Outside Cultural Event 3: Bmore Historic Unconference
This outside cultural event started with a bright and early wake-up time. Since Aziza, Kendal, and I, needed to catch the bus from campus to the city, we motivated ourselves to catch the 7 am bus…which we proceeded to miss. Surprisingly, we figured out which buses to take, thanks to our friend, Google Maps. There were a lot of fun and definitely interesting personalities on our bus; we found out why Dr. King is such a fan of public transportation.
While the trip to the actual event seemed like an event in itself, we finally made it to the Baltimore Museum of Industry, which is where the event was held. First impressions: there were a lot of grown-ups. People were actually surprised that three undergraduate freshmen were attending the event. Nonetheless, we proceeded to sit at the table with some nice women who interned at a nearby gallery; We ended up having a very interesting conversation about the origins of the Baltimore Zoo. Did you know the Baltimore Zoo started because people just kept donating their pets to the Druid Hill Park Superintendent? You learn something new every day. One thing I appreciated about the event was the abundance in opportunities to meet new people with very interesting passions.
One of the greatest parts of the event was meeting a woman who worked as an archivist for Afro news, which is the longest-running African-American-owned newspaper in America. It’s funny how the world works. If she hadn’t randomly sat at our lunch table that day, I would have never had the chance to talk to her and find out that she had actually lived in Korea for a few years, which inspired her to research the Korean-American community in Baltimore. And if we hadn’t had this conversation, I would have never gotten resources and inspiration from her for my project proposal, which was chosen as a final project for our humanities class. Seeing how easy and fun it is to make connections to people when you are doing things that you genuinely care about was one of the greatest takeaways and lessons I got from the event.
At the event, there were three different discussions we attended. The first we attended was about labor unions; the second was about civil rights advocacy. While the topics were interesting and important, Kendal, Aziza, and I all left the discussions with the same thought: there was no substance. At least for me, it almost felt as though people were just saying things they had read from a history book and just ranting on about a bunch of important, but niche, dates and events. However, the third discussion, which was led by Sonia Eaddy, Betty Bland-Thomas, and Dr. King, actually felt like a substantial conversation that genuinely brought out a heart-to-heart dialogue. Because we actually listened to the lived experiences of people from the community in the first half of the meeting, the discussion was actually productive. Even other community leaders sitting in the discussion voiced out and related to the issues of preservation that Ms. Eaddy and Bland-Thomas spoke of. Instead of people just talking, people actually listened. Although we have always talked about the importance of listening to the community in our class, this was the first time I really understood the true necessity of listening in the humanities.
Overall, the event was very fun! I learned a lot, made a few core memories with Aziza and Kendal, and met some new awesome people. Definitely looking forward to next year's unconference:)
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