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 smart is. you're friends trying to get to your line but you press ignore because if you taught them why you when you're finished they won't judge you as if they never been in love before, as if they were never on drugs before, as if they ain't human, as if they've never been bugged before. love will leave you broken screaming alexa play deaf around the corner by tupac shakur. alexa play madonna love don't live here anymore alexa play dmx me because i'm falling and i can't get up. alexa play a baltimore love thing by 50 cent i have a good pinky now, two feet natural fit and all i need to be is stuck on stupid alexa, please me by sam cooke. love was born a bullet i'm hit a shock trauma i'm sure alexa seemed like the only god i know asks me on demand alexa my love and got no do right i've been fighting all my life. what happens when knuckles used to rearrange jaw lines? now your bones crack when you whisper alexa, i just want cinderella and glass slipper why i love game of the century. i ain't bobby fischer. you see my chess panel lives a lonely king and a fraudulent bishop passing for queen love is rikers island a bingham trap songs i sing a hummingbird in a trenches but i can't locate my wings around here fly be non-existent listen love who have you love will hold you hostage love three six mafia they about a fangio body baritone from a depth of a mosh pit angel on your right shoulder saying trust something as you begin to smoke your life away. love is not five star stay love is not an all expenses paid vic vacay love is not attention. last night they was in your face look around they gone today laugh at my granny put in a lane, a house to bail my mother out of jail loving fresh like granny's cookies made from scratch. you see at times love be love will have you away from is deep when i think it i see my granny weeks you see love got to run in the streets crust living on a crack see a mob got to scratching a net you see love's the leading cause of death but it's hard to find solution well, you might a problem it's to seek justice when your brother is -- who shot him love the positive souls man people for profit real love only exists in music, movies, books and lockets love make me want to sell my soul use the proceeds of the peter eyewitness scenes that i've seen love a bad day rent do ain't nothing but balls and get james love as a deferred dream love stinks like rotten meat love sags a heavy load love explores love don't be sticking to the g call you see love who have you love will hold you low smile on your face a mouthful of pearly whites but always keep one eye open because love is switching up. she looked me in my eyes and said, love is all we got? i said, don't hold your breath, baby, because love is not enough. thank. one more time, one more time please like give like a huge, huge, huge round of applause for these two brothers. they bought a kill it man. and thank everybody for coming out. and again, thank you for giving me this platform, you know, making me a part of this. love ya, man. thank. you yourself. oh, well, go. i just want to one thing. i am in a back. yeah, i just want to say one thing before we get started. you know, these these two brothers were amazing. i apologize if. i look up, right? but i got to be honest with you. i love i just don't like people doing it next to me. like is the most i have you ever had somebody aggressively talk about their family and races and racism and like next to you like, it's so uncomfortable. i you know what i mean? like, is i'm very do poetry, create be like express is that love, but just don't do it next me like i clearly the whole library staff like okay the poetry where is it going to be where they're going to do. oh, they're going to do it over here. it's going to be over there. it's going to be for c-span. and then i get on stage and it's right next to me. so with that with that out the way, i apologize. i love poetry. just the proximity to it. i don't, you know, and now the story. but tonight is not it's not about the things that make me uncomfortable it's about devin allen. and i don't just say just to, you know, because of the situation or the moment i've said this television, i've said this at a dice game. i said this in a back, a strip clubs. devin i've said this. devin is is our generation the best photographer about our generation and beyond what he does with his camera and images he creates. but how he inspires and push he pushes other people to be able to be their best selves to. and that's very, very special. that's not a traditional artist's trait. people always acts like, you know, oh, you, you and connie and devin. yeah, did this and this and that and that there and at the end of the day. it's not forced and it's not it is it's a natural thing. and we're able to do that again because of. how much we love. when he what we do, how much devin loves what he does how what he does inspires so many people. so we're going to i'm we're going to we're going to we might get into a conversation. we're going to have some questions. but before start, one more round of applause for devin. so the first the first question i to ask you is, is, is, is based this book that i feel like every person, every person in this audience deserves to own at least four copies. and you can actually that happen right. the first question is talk what you set out to do accomplish what you decided to put out. no justice, no peace. you know, the crazy part i didn't want to put on? no, but you put me in contact with the publisher and say, we want to do a book with you and with everybody. even thinking about a book. but, you know, when i did a beautiful ghetto. a beautiful ghetto was like a love letter to baltimore. it was the show where we went through in 2015 in about freddie gray. what i saw, what i see when i go to own community, what we see on a regular day basis showing that camaraderie, intimate moments that if you ain't from here, not from west baltimore, you're not from you wouldn't know, you know. but book was a little different. this book was, you know really looking at all i learned and how i have evolved by being on front lines. you know, i was i got my camera in 2013 shouting my grandmother i was on my first protest was 2014 and i've been i can't count how many i've been to in baltimore. and, you know, and but i've been able to interact so many different people that have so many different perspectives on how to get to this one goal that we want, which is freedom and not to be killed, the color of our skin. but it is a very simple concept, but it's very complex because everybody something different. so what i wanted to do with this book is as a photographer, i'm i always tend to become the viewer. so, so where activists are fussing at protests and like you, you don't go hard enough. we believe in peace. well, i don't care. and they got all they all want the same thing, but they all have a different way of going about it. and what i wanted to do with this book is to show how black lives is and how everybody has a different viewpoint, how to go about this change. and i want to make sure that every essay and everybody that i work with brought something the table that showed that you can everybody can play a piece in this and photography i feel is one in a medium that is one of the best things to use as a collaboration so collaborating from hanging with you guys, hanging with, you know, painters and writers and people from different careers, photogs has allowed me to collaborate, so i really wanted with this book is to remove myself but use my medium to elevate our voices and then basically bring all these different sectors from the jacqueline woodson to the wireless to to, you know, to the chris wilsons and, you know, bring it to the leslie honorees, you know, then bring it back to my mom and then take take it take it to carruthers, you know, and like all of us, we have different perspectives, different bent to different things that their viewpoints on what changes i wanted to show how complex that is. your grandma bought your first camera. do you think she would buy me a pair? nike's. they could potentially change the way i who's not going to me back so one of the one of the things one of the things i admire my about devin is how hungry he is to look out for other artists too making sure other artists are getting books are getting paid. i've been around this man long enough where i watched him take i him take four photographers who ever thought about and birth their careers and then he never asks for any type of recognition. he never acts or prays. he never made a fuss about it. he went on to the next group of artists and he worked hard to try make sure they had opportunities to today. devin has given away almost a thousand cameras and mentor hours. countless artists, countless photographers and people who he feels like can be able to change their lives through art. and my question is, as artists, i know this, you know this. we are a very selfish, self-indulgent, ridiculous, where nobody loves anybody. everybody's all about themselves and their next project. do you care? why do work so hard at and making sure other people are able to be successful too? i don't think it's hard work. you know, it's not hard work at all. you know, i just i think it's in my dna you know, that's how my mother and my grandmother raised, me, you know, like that's how the streets raised. two despite all the that we go through, i had like a lot of solid guys to this day. my boy black, right. had, you know, all his friends took me in and they gave me a space to create. then i had to do that, you know. so i've been lucky enough to run around and meet. meet, you know, amazing people that helped me get to where i'm at, you know, because it takes village, you know. so at the same time, who am i to just, you know, get get all this abundance of love or support and not give it back so, like, when i when i see people, my boy miles on it taking photos they make sure he's amazing videographer he i'm not a real photographer but he take pictures now but you know it takes a village and for baltimore to win we cannot be selfish you know i think about the fact that didn't know any photographers you know, which which which is crazy to me. but now i see so many kids take a picture that's win for me. so it's like at the end of the you can never you can never fail if you've got a village you so and the day i don't look at it as being work or being difficult i'm just in my branches you know now spreading my roots. i you now you got your own tree now just spread your roots build, build you another tree with you and never catch me. so end the day yeah, sometimes it might not pan out how you want to the artist might not like you later because they want to stand too close to you. it's a lot with me but move with my heart and that's why i continuously you know, i just worry about myself. but at the same, i do want to see change in baltimore. you know, i've gone beyond baltimore now, but i just feel like if i see talent just the way people saw talent in me, who am i not to elevate? you know, when i see talent, i'm going to support it? and that's just is what it is as a black artist in baltimore from baltimore when you come from baltimore especially if you come from the street if you take on a profession like professional artists, you don't get the luxury to sit back. you and just do art. you also have to be saving the lives of. at least 47 honey. other people right nobody's to say, oh my god. he takes these amazing pictures and then he goes drinks alcohol and he goes out on dates like nobody's going to say that. nobody's going to nobody's going to say that. they're going to say, what are you doing for the community? what are you doing for the people? where come from? so in actuality. if you get it, if you got a deal. for $100,000, it turns. into $20,000 because of the amount of people that you are, you may be taking of and mentoring and looking out and trying to do things for and trying to put on and trying to set up and it takes to exist in that space. is that dangerous? i did it. i'm not going to do it again. but i know i know. but no. and it is dangerous. but i just think about once again, you know, going past is my idol and lot of people love his work, don't understand how philanthropic he was the fact that he took kid from brazil got him and then this kid was like on his deathbed fabio fabio he had like three weeks to live going pot flimflam my face not he flew him to america, saw the best doctors and got that boy healthy and sent him back to his family. and they were going for a little while, got him right. he was on his death me, you know. and how going that a photograph of him you to tell what what brazil was going to going you know he went there for the art but then you know he has a heart so i china's every artist you know we create from the heart if you believe it or not you gave all the in the world but the art comes from the heart so but is beyond just what leaves your fingertips or your eyes or your mouth all about what you would you would seize, you plant and which you are invested in. so i don't, you know it is dangerous because you can move the money wrong way and you know, you and you learn as art is you know we live this there's this party life lifestyle like the party have a time you know it's all fun and games no but end of the day i've seen a change in my community and nobody can deny that. at the end of the day, when i first picked up the camera, everybody, all my made fun of me and he was giving me a hard but i fast forward you know i got camera at 13 now if you look on the gram right now how many kids got how many of them done adam bent in a classroom or they don't got a camera from me or dana went to one of my workshops or they just then to me on a block, what are you doing? i want to take pictures. you know, all i just gave up on a parents, then hit me up and connected me with them just to talk, you know. i'm seeing the change in the community and no one can take that away from me. i'm seeing kids inspired to be photographers. they are making youtube pages. they are, they are. they are pop, i'm watching my kids get more money than you know. i see these kids all begging. they get to it, you know, like and that's i'm seeing a change and that brings joy that that no one in next generation up photography that's coming behind me. we're going to probably be great and probably climb heights faster and steadily than i did. i say dangerous because i feel like it puts pressure on people try to be things that they're not like. i see people this. i'm sorry if i mention it. twitter is very dirty, disgusting people very mean and disingenuous things that they can't comprehend. but i see people. i see people who look at you and they want to be like you and they want to be impactful like you. so they present as if they have the kinds of connections or as if doing the kind of things that you do and they actually don't do it. and i wonder as a person who is so connected, who has helped so many people who literally has receipts, does it does it bother you? it actually bothers me. i'm good for transparency. my father like like to keep an on honey. like i've been on staff for years. i got a lot of respect in my community i grew up with a lot of people, you know, been in fights with people, them in jump by people. i've been arrested with. people don't sell drugs. people sorry, grandma i'm in miami already know. we had a long conversation about that, you know, and i lost my mom know. the pain i went through watching my friends die over, you know, losing them, losing them. that's what makes me mad, because you present yourself like you've been through a thing, things that i've seen, and you haven't. that's what makes me mad. like, we just a friend not too long ago. but i can say in that pain, which you, you know, like i hate now city of all the time and my guys they watch me from, you know, since i was all the way up till now. and they remember when i got my first camera we had we had me i don't know we don't last the number of candlelight vigils we had to do down there for our friends are no longer here. we lost a friend. we doing a news interview in news. me and my brother missionary be doing an interview get killed around a corner literally two weeks later the news sent me the footage, say this. the last footage of your friend. i'm like, thank you for sending it to me so you can fake it on twitter. but we live it and that's where it hurts me the most. you don't have to go. you didn't go through the thing. so my biggest thing is if you want to be impactful, like i don't. and that's the thing about this book i don't understand everything about the change that i want to. see, i understand everything, but want to be true to myself. so if i don't understand that space, i want to be in that space. i'm going to collaborate. so i think if people present themselves, they don't understand the pain, the depression, you know and all the stuff that we really go through behind closed doors. we got it. then we got to wake up and then it be like fox 45. yeah, you know, get the book by then behind closed doors i'm bored that because i miss my friends i'm i'm winning i got survivor's remorse my friends die i when they're dying continuously winning i'm climbing to new heights that's a pain they don't understand and that's what makes me mad because you're faking it. you ain't seen it. and that's where it's not. i'm not even me. it's hurtful. it's hurtful it's hurtful. you have to you have to be at a certain comfort level within yourself, acknowledge when you hurt. this is something that we is something else that we don't do, but it's something that we're learning it and trying to get better. yeah i know these amazing people have questions for you, so i'm just going to actually one more thing and then we're going to turn it over to the audience so you guys can actually questions before you go and up this amazing book. we know how the city is. we know what's happened in. the city right now that can take these people, these participants on a ride through the mind of devin allen and talk and talk about what you think what you want the city to be, what you vision and what you dream of. what is it? what is it? what does it look like? for me, it's like free fire and light free. i think everybody should have. i think every citizen be able to have free wi-fi, free bottled water. i find just free will i like that good good water though not like they'll say these and all that but like like actually like good ones that's whatever it is. i don't it it opens it sounds like a sprite. you open a bottle. is it dosani dosani? the open is as why does it do that and why does this it. i think of michael jackson. no it's i know that's that's interesting, you know, because it's like i think as artists that like really are invested in baltimore and we we are born here raised we've seen it change you know you've been here way longer than i have to many years but you've seen it you seen the projects be built in the projects come down like you've seen it all. seeing them come down. i see it being built. i mean that was like in the forties. oh, like the new part of the new deal. i here if i'm not, i wasn't alive without what for me personally, what i would like to is you know coleman messed a lot of things up for a lot of people. a lot of my peers, you know, i know a lot black business owners that, you know, should be way, you know, getting way more support from the city. i would like to see that, you know and i'm not just talking about like, you know, they make it so you got to have a building and stuff. but what about all the hustle in businesses? they might not have a spot. i would love to see all these vacant homes be open to, you know, allowing people decide what want to do with them. like, you know, you talk about the dollar deals and things like that, but like, say, for instance, like me, i'm blessed, you know, like my grandmother, me, my gave me a house, know when i'm doing, i'm going to turn it into what i want. like what it's like white privilege. it kind of. can make it easier on nike's grandma. hey, hey. white house. you know i can only can imagine i got so guys in there i know in a community just like i think about i hang down you know i hang a southwest baltimore you know i think about long a guy's been there and i think about how much they put into the culture. but i've seen how university of maryland was easy to come in and shape and start shifting commercial. you know, we just stood on a block where we still do. but you know what i was i community now you got like this weird, like white kid skateboarding up and down the block or like, you know, people look at that's weird. i mean, hanging on there for like ten years, you know, they look at us weird and it just so crazy to me. they're like this odd community, like, you know? and i'm telling my this is a community where you had like some you might to sell might pull up malware pull up you turn around devonte begin his haircut next door. then you see me fighting the barber next door because he messed my haircut up like just it's a whole culture with it. i wish it was places. and we had a space where. i feed you guys you love your what do you need to be great we done did that we did the block parties already we all need that we of rebel block parties it's fun and games for one week and we did so we both fast we did what is next with is something that can stand the test of time legacy. they won't give us that so give black people legacy you know at this think about the no pathway avenue my mom we just talk about the space club and talk about what pennsylvania avenue used to be. but as people down at us still care, if people in this community still care, why not invest in them? they let them dictate what they want. their community to be. you know, like i'm scared as for park heights black, i don't know. i don't know, you know? but that's what i would like to see. where people who actually have been in a community for years, generations can actually have a say in what happens in their own community. that's what i would like to see. sarah, are your mom's too young to remember pennsylvania avenue clubs? you might be too young for that. i'm no, not right. your grandma. i was about to say because he tells people like he's like, oh, no, my mother was old. no. yeah, that's my mother. now hold a great gas generation. yeah, my mom, i don't even know my grandma. i don't even know what she was doing. i just know my mom. my grandma was living in what thought it was. and i'm not going to about that because i thought, i'm going to put your business out there. my grandma was a was move. i thought this guy, my grandfather like grandma all the time and he was dating to be married like billy disowned grandma was moving and i thought was we didn't talk about he'd been in church on sunday look you got you got you got to watch you got to watch them and where we had an arrest something having a sandwich and somebody will walk past and they'll start a conversation. and he would be like, oh deacon, tell you about it? because he was he was he was out of slavery. you're like, yo, like i'm old, but i'm like, not debt. like i'm jerry crow. i'm not slavery old, you know, but but anyone like to ask any questions about work, about his career. but i'll be the first one about about know you can talk to me about the book i've kicked i'll kick it out mouse my house we can direct into the microphone our friends from c-span are here and we also have a virtual audience. all right, so what would you those on those working what anyway? what would you was with advice you would give to a younger photographer. you're a young photographer and i'm already giving advice to you on a regular basis. why he would i give him advice to? oh, that's my guy you know, it's funny how i met miles before answered a question. he he i posted a like an instagram video saying my, my, one of my like my life was to get a portrait by devin allen and i was like, were you at a family agreement? and i say, pull it. i took the picture and we've been friends since. i think he's i think he's awesome. and he shows dedication. that's one thing i tell photog was on a time and i think you know live can tell you this he know about this yeah i struggle with like when i'm doing photography that i get caught up in social media and i start to create for other people instead of myself. and it takes us a certain sense of dedication to create something that you believe in, like what you're doing, how you document your community, similar what i did, you know what i'm still doing is dedication. baltimore has something special. we have a certain sense of grind and hustle about us. so when i talk to young photographers down from baltimore is, i'm not the best photographer in the world. but what i do is i work all of you. are you are you out this by one eye? but i'll work a lot of them out and work with pure passion and period drive. i would say don't get caught up in the equipment that you have. don't get caught up in a lot of those things create is only one you only you got a two set of eyes stay dedicated to what you believe in and create from your heart and just run with it. no. let anybody tell you anything. because i have people telling me my was negative. that's what fuji told me. he told me my work was negative, but i'm starting to sound like a now and i've been sound them for years. i'm about to do a tour with them. did it happen right away? no, it took five years, but i stayed dedicated it and bought me a like and i sat with i learned the system and, you know, and now for camera later, you know, for your equipment. hello. i want to pay for equipment almost start out like that. so speed. of course they dedicate state. of course. don't let nobody deter you from it. and that's he also he walks around with like a hard drive and he literally like he takes i'm scared. ask how many computers? i mean, how many how many photos he has. like i know he has at least 430 hard drives so it's like he's a ridiculous amount of photos a day. you can probably that to a kobe making like what was it like 1200 shots a day like kobe bryant to make like 1000 to 1200 shots a day. so work is actually there. it's not an overnight success story where he was dreaming. then all of his blessings fell on top of his head. he is blessed, but he's worked hard to make those dreams come true. now. i just. i don't want people to miss that. like, yes, my question is, at what point you realize that your life is to just give yourself. great question. it's a great question. i think, i notice that early, which is the crazy part i think we're really i notice was it was with tupac because the first part i felt right. i remember being on pennsylvania avenue and i was actually with dee and we like is like you got like all these reporters you got like the national guard right here, but you got like prayer circles on and that was stuff. when i'm watching young kids like 13, you know, weaving on bicycles stuff through police officers and stuff. and at this time, i just got the time cover. like, literally, i just got it like the day and we were still on the front line that the crazy like i look at a time cover and what i kind of just say i'm doing i want to interview them i was like but i'm like you get a tattoo me me now city hall but i'm my own because avenue right now and when i notice i'm only going on a case they were we've and i was like only imagine what they see you know we don't been tear gassed pepper spray this is like the following week almost because i didn't get the time cover a lot people thought i got it that week i actually actually get it to the following week. actual issue didn't come out to may 11th, so i was like, i want to teach inner city kids photography? and i was like, that's my thing, right? that's going to be activism because at that point i didn't that people was consider me active, but i didn't know what i was doing like i still understanding the concept of choice of weapons and would go and was talking about and around the same time dee just had gave me the go and parks are going parks but because i can never afford them and i still got that by the way i would never let that go. you came in fine and you stole it from a library, too, because they still got the library slip one. is that that's why i hear real god is good, but then i. but i remember starting to go fund me last i starting to go fund me driving down. i remember a check from russell simmons cashing a check, going to service ban like ten icons in like can and like good digital cameras that i understood enough that i can teach because i still was learning myself and i remember driving down to the kids saves zone because miss buffy my buffy her friend had started this called the kids safe zone to a whole laundry mat. and i remember going in like who want to learn photography and i just with the kids like boy -- you get out here and i was like dad and was i and we was told, you know, i, we want to take pictures. who don't want to take pictures? come on, go. you know, and i was like, no, you know, i take pictures. so i'm about to go to age, must have car was like what do we let bam camera stuff get you know and then that's when i started to realize but it was due the that any i any time i want to like i don't feel inspired i have to go back and just think about what are my kids doing now. and like some of my kids, i still to them you know 12 15:01 a.m. i11 of my kids is and why you one of my kids at obama school 2 hours now i get both in a up they both told me now one of my kids actually was the stunt double carmelo anthony that he wrote the book for because carmelo can be there because of kobe. so my state stepped in and he's the same height of melo has played basketball so in effect that my kids are still pushing you know the heat my new inspiration like he growls she is community every day and i was like hey i'm too busy doing all this book stuff. he's out there killing it, you know? it's like that's that's the inspiration. and that's when i really knew that, like amare, you know like. and in effect, they're like my kids, all my kids check up on me. you go behind, your homeboy, i kill you. good. i'm writing this crazy, you know, and you know and i've been i'm the rest of my life. i've gone off studio museum of harlem. i donated them a bunch of film cameras. i went to oakland and twice with steph and carry you know it's the unama collaboration that i did you know i gave all that money back to a nonprofit bible. we bought like 30 brand new can is from can and directly with that money and i don't know what they doing right now but they got, you know, and it's like we're going to the next project. it's something that's already that's ingrained in me now and it's a part of the journey i think the key is be the person you need it be person you need it. especially in your darkest moment. okay so i've been blessed. so the first one day when it needs to be and i suspect he wanted to talk about life and and so i'm kind of in that like how do you think that like you involved with to maintaining my legacy with all of politics, you know, corrupt police wars, you know, to get the structure, everything that's involved brought up in between how we we maintain that like people thinking, you know, would they be in being kind of up against you yeah then you go for he answered the first the first the first question i would say is and i'm i'm mainly this is mainly directed it to some of that some of the older people in the room. i remember when i used to go out town and i would lie being a friend of a group of people and a girl would say where, are you from? and i would say baltimore. the response would be like, ill, you know what i'm saying? and and obviously, whoever insert whatever randomly he is probably a terrible person. but i'm saying that like that is how people to look at this city and then at some point it but i mean like artist from baltimore used to act like they were from york they used to like i love you well as you my brother they used to get a head like wireless and and they were and they were they would pick up the accent and it would be like, yeah, be yes. and all that. and they would act like it. baltimore was seen as such a dirty, grimy den of murderers. nobody wanted to affiliate and. at some point it became cool to actually be from baltimore because had some positive shows. we had some positive. we had some some heartfelt documentaries, we had some, some some, some, some positive, some now some negative and positive, negative, positive negative art and a whole lot of powerful people start to emerge from this place and now, people. oh, i'm to the core. oh, where'd you grow up? annapolis. oh, right. that sounds great. you know what i'm saying? so. so that is that it means something. i think any you can be from anywhere in the world and embrace this city. and i love just make sure you love the people who actually come from because you'll be you'll real. you won't be like a person who's, like playing around and playing with me, trying to build. the other question is, baltimore is not its politicians, anybody who's sit around and talk about baltimore all day is probably not here or never been outside the last that's ever going to come up in our conversations at the dinner table will be dawn will be talking about how we move in is oh that's what that's what the city council did that's what the state nobody care. we're trying to make sure our kids have a better than we had we trying to make sure our grandparents is taken care of we to make sure the people around us are getting money the respect they deserve. we do not. yes we are we've got we vote some us in sometimes but we vote and we understand and vote policy plays and we understand what actually means. but we don't spend our time gossiping and chatting and talking about this stuff all day because if we're going to be all the way 100 these systems have never fully behaved us they just have it people they come to us any to us but then when they get elected they go something else. and if you don't know that you're not from here so you shouldn't be trying to control any kind of narrative. so that's just kind like how i honestly felt. yeah, before i don't ask questions to, it is like i think the police don't allow school. i think she don't always know on a lot of school that she's still running. she got my mondawmin. no, but you know, i think i couldn't have said it better, you know, like even when i when i tried, when i started finally being able to beyond just like going to north carolina with my family or going to new york on a megabus, you know, even still to this day, baltimore get a weird look. you know they do say to they want you do certain things you jump through these hoops to see if you you from there just look at all the slang we get on twitter hulu how you had what people say hulu they always got something to say. you know but like he touched on a lot of people start really embracing it i'm at the freddie gray like the let's be honest in the last five years a lot of people start coming back and want to embrace it. the city change is so fast. i've watched it change so fast over the past five years. just in the position that i am as an artist and far as like the legacy. one thing about oppressed, like whoever that narrative, what we remember in the future, you know and i never forget watching a film. i never get and brian said, yo, you by the work you're doing is historic. i you to watch this film and he gave me the through a lens darkly he gave me a film called through the lens darkly and, a book by deborah willis and said, you ain't the first to do it, but watch these films because you live next, do it. and in this film, everybody from ronnie roy to robert houston to arm to carrie mae weems is talking about the black photograph, how it has been used and warped to create narratives that are not true, you know, and a lot of times the narrative is taken away from us. so we have to take that back. so the power in the film is the fact that the black family album, that's the way a lot of the history is, and that's where a lot of the power is in letting them know that we was here. but we weren't in the history books. we wasn't in the museums, in a lot of places, a lot of those things are literally like sitting under your grandma on a table somewhere, collecting dust, you know? and i think i love is with, you know, my brother derek adams is on is working on a black archive. he's working on a black archive and waverly right now where we'll be to go and scan all your work. it will be a whole facility where you can scan, work, scan your family, date them, do whatever you. he's trying to build a database of history in baltimore now. he building a whole new building. it's not even built yet. so shout out to derek adams for that. but that's that's what needs to happen. it's this in our houses, we need our own museums and our own spaces dictating when we're at work. and that's why i want a lot of reading, publishing where oh my god, books a day, books a day, books not. did we need more books, you know, because that's where the history is going to be told. that's where it's going to last. it's not going to last. and a lot of the younger generation, even myself, we get caught up and just cut, oh, we got a thousand likes. it's on instagram, it's on your tweet is going to come down one day. facebook is going to come down one day. instagram is going to come down. i tried to log into my myspace page the other day to try to get some oh photos. i'll try to get into my photobucket. but now the internet is not tangible. it's going to fall. but what's going to be left behind. those family albums and books. i encourage everybody. i don't if you got a little polaroid a little or a a cheap printer, print the photos out, put in the album, because at the end of the day, that's things last when it's physical. thank so much for this wonderful program and thank all of you for coming out this the authors will signing books and we have all authors books and. i do want you to know that your all of your books are in the african american department and seen in a free library. so if you not visited african american department, please come down and it and we are so excited having you all here this ev >> former nfl quarterback colin capper mix if's on-field political protests created a conversation on races and policing. here's a portion of that program. >> you also mentioned the civil rights movement. and two quick things about that, quick parallels to kaepernick effect movement over last five years. the paris is anybody who's watched eyes on the prize knows the participants of all the civil rights activists who speak about the fact that the emmett till, brutalizing and lynching many mississippi, was something that changed their lives. and it was like a scar that that just could not be erased. and it informed that they needed to be part of the struggle going forward no matter what. i found that in talking to a lot of these young people, that that trayvon martin is really the emmett till of this generation are. and that was very moving and surprising to me that every single person i spoke to practically said the name trayvon martin more than they said colin kaepernick when speaking about what informed their protests. wow, trayvon marthe martin -- martha:en was killed 20 years ago. you're old must have to get what's happening but also young enough to ask the question why does the world have to be way. and that really, i think, stuck with people in a big way. the other civil rights movement parallel that comes to mind is when you think of something like the montgomery bus boycott, this was an issue about respect and about jim crow on the bus lines, you know? that's what people were fighting around. but the powers that that be in montgomery, not to mention the powers that be throughout the jim crow south, saw it as a much bigger threat. like, whoa, they're talking about bus lines today, who knows what they'll be talking about tomorrow. this is like pulling string on a sweater. and i think that's very similar to colin kaepernick and all these young people when who took a knee. like, yes, they were doing it for racial equity, yes, they were doing it against police violence, but i think one of the reasons why the reaction was so, like, incredibly vicious many some cases was because implicit in taking that me is a statement especially that it's being done during the anthem that there is a gap between what country says it represents and then the lived experiences of so many people in this country. and that is a very intense challenge to put towar power in the united states. >> watch the full program anytime online at c-span.org/booktv. just search for dave psi run. >> the state of union is strong because you, american people, are strong. [cheers and applause] >> president biden delivers the annual state of the union address outlining his priorities to congress on tuesday, february 7th. his first sate of union speech since republicans won back control of the house. we'll also hear the republican response and take your phone calls, texts and betweens. watch live coverage of the state of union beginning at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now -- our free mobile video app -- or online at c-span.org. >> manhattan institute senior fellow and author of criminal injustice rafael magual argued that defunding the police and introducing more leniency in the criminal justice system would disproportionately harm black and brown americans. here's a portion of his talk. >> so now, if i'm being honest, my sense of accomplishment, i think, makes me a bit uneasy. and the reason for that is that its intention with the reality that's always an may noted my work on these issues, the issues i'm here to discuss. and that reality is that isn't about me. tonight, book, the date that the it contributes to are, first and foremost, about the the far too many victims of the sort of injustices that inspired my book's title, like the murder of a young, unarmed chicago mother allegedly shot by a -- with mine prior felony convictions including one for second-degree murder. injustices like the little boy who was forced to run for his life in that same city earlier this summer as he dodged bullets meant percent group of young men if he made the mistake of walking past at the time. injustices like the young woman police say was stabbed to death earlier year by a homeless career criminal with not one, not two, but with three open cases. and finally, like the incredibly strong woman who was robbed of her husband, detective jason rivera, a man many of us watched her eulogized after he and his partner were murdered by a repeat offender out on probation. i wrote this book largely because i was tired of reading stories about the heinous crimes carried out by offenders who had no business being out on the street. stories that the data make clear are not outliers. and i wanted to do something about it, a desire that only grew as i watched 2020 unfold. in the wake of george floyd's murder and all of the unrest and political grandstanding that followed it, a wave of policy proposals that were explicitly aimed at systematically lowering the transaction costs of crime commission and raising the transaction costs of law enforcement. according to "the new york times," more than 30 statements collectively passed more than 140 police reform bills in the year following george floyd's death. this is an unprecedented acceleration of a trend that had been slowly taking shape since at least 2010, and to my mind, the acceleration of this policy agenda was going to do real damage to public safety, particularly in the communities that were stated they wanted to help. hence, the subtitle, with a push for decarceration and who it hurts most. so i was entirely unsurprised when in 2020 the we saw homicides spike 30% across the united states, the largest one-year increase in generations. and i remained unsurprised by the fact that between 2020-2021 more than a dozen cities set all-time records for homicides, and more than a dozen more cities flirted with their 1990s peak. over the last several years, serious violent crimes, shootings, homicide in particular,. became a much larger problem here in america, but not one whose effects are evenly distribute cannedded throughout our society. criminal violence has long been both geographically and demographically hyper-concentrated. here in new york about 3.5% of three segments see about 50% of the city's violent crime. and well over a year for more than a decade a min minimum of shooting victims are black or hispanic, the vast majority male. you'll see similar disparities in the shootings of suspects. nationally, black males constitute between 6-7% of the population but make up -- but are murdered at nearly 10 times the rate of hair white counterparts, and crimes like homicide are tightly clustered in a relatively tight handful of neighborhoods. in 2018, the 10 most dangerous chicago neighborhoods, which are 95.7% black or latino. 2019 homicide rate was a whopping 61.7 per 100,000. now, as high as that number is, it actually understatements how dangerous some of those neighborhoods actually are. west garfield park, for example, had a 2019 murder rate of 131 per 100,000. now, my book highlights data like these for two reasons. first, i think a thorough understanding of how violence is and has long been concentrated helps us understand exactly -- who it is that will suffer or the most, and by logical extension, who wills that will -- who it is that will gain the most. which takes i concern us to the second run i highlight this day ca. it can help contextualize some of disparities and enforcement statistickics we hear so much about to make the case for mass decars ration and depolicing as a means of pursuing racial equity. , in fact, the most serious crimes are affecting a particular demographic group more than others, then it is entirely reasonable for enforcement reports -- resources to be deployed to these areas and see disparities arise from that uneven distribution of law enforcement resources. in other words, if we accept as legitimate the decision to police neighborhoods where victimization rates are highest, we must also accept that police are going to interact disproportionately with the people spending time in those neighborhoods. and to focus on the disparate rates of interactions is to ignore really important context that undermines the assertion that law enforcement disparities are driven can exclusively by with racial animus. another example of this very thing can be found in the studies of racial disparities in incarceration which show that when you control for the type and severity of the crime committed as well as for the age and criminal history of the e fenders in question, the racial disparities in sentencing shrink substantially, leading us to the same conclusion drawn in a 2014 metaanalysis on incarceration. quote: racial bias and discrimination are not the primary causes of disparities in sentencing decisions or rates of imprisonment. overall, when statistical controls are used to take count of offense statistics, prior criminal records and personal characteristics, black defendants are, on average, sentenced somewhat but not substantially more severely than why notes. than whites. contextual contextualizing the data is a major theme of this book because placing the data in their proper context awning tes the impact -- often mutes the impact. >> watch the full program anytime online at booktv.org. just search rafael magual or the title of his book, criminal injustice. >> and you've been watching booktv. every sunday on c-span2 watch nonfiction authors discuss their books. television for serious readers. and watch them all online anytime at booktv.org. you could also
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