We reflect the energy and excitement of the city, its legacy as a cultural hub of Black American life, and the joy of being a Baltimorean.
Folks from Columbia/HoCo venture to Baltimore for sports events and concerts and come back home none the wiser about so much of what Baltimore is truly made of. And then, regrettably, some write letters to the editor about how Baltimore should be fixed or how it doesn’t meet their suburban standards.
Baltimore Beat is Baltimore news in a way that you haven’t seen before.
Baltimore Beat is a Black-led, Black-controlled nonprofit newspaper and media outlet. Our mission is to honor the tradition of the Black press and the spirit of alt-weekly journalism with reporting that focuses on community, questions power structures, and prioritizes thoughtful engagement with our readers.
We aim to serve all of Baltimore City, including those with limited internet access and those who are a part of underrepresented communities.
Our organization aspires toward a more equitable, accountable, and rigorous future for journalism that fully represents the stories of all our neighbors.
Baltimore Beat is where you will see the Baltimore stories that won’t get covered anywhere else: stories, thoughts, and images from the Black Butterfly and not just the White L that dominates most television and print media. It is where you will learn things you didn’t know. And it will give you perspective about Baltimore that no one else will.
It is a free paper. Subscribe and it will come to your inbox. At the same time, it is distributed in print from specially made Beat Boxes within Baltimore.
Reimagining Newspaper Boxes with Baltimore Beat, Open Works Baltimore
There’s a special space on top for community wellness items. It’s an example of Community Care, but with a new twist. You can find it where you pick up your newspaper.
Photos from Baltimore Beat website
Today is Editor and co-founder Lisa McCray’s birthday. I went to the Baltimore Beat website and made a small donation in honor of her work. Since it is a free publication, they rely on donations. The seed money - - a $1 million gift from Baltimore-based Lillian Holofcener Charitable Foundation - - got them started. Continued financial support, both big and small, will keep them going.
In a story that couldn’t be farther than 2023 Baltimore, Mrs. Welland of Old New York makes this statement about European visitors.
“That is why it seems to me so foolish to entertain them when they come to New York. They accept our hospitality, and then they go home and repeat the same stupid stories." - - Edith Wharton, The Age of Innocence
How often do we go to Baltimore, accept its hospitality, and then come home and repeat the same stupid stories? We don’t venture beyond the surface, superficial treatment of what is a deeply layered and complicated place.
But we could, if we tried. Baltimore Beat is a good place to start.
Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents. When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...
A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word. Days passed. They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts. Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public. So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that. But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...
Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not. It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...
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