Baltimore offers a sense of creative freedom to musicians, but those freedoms are almost exclusively limited to non-black artists, Jana Hunter writes in a new op-ed.
Hunter, singer of local band Lower Dens, authored the piece, titled "White Privilege and Black Lives in the Baltimore Music Scene," posted Tuesday on Pitchfork. In it, she addresses the disparity in success between mostly white musicians and bands like hers, Future Islands, Beach House, Dan Deacon and Wye Oak, and the black artists who receive less critical attention.
She interviews 25-year-old local musician and DJ Abdu Ali: "Me and my music peers of color have noticed, for one, it's always that conversation of why a lot of Baltimore musicians can't really pop off. ... We're right in a good hot spot. Baltimore musicians of color don't really make it here," he says.
Hunter goes on to posit Baltimore's white indie scene as reflective of a larger divide.
"Increasingly I saw my life here as parasitic," Hunter, who has lived in Baltimore for seven or eight years, writes. "I find the rent to be cheap here because I am white in an oppressed black city. The feelings of lawlessness and freedom exist for me because I am white in an oppressed black city."
Hunter and Ali also address the city after the death of Freddie Gray, as well as the need for more integrated spaces and shows.
Read the full op-ed here.
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