This past May, Baltimore’s City Council unanimously voted to establish the Community Reinvestment and Reparations Commission to oversee the distribution of funds granted by the Community Reinvestment and Repair Fund, making Baltimore City the first jurisdiction in Maryland to establish a commission like this. Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, a grassroots think-tank that advances the public policy interest of Black people in Baltimore, was an integral advocate for the creation of this commission. Our keynote speaker, Dayvon Love, Director of Public Policy at Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle, will explain the importance of this commission and how vital reparations and reinvestment are in Baltimore.
This session will also feature a musical performance by Scott Patterson, an outstanding lyricist, musician, and co-founder of Afro House, a Baltimore-based art house committed to creating disruptive music culture. Our night’s artistic feature will be acclaimed poet and former Baltimore Youth Poet Laureate, Keyma Flight.
Come for the community, stay for the conversation, and leave with a deeper civic connection to Charm City.
Dayvon Love – Keynote Speaker
Dayvon Love is a Baltimore-based political organizer and the Director of Public Policy for Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), a grassroots think-tank that advances the public policy interests of Black people. In 2010, Love co-founded Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle (LBS), one of many organizations that successfully pressured the state of Maryland to disband its plans to build a juvenile jail downtown. LBS has also led legislative efforts and advocacy efforts regarding criminal justice reform, youth and community empowerment. Dayvon is also the author of “Worse than Trump: The American Plantation”, a book that offers an important critique of the American political left and a political alternative to the exploitative relationship that Black people have to white institutions. Dayvon is also the author of “When Baltimore Awakes” which is a comprehensive critique of the way the white supremacy is embedded in the Human/Social Service Sector in Baltimore.
Scott Patterson – Musical Guest
Scott Patterson is the co-founder and Artistic Director of Afro House, a Baltimore-based organization committed to creating disruptive music culture. This work is done through live performances, such as the Afro House Concert Series, theatrical productions featuring Afro House’s Astronaut Symphony, film and collaborations with other organizations and artists.
Since 2012 Patterson has toured with Camille A. Brown & Dancers. He is contributing composer of the Bessie Award winning Mr. TOL E. RAncE and Brown’s critically acclaimed work, BLACK GIRL: Linguistic Play and ink. His compositions for these have been performed for audiences at numerous venues, such as, Lincoln Center, The Kennedy Center, Belfast Festival at Queen’s, White Bird, The Joyce Theater, and Debartolo Performing Arts Center.
2019 marks a significant shift for Patterson. He began to turn his epic Afrofuturistic sci-fi opera-ballet into a film. He became a Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund Fellow in 2020 and was selected to participate in the Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund’s 2020 and 2022 screenplay lab for Cloud Nebula. Under Patterson’s direction, Cloud Nebula, the theatrical work was performed in both traditional and non-traditional venues, including festivals, such as Artscape and Brilliant Baltimore, The Peale and The Walters Art Museum, the Afro House Concert Series and WTMD as a live radio broadcast.
In 2021, Patterson worked with Baltimore-based director, Marissa Dahl, on Kojo Astronaut, a filmed performance featuring songs from his catalog. In May 2021 a portion of the film appeared on PBS’s Great Performances: The Arts Interrupted. The entire film will appear on the streaming service, kweliTV, in 2022.
Patterson is a recipient of the 2020 Regional Independent Artist Award for Performing Arts from the Maryland State Arts Council. He is a 2019 Baker Artist Award, Mary Sawyers Imboden Awardee, and is a recipient of a Creative Baltimore Fund Grant and Artist/District Grant. Learn more about Scott Patterson at www.afrohouse.org
Keyma Flight – Featured Artist
Keyma Flight exists today as an earth poet and anti-capitalist born and raised in Baltimore, MD. She was on the Baltimore City Youth poetry team for three years in a row. Keyma holds the titles of Hyperbole Slam Champion of 2019, 1/6th of Brave New Voices winners in 2018, and third place in the international Woman of the World Poetry Slam in 2022. She also holds third place for the DC Pride Slam 2023, making her the third-ranking LGBT+ poet in the eastern region. Keyma has found herself and her work featured in articles for sites like Teen Vogue and Strategies for Youth. Currently, she is apart of the non-profit DewMore Baltimore, where she works as a youth coordinator and administrative assistant. Keyma uses her platform to advocate for radical spirituality, the advancement of black and LGBT+ communities, and a world that removes itself from suggestions and pushed towards acceptance.
Leaders of a Beautiful Struggle – Civic Partner
