Join us on for a special roundtable gathering to reflect on a transformative year of events on Reimagining Land.

Over the past year, the Ecological Design Collective has hosted a series of community “Groundings” across Baltimore—immersive events that invited participants to consider land as more than territory or property, but as a living, breathing network of relationships between humans, nonhumans, histories, and futures.

This culminating roundtable, taking place at Blueprint Café on May 22nd from 4:00 PM to 6:00 PM, features a dynamic group of thinkers, artists, and organizers who have shaped and inspired this year’s programming: Bruce Willen, Adam Malfa, David Landolfi, Robin Gunkel, Kristine Roome, Nicole Labruto, Anand Pandian, Bill Harvey, and Kenya Miles. Together, they will reflect on how land—particularly urban land in Baltimore—can be reimagined not as a commodity but as a commons, a site of repair, kinship, and ecological design.

How do land-based practices of storytelling, artmaking, healing, and history help us imagine more just and reciprocal relationships with place? This conversation is both a reflection and a call forward—a chance to share what has been learned, unearthed, and seeded, and to consider what may yet emerge.

The roundtable will take place on May 22nd between 4 pm and 6 pm at Blueprint Café, 3120 ST Paul St. Baltimore, MD 21218. Refreshments will be served!

Join us for the culminating event of the Reimagining Land theme, as we gather to reflect, connect, and celebrate with a public conversation between Rashid Yahaya and Eric Jackson.

This special event brings together voices from Ghana and Baltimore in dialogue on land, memory, and the collective work of healing.

Rashid will be visiting from Barcelona to share insights from his work with CEHDA-GHANA, an association founded by Ghanaian and Catalan residents of Catalonia. CEHDA-GHANA works to improve opportunities for migrant communities in Catalonia, support grassroots initiatives for community resilience in the Sawla District of Ghana’s Savannah Region, and promote traditional agricultural practices and cultural heritage rooted in Ghanaian knowledge systems.

In conversation with Rashid is Eric Jackson, founder of the Black Yield Institute, a Black-created, Black-led institution rooted in South Baltimore. Grounded in Pan-African thought and practice, Black Yield Institute organizes through land and food as central sites of resistance, healing, and transformation. The Institute envisions a self-determined, cooperative, and thriving community—one in which Black people govern the politics, economics, health, land, and food systems that shape their lives, from seed to waste.

The themes guiding this conversation arise from shared questions and lived experiences: How are African and African American communities reclaiming identity in the face of historical misrepresentation and racial prejudice? What roles do language, ancestral knowledge, and oral history play in the healing of personal and collective wounds? How might traditions—from the Gonja perspective in Ghana to the foodways of Black Baltimore—offer pathways toward environmental and social repair?

As the final gathering in our yearlong exploration of Reimagining Land, this event is both a reflection and a celebration—an opportunity to look back, share across place and perspective, and plant new seeds for what comes next.

The event will also feature a special Ghanaian meal served at Blueprint Café.

Thank you to all who attended our End-of-Year Reception!

We’re excited to share some highlights—check out these photos from the event! The Ecological Design Collective would like to express our heartfelt thanks to the many collaborators who made our 2024–2025 year of programming so impactful, including Robin Gunkel, Bill Harvey, Judy Neff, Adam Melfa, David Landolfi, Bruce Willen, Akshita Siddula, Liz Lamb, Ebram Victoria, Kenya Miles, Alyssa Dennis, and many more.

A very special thank you to Cristina Murphy and her fabulous team at Blueprint Café for hosting our end-of-year reception, roundtable, and talk. If you stop by the café, you’ll also be able to view photographs and posters from the various events we’ve held throughout the year. Catch the exhibit before it closes at the end of May.

Finally, we extend our sincere gratitude to the hundreds of participants who joined us in making this such an inspiring year of programming!