Voice and Authority: Who Gets to Define Baltimore?

Voice and Authority: Who Gets to Define Baltimore?

This is part I of *The Wire and Beyond: Countering Anti-Black Narratives *

The Wire positioned itself as not just realistic but real. What political project is beneath its depiction of corrupt Black politicians and powerless community projects? Meanwhile, the sorts of organizations and individuals highlighted in Beyond the Wire are making change that seems incomprehensible in the world of The Wire. Join BRJA and special guest panelists as we discuss voice, authority, and meaning-making in The Wire and Beyond the Wire and set the stage for October and November’s discussions. 

SERIES DESCRIPTION:

“Baltimore is a repository for many people, of many of their worst assumptions and fears about Black people…The Wire doesn’t become a hit series by accident. Because people don’t know enough about Baltimore to see it as anything other than a projection of their own imagination.”

– Lawrence Grandpre, (Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle)

The Wire, David Simon's award winning drama on HBO, is often celebrated as the realest series of the prestige television era. The Wire assumed the authority to speak on what Baltimore, a majority-Black city, is all about and created a Baltimore “reality” for a globe’s worth of TV viewers.  In this series, we will use the insights of S. Rasheem’s new documentary Beyond the Wire to examine how The Wire functioned to attack Black political power and delegitimize Black self-determination. We will explore how narratives about corruption, addiction, and crime created their own “reality,” one countered by Black ways of knowing Baltimore and imagining Baltimore’s liberatory future.

Please note: use of library space does not constitute endorsement of this organization, this program or its content by the Enoch Pratt Free Library.

Contact BRJA via bmoreantiracist.org