On Thursday, April 10 at 5:30 PM EST, we are so excited for and invite you to the Exhibition Opening Reception for Toxic Overburden: 100 Years of Environmental Injustice and Resistance at the Peale Museum (225 Holliday St., Baltimore, MD 21202). This will be an opportunity to learn about the history of environmental harms and environmental justice action in South Baltimore as told by and directed by youth community leaders and other advocates.

If you would like to attend the opening reception, please register here: https://thepeale.org/event/exhibition-opening-reception-toxic-overburden/. We will provide a light dinner and drinks to celebrate this remarkable work. There will be a panel discussion with four environmental justice youth leaders from Benjamin Franklin High School in Curtis Bay, South Baltimore.

Title: Toxic Overburden: 100 Years of Environmental Injustice and Resistance

Summary: Curtis Bay is a community in South Baltimore that has experienced over 100 years of environmental violence and harm as a result of the cumulative impacts of stationary toxic facilities (over 70+ facilities in one community). The city of Baltimore has utilized the land as a dumping ground for heavy industrious and noxious facilities. The exhibit educates the general public about policies, practices, and budgets that have made our state and city officials complicit in ongoing environmental violence. For the past 15 years, Free Your Voice and the South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT) have been inspiring young people from South Baltimore communities to conduct their own research and utilize data to advocate for systemic change. This youth-designed exhibit (envisioned, designed, and built alongside) architects from Neighborhood Design Center (NDC) features some of the youth visions of environmental toxicity and harm through maps, photography, historic timelines, and interactive standing displays. The exhibit challenges the viewer to imagine green and sustainable alternatives which include worker benefit agreements and to plug into the ongoing advocacy work in the community.

Sponsors: South Baltimore Community Land Trust (SBCLT), Community of Curtis Bay Association (CCBA), Johns Hopkins University CHARMED Center, Benjamin Franklin High School, Towson University (Department of Sociology, Anthropology and Criminal Justice), Morgan State University (Center for Urban Health Equity), and The Chesapeake Bay Trust