Baltimore Community Fellowships
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Baltimore, Maryland
2008
Ashley Minner remembers the pleasure of attending fish fry dinners as a child at the Baltimore American Indian Center in Southeast Baltimore.
Around big crowds of family, friends, and many fellow members of the Lumbee tribe—which settled here from North Carolina after World War II to find work—Minner fed her mind and soul.
The center is a cultural outlet for Native people and at one time offered an array of social services as well as a sense of fellowship with other Native Americans, whose numbers are estimated to be in the thousands—many still living in a tight-knit area in Southeast Baltimore.
But the center lost money and visitors, for a number of reasons. As a result, many in the generation behind Minner have not experienced the full spectrum of cultural enrichment that it once offered.
With her fellowship, Minner, 25, hopes to change that.
"The kids just long to be with each other," said Minner, who has a master's degree from Maryland Institute College of Art.
Minner will develop an after-school art program at the center, focusing on Baltimore's Native American youth population.
"It's going to make the Indian Center once again a safe haven for kids, to empower them to make change in their lives and in their community," Minner said.
In the after-school art program, the youth will take an issue that concerns them, pertaining to their culture or community, and decide how to address it creatively.
For example, Minner said, one major concern is that the Native American community in Baltimore often goes unnoticed, or is frequently stereotyped.
"People will say, ‘You're not really Indian because you don't look Indian,'" Minner said. "Well, what does an Indian look like?"
To combat such a stereotype, young people in the arts program might take up a photo project, Minner said, snapping artful pictures of themselves or their friends and family members—some who may have blond hair and blue eyes, for example—and then display the photos with clever captions.
Minner anticipates working with at least 30 young people of all ages. But her goal is to have the arts program's reach extend much further than just those in the classes.
"We're going to reinvigorate the Indian Center and make it again a place where the kids want to come together and that feels like it belongs to them," she said. "And we're going to make sure we're on the map. We expect to be recognized by everyone in the city. Native Americans are still present, and the center is alive and well."
