Savannah Wood—2025 Lecture Series

Join us on Wednesday, October 22nd, 2025, at 7:00 PM for the third installment of our 2025 Preservation Lecture Series, led by Savannah Wood, the Executive Director of Afro Charities.

Savannah will speak about the ongoing preservation and rehabilitation of Upton Mansion, future home of the Martha E. Murphy Research Institute. This effort will house and expand access to the 133-year-old AFRO American Newspapers archive, one of the most significant collections of Black history in the nation.

As a nonprofit partner to the AFRO, Afro Charities stewards this archive and works to make it accessible through public programming and reference services. Under Savannah’s leadership, the organization has attracted national support from funders including the Mellon Foundation and the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.

Savannah’s lecture will explore how preservation projects like Upton Mansion can be leveraged not only to safeguard cultural heritage but also to spur reinvestment and engagement in historically neglected neighborhoods like Lafayette Square.

We hope you’ll join us for this compelling discussion about archival memory, neighborhood revitalization, and the role of preservation in shaping Baltimore’s future.

This event is free and open to the public. We hope you’ll join us for what promises to be a powerful and timely conversation.

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Host or Publisher The Society for the Preservation of Federal Hill and Fell's Point