Neighborhood Lights 2018

Remington and Brooklyn/Curtis Bay

With a Neighborhood Lights grant from the Baltimore Office Promotion of the Arts as part of the city’s Light City Festival, I had the pleasure of collaborating with an incredible group of residents, community parters, artists, musicians and organizers to create two original shadow puppet plays that imagine a history of Remington and Brooklyn/Curtis Bay from the lens of de-industrialization. With the aid of local historians, community-leaders, business-owners, and artists, I compiled two stories interspersed with poetry and visuals created by residents in workshops leading up the final celebration.

Collaborating artists: Emily Schubert, Devin Martin, Emily Hall

Original musical score composed by the band Trucker Talk, played live during the opening night celebration

Collaborating organizations: The Greater Baybrook Alliance (GBA) and members of the Remington Housing Land Trust effort, and the Greater Remington Improvement Association (GRIA).

Materials: projection screen, three over-head projectors, acetate, tyvek. The images are cut out and layered on three different overhead projectors at the same time to get a sense of depth and movement. For each Neighborhood Lights event, three puppeteers performed live while I read narration, and the band Trucker Talk played live on stage next to the screen. There were opening acts from local poets, puppeteers, and musicians, community tabling for resources, family activities, and local food vendors. Please see credits for a list of all the people that contributed to this project.

Workshops: Along with the opening night event with local performers, a marching band, food, art activities, and the projected shadow puppet performance, I facilitated workshops to create laser-cut, paper lanterns with drawn silhouettes of iconic imagery from the area to hang and take home, and “I AM FROM” poems that contributed to the final stories for each neighborhood.

Brooklyn and Curtis Bay: Projected Shadow Puppet Play (documentation of Opening Night performance)

REMINGTON: Projected Shadow Puppet Play (documentation of opening night performance)

Below is a series of photographs that document the various workshops and opening night celebrations in the spring of 2018:

Documentation of the Opening Night Celebration in Remington at Sisson Street Park, with Kevin Sherry performing as an opening act, and Abby Becker, violinist with the band Trucker Talk, performing the live score to the shadow puppet play on stage.

Documentation of the Opening Night Celebration in Brooklyn at Garrett Park, with Meleny Thomas, a lead organizer with the South Baltimore Land Trust, performing one of her poems (top right), Trucker Talk playing their live score, community leader Jan Eveland registering residents to vote, and neighborhood kids making lanterns and playing at the newly remodeled playground.

All documentation by Crystal Dunn Micriotti