center here at the downtown location. this evening we have a great program for you. we have a panel of exciting artists, photographer writers to essays and poets for this evening's program. it is my pleasure. introduce devin allen, d watkins khan, danny seidel and wallace lane. a stellar. first, i would like to introduce this evening's writer author devin allen devin allen, a critically acclaimed self-taught photographer who was born and raised baltimore. his photograph of the baltimore uprising was published on the cover of time magazine in may 2015, only the third time the work of an amateur photographer has been featured. five years later, after the death, george floyd, tony mcdade, eight, and breonna taylor. his photograph from a black trans lives matter protests was published on the cover of time in june 20, 20. allen, the winner of the gordon parks foundation fellowship, he was nominated for acp image award for his book a beautiful ghetto. his photographs have been published in the new york magazine, the new york times, the washington post and aperture and his works are also in the permanent collections of the national of african american history and culture the reginald lewis museum here in baltimore and the studio museum in harlem. he is the founder of through their eyes, a youth photography and education program and he is a recipient numerous awards for dynamic leadership and the arts and activism d watkins is this evening's moderator and he is the new york times best selling, an award winning author of the best side the cook up where tomorrows aren't promised. we speak for ourselves in his latest work, black boy smile, a memoir in moments, he is editor at large for salon and he is featured in the hbo documentary the slow hustle is a writer on we own the city, an hbo mini. his works have published in the new york times, new times magazine, the guardian, rolling stone's and other publication. he is also a college lecturer at the university of baltimore and holds a master's degree in education from johns hopkins university and an mfa in creative from the university of baltimore. and watkins, too, has also received numerous awards. duany. fidel is a poet essayist at the taught in the united kingdom and lectured and taught classes at the university of east london. he has also lectured and shared poetry at countless universities, conferences and literary events across the united states. he received his b.a. in english from virginia state university and his mfa in creative and publishing arts from the university of. fidel has was honored with the baltimore 2018 civil rights literary award. he has been featured in washington post's mike and cnn and the baltimore sun honored fidel in the 2018 issue of baseball. baltimore. as a changemaker who is working, improve the baltimore area. with his courage, innovative thinking and, leadership and lastly wallace lane is a poet and writer from baltimore, maryland. he attended coppin state university, where he obtained his b.s. degree in criminal justice and received his m.a. in creative writing and publishing from the university of. wallace is, a persistent advocate for mentoring baltimore's youth that literacy development for middle school students in baltimore city. jordan year his collection of poetry addresses it means to live and survive in baltimore city. i am so excited about this conversation this evening. so join me in welcoming our hometown artists, activists devin allen d watkins, kondwani fidel and to the library who will discuss allen's recent photograph of black lives matter protests in his latest work, no justice, no peace from the civil rights movement to blacklivesmatter and to explore the connection between today's activism and that of the past. my growing. work as a mom, i don't know if i'm allowed enough. what do i need of my. i don't. i'm good. thanks, everybody, for coming on this cold wednesday. i feel like i went to new york and came back in the win hit different. but first up you know when i work on this book you know this is a collaboration and i love collaborating with my peers. that's my nephew he was our blake. but first, i want to bring up what his late was. like a brother. i met him do condon and d watkins he's an amazing artist, you know he has a amazing essay that you know that i needed for the book. it was vital you know and but i wanted you to hear something that was from him in his work i feel like a lot of people have heard me they okay blondie but i want to say i'm signing him to death row and i'm working him into the group. he's he's next up and. i just think he's amazing. and i can't wait to see what he's going to do. i feel like he's the future i can't wait to see where he's going to accomplish. so wallace lane everybody everybody. can we give another round of applause for devin allen d watkins and cardone. as she makes it in my bio, i'm a poet writer of this story from baltimore, maryland. i'm also educator, one of the few that didn't quit this year, baltimore city public school. so the the when i met i met connie. when i met, i met devin and every since he's just my love. so i'm proud to be in his project. i got a poem that's called a problem with pandemic in america. i'm a spit at peace. before we get into that, i'm a spit peace. this is like one of the first poems i wrote when i decided i wanted to be a poet. sometimes i think when all it ain't right on cold summer nights when i need a blanket at night. maybe had me thinking about the hate and how to hate. you know, kids the evil things that i didn't seen with mistakes that i did. i'm going mission as a christian, but we live sin, we live in visions. visit prisons and begin with the end and they wonder why these dudes get rock with the heat on every black judge is steady crooked cops on the streets. but if you snakes you get next why some homies get q nicole will work as a kid but that's killing my will and i will live strong. but my feelings is still and. i got love for children in school building is that exhale i'll call life is love. life is war love wins war never sometimes fall. and when i fall, i yet when i fail, i succeed progression because i prevail then what can you call success? and what can you call life? besides the vices that i commit in these days is a better way. when this battle scene in particular in my heart, where spiritual willpower will realize, i dream of places run and i dream of places to hide, that means i cannot run. that means cannot hide. that means i must run to the rising sun that's in front of me. they say they fight for peace. no, say they fight for pride. how can you fight for good? cause when you -- you step inside corruption on every level now steady we still in central like the pilgrims and they children trying to survive and they get so i was to rob from the ghetto not the pride in the ghetto but i got press and they get so i can reside in the ghetto from the ghetto with a textbook low prostitutes and looking for the next hoes -- start been up and down the street like it's a step. so but it ain't a step show just neglect the aids infect those who are in need of correction connection connect. they like connect for who the hell is knocking my door? 6 a.m. in the morning crack at dawn and it's the police. oh, i'm yawning they like tell these dudes next door to down time they go go i'm like oh no how this be them deuces next door why do police messing with me could it be the fact that i'm my brother's keeper health care recession is political grim reaper percocets new drama in a hood street sweeper. mama always warned me about them got -- creepers creep but i be a kappa basketball player. rappers never scared the white because at the end of the day is mind over matter is love above all. sometimes i need to be to be right no, i'm cold summer nights when i need a at night. they had thinking about the hate and how they hate you know kids evil things out the same with the mistakes that i did i'm on a mission as christian but we live in is sin. we live in prisons visit prisons, begin with the end and they wonder these dudes gave rockwood the heat. whenever we block drugs a steady crooked cops on the streets and poor. so this poem is poem that i wrote it. i was angry. and it's a poem that i to be in devin's book no justice, no peace. and it was in response to the public of george floyd, amari, brian. it's fair to say they names emit a global so you got think we're in a global pandemic two years ago and a black body is still the most targeted body for slain in death even amidst us trying to survive survive no matter if you are white, black, whatever race you were. so this poem i wrote for two reasons. i wrote it because i was angry, and then i wrote it for the fact that i bitter in the sense bitter in the sense that we are the rush in the haste to find a a cure or a vaccine for a pandemic, but not for racism. so this poem is called the problem with pandemics in america. i'm a step away from the mic from this one. the problem with pandemics in america are the differences. the tail, two stories, the total not based on. this is the credit constitution and all the crummy little things. the wicked white man wrote in all these witnesses the same government that makes us is no coincidence parties and destroy this poisoning carcinogens that same day dictate our health down to our penmanship for the several races pull from those with privileges and after they avoided they split our differences. they wonder why we tied around this country's wickedness. ahmaud arbery, george floyd died in defenseless lives. breonna taylor killed in the home, not the mixing a miss mr. pandemic that kills this as suspenseful as the crooked cops and crooked is how we predicted it. america out in pity want to a country to call us exposing so soon in this from killer cops to trump supporters, white privilege is so viable execution is the show you will modern lynching is from politics the policy that debuted margaret that put a price tag on you he told me to steal you in from tempers flare takes a bullet from the maliciousness the reason why we must in the streets and risk getting sick from our races. the allies multi participates from major cities burning paying into the trenches this. problem with pandemics is rooted racial differences gender generational gaps will bless us. mutilation coalition is first they took our freedom this into the living. they made a profit off cotton slavery as the business built the nation cut the shackles when no facilities raped is a reparations in favor say -- the dividends. rape is a rap of racism favor say -- the dividends rape is a rap of racist in favor say -- the dividends. segregation in pay was significant mass incarceration you obligation. we live in new mass incarceration obligation. we live in the this government created this pain. it is no coincidence they suffer a the game is disparities carcinogens then offered vaccination is a welfare crime stimulus the violence. the church is where we live versus the victim. until america holds any holding on these differences. the problem with pandemics in america difference is the problem with pandemics in america. all our distances make you. again. i want to thank devin allen for having a part in this project. i truly, truly, truly, truly appreciate having a home for my poetry being a poet. sometimes it's hard to get a home for your poetry, but when you truly understand the mission, know your city that a lot. so i definitely want to give it up for. devin allen publicly and thank. again my name is wallace lane got a book coming out soon. i got my book. jordan yeah, you follow me? social media just type in wallace lane i got several short poetry that i'm producing right now and i have right now also. so please check that out on youtube and i'll be here. so thank you all again. appreciate it. i ya boy differ he knife i look here i might met him through -- but i'm claiming that i put him on so when he blow up and get a big check i just want my reparations at this i differences but that's my guy no this next guy if you would have told me i would have had like one of my best friends would have been from east baltimore. i would have laughed it in your face. i i'm and is it's crazy how the universe work when met this guy i was coming into my own freddie gray just we just had met his demise and i was like, russell, you have louis wanted me to do my first exhibition. and as i was pulling it together, you know, since i've but i start off as a poem, a poem which you will never hear anything i ever wrote, ever, ever. but he had wrote this this piece called the baltimore train. and i've never heard a poem come out of my city that i related so much. and i never heard a spit like that. he had a wife beater bandana in front of him. i was i to pack a love i knew he was he's more tomorrow time and i didn't know who he was. i say i want this guy to perform. i sent my home, girl shot and who's amazing artist find him for me and they find him he perform and at my very first show we packed it out to where she found him it she found on i think his avenue sugar ray's in the box but a dumpster he performed he killed it and in like a couple of months later you know around the same time, me and d you know we can talk about it later. but d said, yo, i got this young artist. oh, i know any video. shoot him like a brother. you give him the same respect you give me and i said, see, last and we've been running triangle offense ever since, so i want to welcome my big little brother kondwani fidel and i just got his name right? yeah, his hair. before i start, i definitely got to give thanks to my brother danny. man, like you say, he. he put on to his first exhibition. and ever since we just been rocking out from that collaboration. and addy magazine to be more art magazine to space on a title, the pier at the pier museum. and we did a line is just genuinely like one of my brothers. so thank you. thank you. thank you. and and in a lot of devin's speeches or events that he that he does you he always gives it up for his grandmother. you know he's probably going to tell you out a story about you know, she got married or whatever but. i was i was fortunate fortunate enough to be raised by three grandmothers. so and i just feel like they just don't get a lot of credit in the mainstream media how they. should. so i wrote this poem and asked one of my friends grandma was i passed away? and she asked me to write something, you know, a funeral. so i just wrote this and it kind of, you know, talks about, you know, who my grandma was as a person, but just talks about like matriarch just in a black community as a whole, you know what i mean? and it's called dear granny granny to the grannies who bend over backwards to stretch heirlooms to the grannies, barge in veins, blood to the heartbeat of the we call family sort the grannies who carry on their backs, generations of black babies loyal to the soil. they do whatever takes to protect our seas. so the grannies who walked away from their group paying nine to fives to get a license in child to raise grandbabies from dusk till dawn while still making ends. so the grannies who were kidnaped the son to solace their loved ones, will call when two nights attempting to control the temperatures of the city. we know again what you hear. what a mission. a mission people deem impossible. but tom cruise, the only one who can defy the odds especially when as a god in heaven, whose grip is tighter than a dame. as you once away from the three alphas granny bought us play clothes, school clothes and was the third one church clothes. the holy trinity to the grannies who ushered us to church, gave us church candy, slapped us while we nodded off in a pew. they always. what? there's something to sleep, god, real good to the grannies who pray for us more than they pray for themselves. so the grannies who sent us on store runs for pork rinds, pepsi and newport shout out to the clerk who let purchase the fords. even though we were under a shout out to the cool -- grannies who let us keep the change to the grannies home meals that can feed the whole block to the home cooked meals that granny got out with life to grannies to the grannies who ran us out of their sacred places were hand gestures and coded language. you had business in that kitchen. my granny was cooking until you became old enough to know not the poor old grease a drain in style, enough to open all of the cabinets and arms sturdy enough to start pass and wise enough to ignore the lies on measuring cups. because we are no real cooks, our boss spices and liquids on a low granny b a chemist granny b wittmann granny b nice. what a utensils. if i was a betting man, i put up one of my siblings for collateral. granny, bang out thanksgiving dinner. wow. eyes close in that kitchen. i see some grannies don't. but if grannies that get it to the who told us not to mock up our bodies tattoos because it will hinder us from getting a good job and simply because not what god want us to do with the skin she loaned us to the grannies who told us not to put gold and diamonds in our. because of will of a mess up my teeth. a shout out to all of the grandkids like me who can listen to one word a granny say. yeah, well, to the grannies who pass down recipes will pass down scriptures who let behind of marlowe's stained glasses and melodies so the grannies who pass oldie but goodie to the grannies who passed away. they made for us to the grannies who always believed in living and birth and truth to the grannies who left us with another day to look forward to grannies. thank. this lad this last poem that i'm going to do is called love is not enough. i was listening to this kendrick's song and he said, i have you trust, me and to love me. and i was like, that sounds strange. why would you want that? then i was about all the people in my life that i love and don't trust. like, you know, i lead $20 and a house around my mother and little brother. like i trust that one and i'm going to steal it. but you know what i mean? but that's here nor there. well, i'm thinking about all the where people will say two words. i love you, you know, as a form of some type of a scapegoat. now harm you physically, mentally. well, i'm like, oh, but i love you. and it's like i knew what i was, you know what i mean. so this poem's called love is not. you see, i don't know much about love, but i know that in some cases, love is not enough. love will have you chasing waterfalls endeavors love will have you flipping through the pages of an empty book looking for his definition. love doesn't always loyalty i understand why kendrick said keep that a honey i'd rather you trust me than to love me because what is love if the trust there who cares about being locked in a room with him? if there's always a fuss there you see love who have you love will hold you love will choke you to turn around and attempt cpr about a certification love as an ice it will poke you love is a pistol it will smoke you loving always sweet like smucker's but it'll jam you up that drunk toast you love will roast you love will have you drive a 75 miles an hour crying to your mother at 2 a.m. with tears dripping down your chin cognac on your breath from, glue to your ear rare solo cut me your right while you grip on a steering wheel with your left and mommy is on to ask and repeatedly, baby, are you okay and you can't respond because you're crossing for a monsoon choking on a mixture of tears and spit stuck in a three way love affair. you take the bottle to net crash the whip will slit your wrists your family arrive at your people. they don't understand that your doorbell has only broken your heart is you landed the lead and roll it got shaking on set you don't even know what your part is. my missing you don't even know what sm