Many of the two-hundred-plus people gathered at MICA for the CreateBaltimore event on January 15 were hacker/ techies, so tons of information about the event was posted, twitted, or otherwise disseminated even while the event was happening. That makes this column a retrospective. (You can find out all about it at CreateBaltimore.org, and also check out baltimoreculture.org and betascape.org.)  Suffice to say the event was organized (brilliantly) by Scott Burkholder, Andrew Hazlett, J. Buck Jabaily, and Dave Troy, and was meant to bring together diverse segments of the Baltimore creative community, including folks from tech, business, art, culture, and academic areas.  Part of the brilliance was that the event was “participant-led,” bar camp style, meaning not only that we were there to brainstorm, but to figure out what to brainstorm about.

I arrived a little early and picked up a nicely designed CreateBaltimore T-shirt. I milled around, eating doughnuts and drinking Zeke’s coffee. I was really too busy talking to people to take very many pictures. The ice seemed to come pre-broken, and there was a definite absence of awkward throughout the event. Everyone was invited to write down focus topics on a sheet of paper.  My suggestion was about filmmakers hooking up with techies to create a Baltimore brand distribution channel, or something like that.

We gathered in the auditorium for a brief keynote by the very funny and smart Ellen Lupton, a design thinker who just makes you want to get out some graph paper and go to work. Then we went through the topic ideas and sorted out, by a showing of hands, the program schedule for the rest of the day. The general categories settled upon included Made in Baltimore, the Betascape tech fest (SXSW for Baltimore?), Food, Film, Literature “after the book,” Diversity & Social Justice, and Social Media.  The “Baltimore Question” came into play in sessions related to community spaces, parks, urban mapping, and the summation of our political and economic climate bannered “Stay in Baltimore.”  More on that below…

Naturally, I attended the Film Session. It was great meeting new people and hearing what they had to say. The ideas put forth included the Baltimore branded “umbrella” film website (but can it make revenue for filmmakers?), the creation of Baltimore arts kiosks (sort of interactive what’s happening and content-providing stations made available around the city), a “video car” mobile film projection unit that could project stuff on pre-painted white screens sprinkled around the city (awesome), and ways to turn channel 75 into something cool/ relevant.  After the film session we had lunch, catered by Joe Squared, also brilliant.

The most interesting thing I came away with at the end of the day has to do with Baltimore identity and potential.  I’ve been living in L.A. for twenty years, so I’m still getting a handle on the Baltimore of now. I heard a lot of talk about how The Wire and Homicide have negatively defined Baltimore, particularly to outsiders. Others countered that we must own that as a street-cred badge of honor. (Personally I don’t think TV shows hurt cities—just the opposite. In any case, the demographics portrayed in those highly regarded shows were not represented at the event. Maybe we need a new series about sexy cohabitating urbanites called Roland Park 21210.) The theme continued in the form of comparisons with what Austin has done with the SXSW fest, and could Baltimore be the next Austin. The Betascape session promoted that vibe (this year’s Betascape fest will occur contiguously with the Maryland Film Fest). It came up again, and in more soul-searching ways, in the Stay in Baltimore session. Who or what is the next John Waters/ Barry Levinson/ David Simon? Does that question even make sense?  What can be done to keep the brain/ creative trust in Baltimore? Do the city and state politicians have a clue or give a fuck? (If you can screw up the Preakness, you can screw up just about anything.)

Some said Baltimore was great for entrepreneurs, others said, “yeah, unless you have kids.”  Some frankly said “no way” to Baltimore public schools (including a Baltimore public school teacher and parent). Dissension came in the form of, “you have to use the public schools if you want to change them.” Still others claimed that more had to be done to bring exurbia dwellers back into the urban community (I’m thinking, I have it both ways, what’s wrong with that?)  People do believe that Baltimore could be in a real incubating get-in-on-the-ground-floor stage of development, and yes, renaissance. Is Baltimore the place to be? I don’t know, but CreateBaltimore gives hope that Baltimore doesn’t need Austin. Let’s stick around and see.

David Warfield

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