A part of Belt's City Anthology Series, a unique take on Charm City
through the eyes of those who live there every day.
To many outsiders, Baltimore--sometimes derisively called "Mobtown" or
"Bodymore"--is a city famous for its poverty and violence, twin ills
that have been compounded by decades of racial segregation and the loss
of manufacturing jobs. But that portrait has only given us a skewed view
of a truly unique and diverse American city, the place that produced
Babe Ruth, Elijah Cummings, Nancy Pelosi, Edgar Allan Poe, John Waters,
and Thurgood Marshall, and a city that's completely its own.
In the over thirty-five essays, poems, and short stories collected here,
the authors take an unfiltered look at the ins and outs of Baltimore's
past and present. You'll hear about the first time an umbrella appeared
in the Inner Harbor, nineteenth-century grave robbers, and the city's
history with redlining and blockbusting. But you'll also get a deeper
sense of what life is like in Baltimore today, including stories about
urban gardening in Bolton Hill, the slow demise of local journalism,
what life was like in the city during COVID, and the legacy of Freddie
Gray.
As Ron Kipling Williams writes in his essay about the city's magnetic
appeal, "Baltimore has always been a city worth fighting for," and
running through all these essays is the story of Baltimore's resilience.
From Pigtown to Pimlico, this anthology captures the sights, sounds, and
feel of this city that so many people have come to discover is truly a
lovely place, a fighting place, a charmer.
Edited by Gary M. Almeter and Rafael Alvarez, this anthology offers an
unfiltered look at Baltimore that will appeal to anyone looking for a
portrait of an American city that's far more nuanced than the stories
that are generally told about it.
