In this issue, Jaisal Noor writes about the work organizers are doing in Baltimore as United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents (also known as ICE) continue their assault on residents here and elsewhere in the country.
“In neighborhoods like Ednor Gardens, activists have been going door-to-door since last year to share Know Your Rights materials and build an ICE watch group focused on training, mutual support, and community connection,” he writes.
“This ain’t new to me,” one activist says. “It’s new to you. Now it’s coming down to where you’ve been living. The only power they really have is fear — and if you take that away, you start taking your power back.”
Noor’s piece also includes news you should keep handy, including ways to document ICE activity and what you can and can’t do if an agent shows up at your door.
Also in this issue, Baynard Woods reports that Maryland Attorney General Anthony Brown has cleared cops of wrongdoing in 95% of police-involved death cases his office is responsible for investigating.
“The AG’s office has the time to get it right, and they’re not getting it right by echoing what’s [been] going on in the State’s Attorney’s Office, and that’s very disheartening,” Tawanda Jones, an activist whose brother Tyrone West was killed by police in 2013, told Woods. “It’s sad and disgusting to me.”
Bry Reed ponders what happens when power coincides with art and activism in her review of Mark Anthony Thomas’ s short film “In Need of Seawater.” Thomas is the president and CEO of the Greater Baltimore Committee.
“How do the poet and the executive reconcile their shared flesh, and what political principles ground them?” she asks.
Eze Jackson tells the heartfelt story of Ivan “TVs Biddy” Baker. Baker is just the latest in a long family line of people who have created community at the intersection of art and business.
“As a native of West Baltimore’s Park Heights community who moved over East and attended Lake Clifton High School, Biddy’s network is vast and he has earned a trusted reputation as a businessman, a promoter, and a personality,” Jackson writes. “He grew up at a time where if you were from the West Side, you couldn’t just go to a party on the East Side without getting pressed. But his welcoming energy and family ties would, for the most part, allow him to move freely around the city.”
There’s so much more to experience in this issue, including a profile on a rising basketball star, a roundup of music performances, a review of “On Becoming a Guinea Fowl,” the latest film from Zambian writer/director Rungano Nyoni, and more.
Thanks for reading and supporting – and please stay safe and warm!