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.