BALTIMORE, md. — Today, East Baltimore Development, Incorporated (EBDI) unveiled a new Eager Park mural with the support of residents, community leaders, and elected officials.
The mural is the inaugural project of EBDI’s Public Arts and Placemaking Workgroup.
Muralist LaToya D. Peoples is a multidisciplinary artist, educator, and entrepreneur whose work explores identity and history through figuration, natural elements, color, and pattern. Through her mural and sculptural installation work, she creates transformative pieces guided by youth and community engagement.
“As a muralist, I get to create public art that is conceived of and lives in community,” said Muralist LaToya D. Peoples. “I ground my work in the vision of the people who make up the fabric of the neighborhood and use it to guide the direction of the piece. In each meeting, there was keen focus on the unique story of the neighborhood, the ways that the people who have been here the longest contribute to the beauty that it holds, and what it means to bridge the gap between the old and the new. I attempted to create a visual experience of that charm, resilience, and complex narrative.”
The mural gives reverent nods to the past while uplifting the present and providing a glimpse of the future. It conveys typical historic East Baltimore rowhome features, including bright marble stairs, a transom window, and the distinctive brick façade, with subtle themes throughout that uniquely connect back to East Baltimore.
Additionally, portraits of the following past, present, and future leaders appear in the mural:
- Darrian Alexander, a rising 9th grader and recent graduate of Henderson-Hopkins;
- Randolph Scott, a lifelong Middle East/Eager Park resident and retired Army veteran;
- SirKaeden Carr, a rising 1st grader at Henderson-Hopkins;
- Delegate Hattie Harrison, a lifelong resident and champion of East Baltimore who represented the 45th District as a State Delegate in the Maryland General Assembly from 1973 until she passed in 2013 as the longest-serving member of the Maryland House of Delegates and the first African American woman to chair a major committee;
- Latisha Jackson, a Henderson-Hopkins teacher, and her son, Daryll Thames, a rising 4th grader at Henderson-Hopkins; and
- Sol Aloe, a rising 4th grader at Henderson-Hopkins
“This mural showcases all that is the best of East Baltimore—the diversity, the culture, the history—in one piece of art,” said Mayor Brandon M. Scott. “It will serve as an inspiration for other public arts projects to come about in this neighborhood and continue to promote intersectional conversations and relationship building in our community— something that is so important for our city to grow again and become the best version of itself.”
