The Photovoice Project: Cherry Hill

This last autumn, Blue Water Baltimore’s Ecoliteracy & Engagement Manager, Michel Anderson, facilitated a series of three workshops in Baltimore City’s Cherry Hill neighborhood entitled Photovoice: Cherry Hill. The project was generously funded by the South Baltimore Gateway Partnership and the Pisces Foundation. Our outstanding community partner was the Youth Resiliency Institute (YRI), who helped us spread the word, recruit participants, and fit the program into Cherry Hill. Be sure to check out their website and learn more about their work.

Photovoice is an internationally utilized, grassroots research method that enables a community to identify, represent, and enhance their surroundings through an artistic process. It uses the immediacy of photography and storytelling to furnish evidence and promote an effective, participatory means of sharing expertise to influence public policy. In Cherry Hill, each of the seven participants set out to explore their neighborhood with cameras in hand and two questions in mind: What do I love about my neighborhood? . . . and what do I want to change? 

The workshop series culminated in a photography exhibit held on Thursday, 11/29, in Mama Shirley’s Cultural & Wellness Center located in the Cherry Hill Town Center. The full show included over 20 photographs coupled with enlightening and inspiring artist-authored descriptions of their work. Over the next couple of months we will feature each artists’ work along with their descriptions in a series of blog posts. For now, please enjoy these photos of the exhibition that were taken by Photovoice Participant “Dallas” Quinn Wise:

 In the group photo, from the left to right… Back row – “Dallas” Quinn Wise, Navasha  Daya & Fanon Hill of YRI, Kalem Umrani, Tracey Aikens, Michel Anderson of BWB; Front row – Jackie Mayo, Jerry Mayo Jr., Vaquea Singletary.