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Newsroom Press release

Consious-Raising "Moving Walls 7" Photography Exhibit Comes to Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute ande Cultural Center

BALTIMORE—Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center will host Moving Walls 7, a traveling photography exhibit sponsored by the Open Society Institute-Baltimore, from December 2, 2004 to January 15, 2005.

The exhibition, curated by the Open Society Institute, features the work of two photographers: Jon Lowenstein, who records the lives of Latino undocumented workers and their families, and Brenda Ann Kenneally, who tracks the lives of several African-American women from Brooklyn, New York who struggle with poverty and drug dependency.

Jon Lowenstein based in Chicago , Illinois , presents a series of photographs entitled From Guerrero to Gringolandia and Back. This body of work examines the multiple tensions between Latino day laborers’ personal lives and the complex place they occupy within the temporary employment sector of the new global economy. Lowenstein goes beyond the surface of dispassionate academic and journalistic treatments of the exploitative labor practices of globalization by highlighting the individual and family experiences of actual people living and working as day laborers in the United States .

Since moving to Brooklyn in 1996, Brenda Ann Kenneally has photographed her neighbors and their families. Money, Power, Respect: Real Life Stories from the Hip-Hop Generation records the lives of three African-American women as they struggle with their physical, emotional, and financial dependency upon a black market economy created by the use and sale of illegal drugs. Her body of work illustrates the growing presence of the United States criminal justice and social welfare systems in the lives of poor, urban families.

In addition to photography by Lowenstein and Kenneally, the exhibition includes Voices, a wall-text project in partnership with several community organizations, revealing the local implications of national issues concerning race, poverty, and discrimination. Organizations contributing to Voices are:

  • Alternative Directions, an organization providing legal assistance to persons in prison or recently released from incarceration.
  • CASA de Maryland, an organization dedicated to improving the social and economic well-being of the Latino and immigrant community in Maryland.
  • Hispanic Apostolate, an organization providing pastoral care and short-term social services to Hispanic persons in the Baltimore metropolitan area.
  • My Sister’s Place, a day program for homeless women and children in Baltimore.
  • Youthlight, an after-school photography and media literacy project which empowers city youth to document their lives and communities.

As part of Moving Walls 7, Open Society Institute-Baltimore and Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center are sponsoring a free educational forum on Thursday, January 6. Panelists Ricardo Flores of the Public Justice Center, Gustavo Torres of CASA de Maryland, and Deborah Small of Breaking the Chains will respond to the exhibit’s images and discuss local battles against racism, workplace discrimination, addiction and poverty.

The forum is part of Forging Open Society: Generating Ideas, Partnerships and Solutions, a series of forums convened by Open Society Institute-Baltimore to encourage community leaders with diverse perspectives to craft solutions to challenges facing the Baltimore region.

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The Open Society Institute is a private operating and grant-making foundation that promotes the development of open society around the world. OSI’s U.S. programs seek to strengthen democracy in the United States by addressing barriers to opportunity and justice, broadening public discussion about such barriers, and assisting marginalized groups to participate equally in civil society and to make their voices heard.

The Eubie Blake National Jazz Institute and Cultural Center is a multifaceted arts institution honoring musical genius James Hubert “Eubie” Blake. The Center follows the teachings of Eubie Blake by introducing the music of jazz to young people at an early age. The Center has as a mission to enhance the cultural life of the community through music, drama, dance and exhibitions.

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