BALTIMORE — A warm room on a cool spring night, filled with familiar faces, some in seats and some lining the walls.
Community members gather in the gallery of "The Last Resort an artist residency and retreat that regularly holds space for local artists to attend "The First of Many series."
This is a photo/event series by Jasmine Washington that aims to highlight prominent voices in a specific and highly communal corner of the Baltimore art scene.
Akile Butler, one of the cohort and founder of niche clothing brand "Hey! A Kilogram," whose photo also lines the wall of local influencers in the space, tells me that the path to creative actualization wasn't so simple.
"I remember being in high school and feeling like I didn't have an identity, especially an artist's identity, cause I didn't grow up wanting to be an artist but looking up to artists, people who I thought were cool and kinda feeling like I'm in that same and there's people that do look up to me, wanna hear me talk," says Butler.
They did indeed. The crowd sat patiently, focused on receiving the gems that Akile and his class of creative pioneers had to share.
From Josh Slowe and his "Jazz Camp" brand creating contemporary reimaginings of vintage cut & sew pieces to Aaron and his iconic hats and accessories by way of his his"alwaysworking" brand and Butch Dawson, a local underground rap hero, whose music brought a lot of the troupe together.
Akile doesn't hold back his fervor as he referred to their continued collaboration as a "Full Circle Moment."
"That's what I always wanted things to be, like from me knowing Butch from when I was in high school and being able to shoot campaigns with him to now calling him a friend," says Butler.
"I'm hoping that there are younger people who are looking to me and admire my brand and the things that I make and that I'm able to connect with them and put them on game and give them the tools that I was able to find."
If there's one thing that's clear, it's that in this scene, working together bears more fruit for all to share.
"You know, steel sharpens steel for real; we're just all contributing to the creative ecosystem," says local artist Reem.
He tells any aspiring artists in the area that if you want to take part and grow, you only need to do a few things:
"Just come outside, make yourself known," Reem says. "Holla at us; we'll point you in the right direction and show you a good time."
