I knew it was a beautiful day today just from the cool breezes coming through my bedroom window, but it still took me some time to pry myself out from under books and cats and onto my bicycle. I decided to head over to Druid Hill Park, where I hadn’t ridden in weeks and weeks and weeks, kinda weird since the park’s just right over there. I pedaled west and up the hill and around the circle. A turn around the reservoir shows you so much of Baltimore–the JFX just underfoot, abandoned factories, Hampden’s American flags, rows upon rows of rowhouses, cranes in the air in Mt. Vernon, the Inner Harbor’s all-business skyline, blighted blocks, abandoned mansions, and the park, which is its own little Baltimore. I biked around looking for the Memorial Pool memorial up past the holy place that is Safety City. Continue reading
Jim Crow
John W. Brown Liberty Ship at Fells Point
I spent this chilly Saturday at home and reading my book, which is so, so good, and intense. It makes me angry that I was never taught about Jim Crow in a real way, and Isabel Wilkerson is teaching it in such a real way. This book should be required reading, by everybody. But anyway. It was finally time to peel myself out of bed and get on the bike, so I headed down to the museum to check out some Maryland-specific Jim Crow history–this here kid knows how to spend a Saturday! Continue reading