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Publishing Presents:
Highlandtown Art Walk Writer-in-Residence
The writer-in-residence for
April, May and June 2019 is Kerry Graham.
By Kerry Graham
April 14, 2019
Maybe I’m more of a procrastinator than I thought. After owning a home in Highlandtown for three years, and living just outside Highlandtown for five years before that, the other day, I attended my first ever First Friday Art Walk. These walks began in 2016, and I’ve responded as “interested” in them on Facebook—and meant it! —for at least half that time. But it wasn’t until the opening First Friday Art Walk of 2019, my first as a Highlandtown Writer-in-Residence, that, finally, I attended.
That night, as I wandered down the streets of names I cannot help but know—Highland, Gough, Conkling—I stepped in and out of worlds I did not. I signed the guest book at Y:Art in purple colored pencil, remembering the winter morning over a year ago when I told myself I’d check this gallery out ASAP. At Zwiebach Creations, while admiring the painted puzzles of Baltimore scenes, I made a mental list of friends for whom these would be the perfect gift. When I met Felicia, gallery owner at Highlandtown Gallery, I wondered about what sort of writing I would create in this beautiful space.
One of the few places along the walk where I had “history” was Night Owl Gallery, and even those walls were unfamiliar. “Oh, wow,” I said to gallery owner Beth-Ann as I stepped inside. “This looks so different from last week!”
Throughout the entire Art Walk, I moved between the familiar and the foreign. This was particularly noteworthy for me, someone who, in a lot of ways, lives hyper-locally. The school where I teach, the vet where I take my cats, my gym, my preferred grocery store, even my dentist, are all within a few mile radius from my house. I loathe commuting, so I want to be able to get to most places by foot or with a quick car ride.
But again and again, I entered places I had never been before, and even noticed some for the first time. I was a mere half mile from my house, but didn’t feel like I was home. Instead, I recalled how I felt early on when I’ve moved abroad. In both Europe and Africa, I quickly learned the nearby places where I’d most often return: the post office, market, most convenient bar. I fast-tracked familiarity as a way to nurture a home that wasn’t quite home.
Other places, though, I became intimate with more organically. The red boathouse along the canal. The shop of homemade crafts. I found them a bit later, but they soon became a meaningful part of my routine.
A few days after my first Art Walk, my brother and I were talking about a place in his community that he has only recently come to appreciate, despite how long he’s lived there. On the tip of my tongue was something along the lines of “That’s exactly how I feel about these venues in Highlandtown!” but then he, as usual, easily said something better. Wiser.
“Goes to show me that it’s worth being patient to find change.”
Kerry Graham lives, teaches, writes and runs in East Baltimore. Her vignettes have appeared, or are forthcoming, in borrowed solace, The Citron Review, Crack the Spine, and Gravel. She is a regular contributor to Role Reboot, and runs a collaborative weekly newsletter called In This Together.