Baltimore Community FellowshipsGuidelines | Fellows | Fellows Profiles
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Baltimore, Maryland
2006
The Highlandtown neighborhood long has attracted new immigrants from Poland, Ukraine, Germany, Italy and Greece to East Baltimore. Today, that continues with immigrants from Latin America and refugees from Africa and the Middle East. Luisa C. Bieri de Rios is spending her fellowship working with Highlandtown residents of all backgrounds and ages, building community through the power of art.
With experience in theater and fluency in Spanish, Bieri de Rios is leading "Por la Avenida – On the Avenue," featuring performing arts events and workshops that have been attended by hundreds of neighborhood residents. Many of the events take place at the Creative Alliance, a community arts organization housed in the old Patterson Theater on Eastern Avenue. The goal is for newcomers and longtime residents to understand each other better.
In February, Bieri de Rios worked with Southeast Baltimore resident Mari Gardner to organize an Afro-Brazilian Carnival with a documentary film, a samba dance party and Brazilian feijoada dinner by Mama Geni. In March, she held a pysanky workshop in which Halyna Mudryj taught families how to make the colorful Ukrainian Easter eggs. In summer, about 1,500 people attended a huge Salsapolkalooza block party, featuring dancing to live salsa, polka and Caribbean music and performances by neighborhood dance troupes.
Bieri de Rios also has interviewed about 25 neighborhood residents and has written a script based on their immigrant experiences as well as the changes seen by lifelong Highlandtown residents. The result will be a play entitled "Belong-ings," focusing on an immigrant’s search for a sense of belonging and recreating home, as well as the physical things that residents have brought with them or passed down through generations. Highlandtown residents and local actors will perform the play November 17 and 18, 2007.
"People are grateful for the chance to get to know each other and share each other’s stories," Bieri de Rios says. "That’s a process that breaks down stereotypes."
Over time, she hopes her fellowship will help create connections across differences within Highlandtown and Baltimore.
