Talk . And how many have never been to read emmas . Cool if you like we are seeing, please check us out in the back at that table also we have a location on north avenue. And we are a radical bookstore we also have a vegan and vegetarian restaurant. We also have a copy house and dedicated ourselves for a few years creating a community space. One that is supportive of new ideas in term of business structures, relationships, cultural ideas and resisting the status quo. Some of our greatest events have happened over the past two years with one of the people that will be speaking today. D. Watkins, someone who after one of the book festivals he was at the time just beginning his journey into writing and he sent me an essay about pop culture and it was the first time they sent it to me and i kind of glanced at it and did not really look at it. And then he said did you check that out . And he was very serious about this or is it a better check it out. And i looked at it and i was completely ford. I was blown away. And i was impressed immediately by his work. The description of black life in baltimore, and also about his humor and just, he really just made such an impression on me and i said we had to do something together. And so we put together a digital book that contains several its all about. We did another one called true baltimore and again, what exist between black and right baltimore but also the poor baltimore. And this has evolved to become a platform for a lot of the emerging creativity in the city and it has been really exciting to be seen as a place where you can present yourself through us and we have been so excited once the announcement came out that devin allen had a book coming out with one of our friends who i also want you to check this out. Thereabout they are in they have given such a wonderful physical manifestation of the works that devin allen has done. Maybe you saw him on instagram, the cover of time magazine, but really to hold this in your hand it has been especially excited to see people come into the store, go through the book and c street that they know, people that they know, events that they know. And to know that the pictures are being captured by a black man from baltimore. Someone who shares many of those experiences, that shares the connection in a way that is not just this kind of occupying gaze. Maybe it shows some sort of sympathy but not, does not really necessarily come from a place where you can feel that true solidarity and connection. So this has meant so much for baltimore. Im really excited to have both of them here to speak today. Please welcome devin allen and d. Watkins. [applause] wait it was me. I was on a little late but very good reason. My uber driver had a bad day. I had to use live. He was having girl trouble and i said do you know what . Do you know what . Tough times do not last but tough people do. And he thought it was good advice and i thought it was good advice. So can we get a round of applause . [applause] so i want to have a conversation about his amazing book and you know i would hope that everyone, by this book. You should get this it is beautiful. He went to war with his Publishing Company to make sure it was an affordable price so people can get a chance to share in his work. Just a little bit about devin allen. Everyone knows that he is an amazing photographer. I think he has proven that, right . We know this, right . [applause] yall have to be louder than that come on [applause] but i will take a secret. He is one of the funniest people i know. Whats funny about him is that he says he he says funny things he is not even trying to. He is i am sure you engage everyone at the end of this. I want to take some time to talk about a beautiful ghetto. Lets start with the title give people the ghetto and they have these negative feelings about the word. They think about negative things. And most of these people are people that never got a chance to really spend time in these places. The people who spend time in these places like devin allen and myself, we know that there is nothing but beauty but outside the only see with the media portrays or you dont will get a feeling and a sense of the people in the energy we just drive by. And you are in your lyft. Youre just driving by in your lyft and you feel that beauty. So when you talk about the title and some of the Energy Behind it. I never thought this was going to be about. Allotment images date back from 2014 to 2016. I got my first when i start off i was doing poetry. My boy in the back, we had a poetry night and he said is going to be amazing. And it turned out to be amazing. That is how i got to do this. But even just growing up, we go through those hard times but there is a certain type of resilience, a certain type of beauty that a lot of people do not know. If you are not there every day. If you are not sitting on the street and then you turn on the news youll see those negative moments. You see a little bit but you do not see nearly enough. So when i put this book together wanted to tell the story not what was already raised but what do you see every day was baltimore and in my eyes and perspective of a community that i did hate growing up because i lost so much. But i have learned to love the right art form. So lets talk about your journey into photography. People dont really know. They see the images and i have been on tour for the past three years. So ive been like d. Watkins not talking about the california and im not talking about texas. Im talking about ive been to arkansas in three times. [laughter] i know its real life. Ive been to ohio, places where a lot of people, you dont go is a wonder what theyre doing in overland . You dont say that. Ive been places where they dont have lyft or uber so when i say i go to places one thing they do know, they used to say youre from baltimore, what is up with the wire . But over the past two years people say, youre from baltimore, whats up with . A dude really came to me in ohio and said, the reason he picked up a camera was because of devin allen. Some of the image of the horrible [laughter] but the fact that he picked up a camera, the message and what he does with his work was transformative, so people know him all of the country. Art has done that and a lot of them think that instead of hearing the story, the front of the he is a selfmade photographer, they think that you know he studied with all these different universities and they moved to london and then from london he came back and he went to brown for another six years and he went on to but no he started. I will let him tell you. [laughter] he is the only person in my favorites and my phone from was baltimore this is a big moment. I dont even have his number in my phone. So [laughter] photography, people come in photographer and i still do not accept that it is fairly new to me. I said i was meant to put my boy on the spot because i had to show love but you know me and him went to the same high school. And we are total opposites. He was like a real a basketball player, straight as. He was running around school with this bookbag. And it had some builtin thing and he said im going to the army and i said why are you going to the army . He went to the army. I barely went to class, let alone school. I got put on the two different schools. I got a diploma from one school in the my senior portraits came from another school. [laughter] so i will real short so when i was really young i had a napoleon complex and i had to fight everyone. I had to prove something. But then as we got older i tried everything. I tried to be a drug dealer. I was good at it but it wasnt for me so i stopped. I was a party promoter, i tried it all i wanted to be like but then josh approached me and said lets do a poetry night. And i said i am not going to do know poetry spot but it was at this place in the first and we did it literally, this girl i dated was there with two of her friends. And he said you have to give it some time. And i did and it turned out to be really successful. We did this every other tuesday. So we would make sure that the girls were good and have everything they need. So one day he said lets put this morning 5050. You have to write a palm or something. Sarver my first farm. As it was 2011. He could just get up and make something up. I had to my mind on. It just wasnt for me. And i was like what if we say i make pictures and put them on instagram . And he said lets do it. So i would take pictures and put them on tshirts. So i would sell them and then we would do a poetry and mix tape. We did that and it was dope but i expected interaction between the photography and i said okay im going to be a photographer. But i dont anything about it he said you can be a photographer but he wants his camera back. So i had to go get my own camera. So i got my camera but the funny thing, i never knew how expensive photography was the author to go and get me a camera and start shooting. So i went to best buy and is the one that and i want that and wrap it up and lets go. So we went to the counter i got to the front and they said that is 2000. And i said what . Where am i going to do . So me, being you know, the oldest grandson, the first grandchild. I called my grandmother. And i said grandma what are you doing . And she said you dont never call me i know you want something and i said i need to best buy credit card. And she said dont charge too much i just bought a refrigerator. And i said i got you if she was here she would make her presence known. She would have come down the aisle in all songs of stuff. But i first got my camera in 2013. I bought a nikon but it was real small. And i started looking photographers goodness and why they have all of this . So i went and got a bigger one. So you know you are a man you have to have a big camera. So i got my big camera and i started shooting. But i was going through a change where when i was doing a night, like i said i was in the street. My best friends that i grew up with, you know we used to push but when i start hanging out with him he introduced me to Different Things. We were doing poetry. You know, a whole different type of woman. So i just love that. I was smitten by that. So we moved into another party and we were doing Different Things. Were still wearing boot cut jeans i think that he was wearing skinny jeans and liking and everything and then he went back to big tshirts again. But he was always different so i was just like, this is dope a different type of love and energy that i felt. And i really did not understand the change i was going through. But if put a wedge between us. I went from sitting on the stoop smoking and drinking all day, children. Not really aspiring to do anything. Into wanting to just create and then my daughter laid a major part in that because i wanted to be an amazing father. I didnt want to be regular father i go he just takes care of me, thats my dad. No my daughter, i wanted to say that your daughter just told another child her father wasnt anything and you are better and i said okay. I will talk to her. And when she gets in the car im going to say you are real, i love you. Keep it up [laughter] but she pays my articles and stuff to school. So when i pick her up she is like and i say yeah. And from then, stop hanging with them. And then i got my camera and i got and is crazy because at one point in time nine times out of 10 i would been there and i wouldve taken pictures and i remember going to his mothers house down and hugging her and hugging his little brother. And mother best friend chris, i told him i love him. So i had another photo shoot and like a said, i was on another thing so i succumbs my photo shoot, we can chill and talk about this. And i noticed he had a gun on him. Nicely put the gun up and meet me. And he said okay cool. But he never made up your hand up getting shot in the head by the same guy on the corner. And the only reason why i was in with him is because i wanted to go take pictures. So that really woke me up. It was a god, the universe and the powers that be saying this is your thing. Take it and run with it. And that is what i did. Ive been doing it ever since. [applause] if i can put that in some type of historical context, slavery went on for over 100 years. The account all of the Different Things, that contract is you can say it is still going on now. But if you want to say it was for over hundred 50 years people have to understand where the first generation of people where we are from doing the stuff that we do. He did not have anyone come to him and say come all the time like this. This is aptitude, this is how you do this. And whatever the photography stuff means. He didnt have that. When i first, the first time a rate about the change my life i was already past 20 like i was in reading of books in high school and my first got to college. Because there was nothing for me. So its like, the stuff that we are doing right now is, it is different because people dont normally get the shots. And then what makes us special is that look, i have a lot of job offers a lot of different places and a lot of different universities. I know he got them also and more we could easily go to San Francisco and white people cannot wait to pay us for telling our stories in San Francisco and over cocktails but we do not leave baltimore because it is not about, what we do, yes. We do things for himself but it is about other people. Is about how can i utilize what i do . How can he utilize what he does and take these skills and share them with other people . So some of his students are here, clap it up if you dont stand up [applause] stand up stand up [applause] who do you know with a platform that big it will take his personal platform to share and keep this story going . The way he does it with photography is when i tried to do with writing. And this is why think that devin allen is one of the most important figures. In the so i think we have to take time to celebrate. We have to celebrate people when they are doing things because it doesnt get done you never knew anybody that graduated from anything ever ever like when i graduated from high school it was a big deal what do you want . I just want to put the little one on. Because you know we dont have these, we do not have these experiences. So the fact that we are lucky enough to get the opportunity to share these other things for you people and for yall to bless us, at the same time we are just two people. We need the city, it is so easy to make a difference. No one person is there is a proverb when unite they can tie down a line. That is real together we can do these things. Anytime you have a chance to support anybody doing Something Like this, you have got to get behind it. So, you know the event is definitely about the book. Lets talk about how you shut the images for the book and how you selected images, the poetry. I want all of it. And when he told me they hated me to write something for it, i was right now i havent 14 jobs right now. So i have also a big project due because i dont care but at the end of the day, this is what we are here for this is why we stay here. We are here to connect with other artists and do what we do to elevate other artists to the next level. I wrote a forward that i thought devin allen would like and be proud of. And i was laughing because one of my friends in new york, he has been talking about my writing for two years. But i am like you know what you never read my stuff before. But anyway i think the book is amazing. I am honored i got a chance to contribute but it would be great to hear about some of the process that you went through and how you organize this. Request you know just this in general, my career was so fast. It cannot be so fast. At the time i didnt think nothing of it. I thought no one could tell the story of freddie gray. But right around the corner, you will see in the book about the protesters. I see images, i was literally shooting and i was uploading it in real time. I literally uploaded it right then and there. I didnt think nothing of it. But i took the image and my mom succumbed that your daughter. And i called back and she said you are on the way right . She said i see you on cnn bring your butt home now but you know i just wanted to tell the whole story because of the book, the next thing that came from it. Trying to control i knew i got the freddie gray video. There was a group text because we had mutual friends. That is how small baltimore is. We are not going to go there today but you know just alone in baltimore in general everyone maneuvers. Youre always interacting with different people. And you have people that will maneuver and move in this small system but theyre part of a bigger ecosystem. And i remember you know we were resigning and knew we were taking to the streets because of the history already here. A lot of people, if you look at how when heroin head, how they left us for dead and we still did not stop. So i knew that the energy transferred for my grandparents and my mother growing up here was going to be released to us. Talking about crack, lead paint poisoning, aids, funding cuts. All of that energy was in that protest. And i knew we were going to do that but i wanted to make sure i could be there. When i shot the mike brown protest in baltimore i remember i would never get a reply back when i submit this. And i said i cant even get a note to let me know or something. So this time i said im just going to use wn media and that is what i did. So it just so happened that the images which have gone viral, the next thing i know i am starting to get messages from celebrities. Before it was a time cover, i remember they called me and it was an odd number so it was either a bill collector a girl that was mad at me i wasnt going to answer. But eventually i answered and i thought it was one of my homeboys play because he had a weird accent. He said this is from time. And i was like what . Some guy named olivier from time calling. And back then remind you i was going on my third year photography so i didnt know anything about copyrights. Intellectual property, nothing so i just let everything go. And i said you know im so glad he didnt like asked me over. But they did right. So i sent everything over, they called me back and i was literally, when they called me i was outside shooting. If you look at the book the only day i did not capture images without monday when everything happened with freddie gray. I feel is very disrespectful to document anybody that is just me growing up. I dont want anyone taking pictures of me when im trying to leave. So i just took the day off. And i didnt go until my homeboys said stuff was burning. I had homeboys on the avenue, so that i came out as a concerned citizen at that point. And i remember they called me while i was shooting at listen you got a full spread. And i said all right cool and they said we might want to make this the cover of time. And they said dont get your hopes up because you already got one. So i sent the image over. At the time i was working at night. And i was working with people with disabilities overnight. So you was going to work so you didnt have to worry about the curfew. No, this was before the curfew i got literally echoes of the image is over i did not know. They like tweeted. I started scrolling as a wir