teenagers to provide fashionable clothes at reasonable prices. I really loved that there was an option for work for the teenagers of the area, even those that had dropped out of high school. This write up was in the Light City newspaper along with other pieces done by other classmates. It was really cool to have our pieces in a newspaper that the community would see during such an awesome community event.

              After this we really began working on our class project. We had many ideas as a class which made it a little difficult to decide what our project would be. I recommended a video of the market with a voice over history, I felt this option would be more appealing to the community. Ultimately, we decided to do a walking tour, a website, and a zine full of information. We even had ideas to include an open mic portion, so community members could be involved. The open mic portion has been taken over by Curtis, as we decided we had too many things going on. I think our class event will have a decent turn out. When we handed out fliers last week many members of the community seemed intrigued by the event and expressed interest in coming.

              I worked with the group that was writing up information the past of Hollins Market. My group created the website associated with important building we plan on talking about during our walking tour. I also created most of the Hollins Market history timeline based off of the research done by each student for their decades. Since the history/past of the market is pretty much set in stone, I then worked in the future of the market. I get in contact with a representative of War Horse, War Horse being the contracting company brought in to redevelop the market. I was in contact with Jim Mills, and he gave me a lot of information on the project. The market is going to become a very modern and open community space for all members of the area. I find the plans intriguing and think many patrons will be happy with the remodeled market.

              I am excited to reveal to the community all the things we have learned over this semester. I hope our event will bring some unknown information to members of the community. During the event I will be assisting Curtis on the walking tour. I am looking forward to feedback from people that attend the event, to see if our event served its purpose, to be an informative and fun community gathering event.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to work with my classmates and get involved in the community. I feel like it has been a wonderful learning experience, not only academically but socially as well.

Student Statment for the Future (Zine)

This semester, I have learned a lot about the history and future of Hollins Market. Throughout the past few months I have enjoyed engaging with members of the community and learning what makes the small communities in Baltimore city so great. The future of the historical Hollins Market is bright as it is undergoing various renovations this coming year. The market will receive many new accommodations and become a community hot spot for the area. Though Hollins Market is being renovated, the plan is to preserve the important history of the area and make it more open to community gatherings and events.

Interviews Reflection

After reading the interviews I found, for the most part, the community is happy to see the neighborhood being revived with reconstruction. Troy from New Beginnings and Michael from Black Cherry were particularly looking forward to the neighborhood becoming more attractive to new comers. Michael seemed a little skeptical about War Horse actually completing the project as other developers have came and went. Everyone in the community is hoping this project pulls through and brightens their community. A favorite about the neighborhood for a few interviewees was the diversity they saw in the neighborhood. Hollins Market has always been a diverse neighborhood welcoming to different cultures and races.  The interviews conducted with Greedy, Leonard and Mr. Williams pertained to the Stables and the Arrabers. Their main interest is the community knowing they are here to serve and help. They want to give back to the community and create an area open for the kids to help and stay out of trouble. Overall everyone we interviewed like the neighborhood and wanted to see the neighborhood persevere through the city image and become a nice community area.

Class Reflection Statement

 I have enjoyed the semester in AMST 422. It has been an extremely engaging, creative, informative, and fun class. This semester, I have learned a lot about the history and future of Hollins Market. Thought the past few months I have enjoyed engaging with members and workers of the community and learning what makes the small communities in Baltimore city so great. The walking tour was probably my favorite class though. Being able to see the buildings and hear their history and impact in the community was really interesting. I also enjoyed the approach of the class. Being able to get involved with the community and plan an event has been exciting.

Future of Hollins

This past week I focused on gathering information about the future of Hollins Market in regard to the redevelopment. I found out some intriguing information and even came across an article from this week about the redevelopment. The new vision for the Market space seems very promising, but I worry it may be a little too nice for the area. Only in regard to it looking out of place. The new plans show a new modern market area in a neighborhood of rundown and abandoned homes. The new market space will have 21 vendor spaces of various sizes. The biggest issue the area is facing now is to close the market down during reconstruction or not. If they close it down, this leaves vendors helpless, but it will also speed up the construction process. War Horse may have a building to relocate vendors to during this time, but a decision has not been made. I was also in contact with a representative from War Horse, Jim Mills. I asked him some specific questions pertaining to War Horses role in the redevelopment. He was also able to provide me with War Horses' official one page over view of the Hollins Market project. 

Why did War Horse decide to buy Hollins Market and redevelop the community? Is there a connection here?

I know of the Market itself and a block of residences on Hollins street, besides these improvements, what other plans does War Horse have in store for the Hollins Market area?

I read that Baltimore city is ‘leasing’ Hollins Market to War Horse, how long does War Horse plan to hold the lease? Until all projects/redevelopment are finished, or even further into the future?

This was Jims response. 

Our impetus to get involved in the community came with our selection by the City to renovate the shed building of the Market under a long term lease agreement where we would operate the Market.  After the uprising, our CEO took an interest in the west side, starting with the renovations to the Western District Police Station (see our website for more information), turning it into a community engagement center along with the police function.   With the acquisition of a large portfolio of buildings around Hollins through our not-for-profit Community Development Corporation, which was owned for several years (decades?) without any improvements, we saw the opportunity to stabilize the neighborhood by improving both the Market and these surrounding properties. 

These pictures were taken from 

Field work reflection

Last week we split up to do some field work. I went with Lia to the stables to relay more information about the interview process and give them the consent forms. When we first got there the stables were locked, so Lia and I went around the corner to the President of the Arrabers house. He welcomed us into his home and chatted with us about some neighborhood events. He walked with us back to the stables, by then the owners were back and they let us explore the stables on our own. I took pictures while Lia talked with the owners. We found out some great information, they were even able to provide us with another person to interview. We went back to the president of the Arrabers house and spoke with him a little more. He took us on a quick tour of his home which consists of 2 rowhomes together. He has collected a lot of stuff over the years and as an artist he has converted most of it into new things. His house was filled with all sorts of things. Pictures, nicnacks, memorabilia, and antiques. It was amazing how much he has collected. He also introduced us to his lifetime partner, who is also an artist. She performs at the Cherry Puppet theater and other events. She showed us one of her latest performances involving a rolled scroll that as you unrolled it created shadow images. I thought it wax really cool and creative.

Reflection

Last week, we met with our groups to finalize some plans for the website and zine, we also created a schedule for the rest if the semester. We also presented our ideas and even plan to a group of community members and past AMST students. The feedback we received was extremely helpful. Our guests thought we were putting to much into the events, so much so that it became 2 events. They also gave us feedback on what they though would and would not work for our event and website. One of our guests recommended instead of the website, there is an app people can download and they can take their own walking tour following the app when they wished. I really liked this idea because it is more interactive and user friendly then the website. Our biggest concern still seemed to be if we were doing a fundraise opportunity. Curtis recommended Black Cherry Puppet to receive our donations, but I think at this point, it may be too late to create and receive the items to sell. Our group, the past, planned out dates to have all information put in and finalized for our website and zine. This week, I have been shortening the places abstracts to use on the website and in the zine. This has been a little difficult for me because in a couple of the abstracts, all of the information seemed important enough to include but it is too long to include in the zine or website. Our group is finalizing all of the historical information, we have a date set to have the timeline, the places abstracts, and important people abstracts complete.

Next Steps on class project

In our class project my groups worked on information from the past. I put together a timeline of Hollins Market from every student’s decade assignment. For the next step of our class project I think we should set a due date for everyone to have their portions due and determine how long/how many pages our zine should be. What do we want our zine to look like? Colorful? Black and White? Designs?  I think we should also begin planning what order the zine should go in as well as where the walking tour is going and what buildings we plan to talk about. Should we do flash cards for the building we want to talk about during the tour?

Where to go from here?

I think our project name should definitely include Hollins in the name. Some of my ideas include Hollins History, Life in Hollins Market, or A Day in Hollins Market. In order to really begin this project, we need to figure out exactly what we are doing, we spoke of many things last week and I believe we have settled on a video and a zine. As a class we need to determine what information we want to include and how we will execute it. Since we have each done research on a decade I think we should include a quick synopsis of each decade. I also think we should include our building research as these buildings have been in the neighborhood for decades. I think our video should hit some major topics of the history and even some interviews with neighborhood shop owners, the people that live there, and even some of the kids.

What should we do for our class project?

For our class project, I think we should do a mixture of things. I think creating a video blog would be a great way to have visual representation of the neighborhood as well as including information about the history. I think it would be the best way to represent the culture and history of the neighborhood. Some people like to have visuals, and I think a vlog can keep people attention longer then a written pamphlet. We could conduct interviews with many different people of the neighborhood, stall owner’s, business owners, and the people that live there. We could conduct it kind of like a tour of the neighborhood like we did with Curtis.

Hollins Market Tour reflection

Before our tour of Hollins Market, there was a lot I did not know. I though the market was 1 building, just a market, but it is an entire neighborhood. Our tour guide Curtis was extremely nice and well informed of the area. He spoke of some remolding of the area that I think would bring more modernism to the area, but the history of the area is rich, and intriguing as is. We ran into an older barber in the barber shop that had a ton of information about the history of the market, I think interviewing him about the history and community would be extremely beneficial for our project. My favorite part, as you probably already know, was the stables. I found it really fascinating that there was still a horse stable in the middle of the city for over 100 years. Not only was the stable still open but it was still running by the original family. Of course, the newest generation was the one running it, but the son was able to give us a lot of information about his family and stable history. I did not really like the puppetry building, I found it a little creepy and probably would never go for a show. The owner though seemed nice and had a lot of information about the history of the neighborhood. Both men would also probably be able to provide us a lot of information about the history of the community for our research purposes.  The market itself has been home to many families since its opening, there were 2 stalls in the market that had been there for well over 50 years and had stayed in the same family. For these family’s running a stall in the market isn’t just a job, it’s a legacy that has been passed down for generations. My favorite part was learning about how these stalls and the stable had been in the same family for generations. I find it really fascinating when a business stays in the same family for many generations, its not only a part of community history but a part of their family history as well. We have done one tour of the Hollins Market, but I would be interested in doing another now that I have had time to reflect on the area and think of more questions.

Hollins Market 1920-1930

Hollins Market was built in 1838 and did not receive any major renovations until almost 80 years later. March 1920, fire marshals had determined the Hollins Market roof to be made of asphalt-saturated felt and asphalt and conducted a test to determine the combustibility. Fire marshals recreated a miniature model of the roof and determined it to be extremely flammable. In August of 1920, Hollins Market finally received contract to replace its old deteriorating plaster ceilings after years of bits and pieces of plaster falling on patrons and in market stalls. The contract was awarded to Henry Bensel for $6,814, this covered the cost of replacing the ceilings with metal one that covered the entire interior. Late in 1922 the halls of Hollins Market had been deemed unsafe. Though the Market received a contract to have the ceilings replaced 2 years prior, they had yet to be replaced. The halls and celling were in such bad condition due to the basketball games being held there. July of 1923, Superintendent of markets, Henry E. Hones visited six markets, including Hollins Market, for sanitary inspections and found conditions to be greatly improving. He did find a few stalls that he ordered for improvements but did not feel the need to take legal action.

In September of 1923 patrons were writing letters to the editor of the Baltimore sun because the promises of a comfort station at the market still had not been met. By the following February, patrons and merchants of Hollins market were becoming outraged at the lack of attention paid to their market; other markets were receiving funds and keeping up the needs of the market. The patrons and merchants were demanding someone they could vote into office that would keep up on their needs at the market.  In the spring of 1924, Hollins markets had 6,000 stalls in 11 markets and seen more than one fourth of its stall holders in behind in rent and lacking licenses. Henry E. Hoenes, general superintendent of the markets, issued a notification for delinquents who hadn’t paid by May 1 to pay by the following Monday of have theirs licenses cancelled, and stall repossessed.

In August of 1929, Hollins markets received contracts to be painted inside and out. The money was awarded to Warren W. Haslett in the amount of $1,275. Previously laws had allowed the people 10 grace days in which to take out their licenses and pay their dues, but Hones had given them 30 days grace. An interesting even from this time period occurred in October 1929, when a couple was fined a jailed for public intoxication near Hollins market. The couple was grieving the recent loss of a son, they were fined a total of $31.90 but could not pay and went to jail in default. Though this event was not specifically related to Hollins Market, I find this information telling its time. The couple was only trying to grieve a great loss and were punished for their grief.

I think I would like to do a zine for our class project. I do better with writing and creating things then I do with talking. Plus I don't really like my voice on videos. I think a zine would let us show some artistic abilities and be more creative then a podcast.