Be Here: Baltimore
Be Here launched in Baltimore in the summer of 2016. With the generous support izi.Travel, the MuseWeb Foundation distributed small grants to a broad range of local storytellers selected by an international committee of proposal reviewers to help pilot the community-sourced cultural story concept. The Be Here: Baltimore project is now based at the Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture.
The storytelling continues, and now the city is connected by more than 1250 authentic stories of Baltimore culture and heritage told by the people who know the city best. These stories include the Promenade: Baltimore interviews of nearly 40 Baltimore residents, recorded by Single Carrot Theatre and contributed to the Be Here: Baltimore project in the summer of 2017. Promenade: Baltimore was a theatrical site-specific performance co-created by Single Carrot Theatre (Baltimore) and STEREO Akt (Hungary). It premiered on June 2, 2017. On Be Here Stories, you will hear segments of these interviews.
Please share your feedback using the #bHereBmore hashtag on Twitter, and let us know if you want to join the Be Here movement in Baltimore or elsewhere! Check out Baltimore’s stories below. For content creators, check out Be Here resources for recording, editing, and posting your content.
Be Here: Baltimore Project Submissions:

Grant winner: Tour by Michael Puma, Loyola University
Includes Belvedere Square, Senator Theater, Saint Mary of the Assumption, Micah House, Govans Farmer’s market, and more. Available on izi.Travel, YouTube.

Grant winner: Tour by Shellée Haynesworth, Indigo Communications, Inc.
Includes: Details of Blake’s humble beginnings, the birth of a ragtime star, Blake’s ragtime riffs, breaking the color line, and more. Available on SoundCloud, izi.Travel and Tumblr.

Grant winner: Tour by Jean Lee Cole, Loyola University, Maryland
Includes: The historic first “book block” on Baltimore Street as well as modern, currently operating independent book stores. Available on izi.Travel, and SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by Sarah Cubbage, Freelance
Includes AT Jones & Sons Costume Shop, Neighborhood Fiber Company, Wax & Wane Fiber, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winner: Tour by Abby Schreiber
Includes: Fells Point, the Inner Harbor, Federal Hill, Hampden, and Clifton Park. Available on izi.Travel, SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by Ryan Lucas
Includes: Penn Station, the Charles Theater, Saint Paul Street, Green Mount Cemetery, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winners: Tour by NoisePlaque and Ryan Peterson
Includes: Wyman Park, a historic Olmstead park; Joseph Beuys Sculpture Park, the monument that honors the parting of Jackson and Lee, and the Union Soldiers and Sailors monument. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winner: Tour by Robert Reyes
Includes: Fells Point, Fells Point London Coffee House, the 1781 Asquith Friends Meeting House, Mount Clare Mansion, the Maryland Historical Society, the Robert Long House, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winner: Tour by Edna Lawrence
Includes: The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, Baltimore Museum of Art, Reginald F. Lewis Museum, Frederick Douglass Museum, The Maryland Women’s Heritage Center, and more. Available on izi.Travel, YouTube and Vimeo.

Grant winners: Tour by Linda Goss, National Association of Black Storytellers; David Fakunle, Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health
Includes: The National Great Blacks in Wax Museum, American Visionary Art Museum, Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival, and diverse local points like the Taste This and Terra Cafe. Available on izi.Travel, SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by Laura Wexler
Includes personal stories about: The Maryland Zoo, Leakin Park Chapel, Edgar Allen Poe’s grave, the Walter’s Art Museum, the Glass Houses, and more. Available on izi.Travel, on Stoop Storytelling.com, SoundCloud, and Stitcher.

Grant winner: Tour by Sara Blumberg
Includes: The history of Roland Park, the Hilltop Path, the Briar Path, the abandoned homes of Roland Park, the Roland Park streetcar, and more. Available on izi.Travel, SoundCloud, Tumblr.

Grant winner: Tour by Mia Smith, Invisible Majority
Includes: The EMP Collective, the Now Child Sound Stage, the Eubie Blake National Jazz and Cultural Center, as well as conversations with Baltimore residents. Available on izi.Travel, Tumblr, YouTube, Facebook.

Grant winners: Tour by Sherri Allen, Robert Half
Includes: Lloyd Street Synagogue, Locust Point, Baltimore’s Holocaust Memorial, Baltimore’s Jewish-style delis, Jewish Community Center (JCC) of Greater Baltimore, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winners: Tour by NoisePlaque and Ryan Peterson, Estelle Kline
Includes a tour of Penn Station’s public art, specifically Jonathan Borofsky’s Male/Female; the Wave Bench by local artist Rachael London; an untitled work by William Leizman, and more. This tour is fully transcribed. Available on izi.Travel.

Grant winner: Tour by Claire Mullins
Includes: Various galleries within the Baltimore Museum of Industry, such as the Oyster Cannery, various grocery stores, a pharmacy, a machine shop and print shop. Available on SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by Heidi Gerber-Salins
Includes murals big and small, such as local artist Gary Mullen’s work at Giant Foods, Lady with a Lollipop by Luis Rosenfeld, the Donald Tyson-Bey, Jr. mural of a waterfall and cityscape, and work by Chilean street art pioneer Nelson Rivas. Many, many more local art treasures. Available on izi.Travel and SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by Samuel Collins, Towson University
Includes Creek Street historic homes, stadium square development, interviews with long-time residents, Solo Gibbs Park, and even Ravens’ Stadium. Available on izi.Travel, Tumblr, and SoundCloud.

Grant winner: Tour by E.R. Shipp, Morgan State University
Includes: Arch Social Club, Penn North Library, Upton Boxing Center, Avenue Market, Strength to Love Farm, Jubilee Arts, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by MuseWeb Foundation
Includes: Pratt Street Ale House, Waverly Brewing Company, Heavy Seas Beer, Peabody Heights, LLC; Gunther Headquarters, American Brewery, and more. Avaialble on izi.Travel.

Tour by MuseWeb Foundation
Includes: Overview of the historic, local landmark located in Baltimore. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Anne Hollmuller, Johns Hopkins University
Includes: A brief history of the university and a number of fascinating museum objects such as medical field kits, lava rocks, snuff bottles, a mounted skeleton of a sloth, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Museums and Society at Johns Hopkins University
Includes: “The Beach,” Homewood House, the Greenhouse, the Fields, Wyman Park, Gillman Hall, the Farmhouse and Orchard, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Baltimore Sound Society
Includes: Stops at the Arcade, Berger’s Cookies, the Catacombs, Faidley’s Seafood, Connie’s Chicken and Waffles, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with a variety of familes–families with same-sex parents, interracial parents, single parents, and adoptive parents, as well as empty-nesters, divorcees, and newlyweds. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with a DJ, local store owners, a food truck manager, and the life stories of area residents from immigrants to a man who survived police brutality. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Your Public Radio in Baltimore
Includes: Conversations with local residents and business owners. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Say It Loud: Black Baltimore Tour
Includes: Reginald Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History and Culture, Arena Players Theater, Eubie Blake historic site, Frederick Douglas-Isaac Myers Maritime Museum & Park, St. Frances Academy, and the Orchard Street Church. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by Demo Baltimore
Includes: Inner Harbor, Fort McHenry, the Battle Monument, the Star-Spangled Banner Flag House, the Maryland Historical Society. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by ListenUp Audio
Includes: the Davidge Hall, College of Medicine of Maryland and National Museum of Dentistry; Bromo Seltzer Tower, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Cemetery, A.T. Jones and Sons Costume Company, Enoch Pratt House and Maryland Historical Society, Peabody Library and Peabody Conservatory, Walters Art Museum, Women’s Industrial Exchange, and more. Available on izi.Travel.

Tour by MuseWeb Foundation
Includes: Go to checkpoints to explore this quest in Baltimore. Available on izi.Travel.