"Without Community, There Is No Liberation"1: Ruminations on Institution and
Community Partnerships
Introduction and Editing By: Sarah Tooley
Words and Poem By: Taylor Evans
Taylor Evans and Sarah Tooley had the unique experience of meeting and working
together to teach free art camp classes to the youth in Better Waverly, Taylor’s Baltimore
neighborhood, in the Summer of 2008. The program represents a community partnership
between Maryland Institute College of Art’s (MICA) Master of Arts in Community Arts
(MACA) program, Baltimore Youth Works and various neighborhood organizations. In
this partnership, a Community Arts graduate student is placed at a neighborhood
organization after a mutual interview process to teach 6 weeks of art class based on a
social justice curriculum. The graduate student is paired with a high school intern from
the neighborhood who was interviewed and hired by Baltimore Youth Works for a paid
summer job.
The relationship is initiated by MACA. In it, the graduate student takes on the role and
responsibility of mentoring a young person in the community in professional
development and personal growth, specifically around team teaching, lesson plan writing
and implementation. The high school intern assumes the role of guide for the graduate
student -- to their city, neighborhood, and youth culture within it. On the days they are
not teaching in the community Taylor Evans, the high school intern, and Sarah Tooley,
the graduate student, attend and participate in the MACA graduate classes together to
1
Audre Lorde
1
build their teaching skills, share their values, and learn about other community art
practices and projects. This class time also allows the high school interns the possibility
to acquire more paid training hours.
During this time, both the graduate students and high school interns were introduced to a
real life example of an institution beginning a relationship with a neighborhood around a
community arts vision. The partnership we were asked to examine had complicated
qualities. In 2002, the city of Baltimore had announced and begun an 88 acre
redevelopment plan in the neighborhood of Middle East. The land where the proposed
development would take place was primarily a residential neighborhood. 395 households
ultimately had their homes seized through eminent domain and were relocated out of the
community. Due to historical significance, one of the buildings to be spared, gutted and
renovated was a former school that currently serves as affordable apartments to 26 low
income residents in the neighborhood. The city offered this building to MICA for one
dollar, and promised to take responsibility for evicting and compensating the families
being relocated. MICA’s president was interested in this acquisition, and asked two
departments -- Graphic Design and the MA in Community Arts -- to write proposals for
how this building might be used.
The Community Arts proposal was shared with the interns and graduate students. We
went on a field trip to visit the neighborhood and former school building where residents
were still currently living. On our trip, we witnessed what appeared to be an unresponsive
landlord from the bullet hole-riddled glass window in the foyer of the apartment building
to the broken front door lock and a graffitied interior hallway. Both graduate and high
school interns were asked to think critically about the meaning, possibilities, and
2
potentials for such a partnership based on the specific circumstances. The graduate
students were asked to engage a few key community members, that the MACA faculty
had identified. The intent was to gauge what the response from the neighborhood might
be if MICA turned the building into some version of a community arts center. We would
explain that the center could serve as a place where students entering the MACA program
would receive training and residents of the neighborhood could benefit from a
community arts program in their neighborhood. We would also ask what they would like
to see from having such a building in the neighborhood.
What follows is a written transcript of a mixed and edited together version of an audio
recording taken from an interview of Taylor Evans by Sarah Tooley about her feelings
surrounding MICA’s move into East Baltimore. It is followed by a poem by Taylor that
prompted Sarah to interview her after hearing it.
“My name is Taylor Evans. I live in Better Waverly, on 30th Street.
From what I know, they are taking over an old school that is now a housing building and
people are livin’ in there and they are makin’ them move out and they are relocating them
and they are doing a project with community arts.
I don’t like the whole idea because there are so many vacant houses down there that they
can take over -- one, or two, or three of those -- rather than a place where people are
already livin,’ because if that’s your house, you don’t wanna leave outta your house.
I don’t think that doing art in the community is going to help them get out of poverty…
or stop them from getting evicted or anything like that. It might bring the community a
3
little closer or it might make the community a little prettier, but its not going to stop the
real problems in the community.
I wanna know why they’re doing this.
I wanna know WHY.
WHY are they taking over somebody else’s house and would they want anybody to take
over their house?
I want to know what the people in the housing think and what they would want.
I want to know if in the long run is it helping anybody.
I wanna know are they doing this just so it’s a good look on MICA rather than on the
community.”
“This poem is about East Baltimore fighting back places that were taking over their
community.”
Community by Taylor Evans
Who would want to leave from the community
When community means
Together as one
So together right now
We have not won
4
Because community is being destroyed
By overpowering that we can avoid
Eviction in the black neighborhoods
Make our ‘hood no good
They think that they are doing good with relocation
Who knows for better or worse
This whole thing could be a curse
Or maybe for the better
But my ideas are only in this letter
And you can come to my neighborhood to be a part of the community
Then we can join in unity
Because
I don’t want your project to end in the word unfortunately,
Basically,
We will fight back
Or join together as one
So that the voices of poverty you cannot shun
5