As part of my ongoing project, I shot this year's Greek Independence Day Parade in Baltimore's Greektown section. I missed last year's parade and nearly missed this year's either, but thanks to Twitter I managed to get out there in time.
The skies were cloudy and threatened to unleash a torrent on the dozens of revelers, but in the end all was well and the sun even broke through the gray mass for a few minutes.
There were clergy, politicians, marching bands, and floats, but the best feature of the parade was the embracing of the Greek culture by both participants and the crowds. Colorful costumes and folk music blaring through loudspeakers hung along the parade route brightened up the mood. No matter how many fancy colors were there, however, azure and white reigned supreme.
Here are some images from the event...enjoy!!!
View of Baltimore's Inner Harbor from Federal hill.
I've lived in many places over the course of my short life and I've come to hold great appreciation for the people and the cultures I've come across. It amazed me how people helped us when we were refugees and didn't speak local languages, and, as I got older, it led me to realize that we all share certain core qualities that make us human. So while some people's fighting was chasing us away from our homeland, other people's generosity was easing the burden of our flight.
When I came to Baltimore, I was intrigued by the city's history, its architecture, and a certain air I couldn't quite identify. I feel a certain vibe that draws me to this city, that makes me want to do my part in building it up. While I can't tell what that connection is, there are a few things I love about this city but for the sake of time I'll be focusing on the melting pot that it is.
I myself come from a culturally-varied background. Rwandan, Moldovan, Russian, Ukrainian, Polish, etc. I was born in Moldova, then part of the USSR, grew up in Rwanda, and later lived in several African countries as a refugee. Due to my observant and friendly nature, I am able to absorb any culture's traditions and customs in a short time. I believe by learning about other people's way of life I'm able to understand their actions and not be offended by them.
Looking for things to do, I found that there were many ethnic festivals hosted by the city, and I decided to attend as many as I could to learn about those particular cultures and enjoy the food and entertainment. A few things soon became apparent, however. Many of the festivals were demographically-segregated. It was hard to find non-Greeks at the Greek festival, non-blacks at the African American festival, or non-hispanics at the Cinco de Mayo festival. Even St. Patrick's Day parade, the largest parade in the State, does not represent many of the city's cultures in its diversity.
This realization first hit me when I attended the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. parade and noticed it was about 99% African American in both participants and revelers. King's vision was to bring people together, which has happened a lot in society, but seems not enough to attract many of the city's residents to attend a parade in his honor. I don't know the underlying reason and I'm not leaning towards the race factor because race is not an issue based on other festivals/parades I've attended in the city. For example, there were very few African-Americans besides those of African descent at the Africa Fest festival held in the city in 2010.
I saw first hand what can happen when people view themselves as superior and seek to impose that superiority over others through violence. Many friends, family, and neighbors were killed even though they had no choice as to which group they were born into. I, myself, was nearly killed because of this ignorance. So I want to know how best to bring people together, how to make them appreciate their differences while celebrating their similarities. That's one of the reasons I like Baltimore, a chance to learn how best to unite humanity's many subgroups. Whether unity among humans is possible is unknown to me, but I hope to keep learning by observing how the city blends and unites its many cultures.
The Motorettes perform at the Baltimore Ports America New Year's Eve Spectacular in 2010. This was the last year
Ports America sponsored the event.
Boy watches participants in the 2011 Martin Luther King, Jr. parade. This kid was particularly drawn to this group
and it made me think that maybe this is the message that drew him the most. Or maybe it was the faces of the stick
figures. Either way, tomorrow's generation is depending on us to teach them about peace.
A shadowy figure leaves the tomb of American author Edgar Allan Poe in 2011. The Poe Toaster used to
leave a glass of cognac and roses on Poe's grave until 2009 when he failed to appear.
Dance troupe performing at the 2011 St. Patrick's Day Parade on Pratt street.
Children have a chance to look at and pet baby chicks and ducklings at the 2011 Flowermart in Mount Vernon.
Performers at the 2011 Cinco de Mayo.
Go Ask Alice entry performs in the water section of the Baltimore Kinetic Sculpture race in 2011. Go Ask Alice
won The People's Choice award for the second year in a row.
Elvis serenades 2011 Baltimore's Best Hon, Sherry Meyers.
People began dancing the Cha Cha slide at the African American Festival in 2011.
4th of July fireworks in 2011.
Performer in Center Plaza. The Downtown Partnership organizes events in Center Plaza during the summer including
musical performances on Wednesdays.
People dance in the rain at the Mount Vernon 1st Thursdays concert in July 2011. On this particular day performances
were cut short by rain but a few people took the opportunity to literally dance in the rain.
Stiltwalkers at the 2011 Artscape, the largest free arts
festival in the US.
Members of the Morgan State University perform at the annual Washington Monument lighting ceremony in 2011.
The event ushers in the holidays season in Baltimore.
Santa high-fives a boy as he arrives at the beginning of
Fell's Point's Olde Tyme Christmas in 2011.
Recently, Baltimore City Police Department has released a memo to its officers to stop harassing photographers as a result of action from the ACLU and previously harassed photographers threatening to sue the city because of officers' behavior. To me, however, it comes off as a PR stunt and half-assed attempt to stave off a lawsuit.
Baltimore City Police Commissioner Bealefield hugs member of the city's police force.
Recent actions by his officers raise doubts as to whether he can keep them in line.
I have been approached by the police several times while shooting in places around Baltimore City, but, luckily, the encounters weren't with those officers who consider themselves "top-flight security of the world." According to the Law of Probability, however, it doesn't mean I won't run into some sooner or later.
There is absolutely no excuse for the officers to behave in the manner they did. I'm going on a limb and say the officers in the video below are rejects who couldn't hold a night gig as clerks at a Kwik-E-Mart, let alone warm the seats at NASA or Morgan Stanley. I could be wrong, of course, and they're just acting on a well-held and enforced belief that they're above the constitution when it comes to carrying out their duties.
If this is the first time it had happened I would just overlook it. But Baltimore PD...actually police in Maryland in general...is notorious for stamping on people's rights. You folks might remember the cowboy who sprung out of his unmarked car with his pistol drawn to arrest a speeding motorcyclist. Or the photographer who was harassed by transit police while taking pictures at a light rail stop. Or the photographer who was arrested, camera confiscated, and all the pictures erased during the Preakness race.
There are many more instances which are not publicized. Last year as a group of us waited for the potential appearance of the Poe Toaster on the campus of the University of Maryland in Baltimore, a female university police officer approached talking on her cell phone, passed us without asking what we were doing, and proceeded to lock the gate that the curator of the Poe House and Museum had left open for the legendary gentleman who leaves a bottle of cognac and roses at Edgar Alan Poe's grave every January. When I took a picture, she threateningly retorted that I couldn't take her picture. Being one who never backs down when I know I'm right, I took her picture anyways, but we were baffled as to how someone affiliated with the university didn't know about the tradition. She could have at least asked us or called it in to see what the gathering was about.
Ignorant University of Maryland police officer
When I was stopped another time while shooting with friends at the inner harbor, I took the opportunity to inform the Baltimore PD officer that a terrorist is less likely to carry a large camera and lenses to scout out the location. It's just not conspicuous enough. The attention I attract with my gear would be too discomforting to a terrorist scout. By the end, the officer was joking with us. I have to give credit to this officer, he wasn't threatening, barking out questions, or intimidating in any way...he was simply inquiring. This made us give him replies we wouldn't even have considered had he not shown us respect. In the end, both sides didn't have any wasted time and avoided creating a mess.
