Recently, I attended a documentary screening and panel discussion of “Raised in the System,” about the tragedies and triumphs of juveniles in the prison system. Actor Michael K. Williams — best known for his role as Omar Little in the Baltimore-based television series “The Wire” — produced and starred in the film and attended the showing.
Though the event was lively and profound and focused on criminal justice reform, I could not help but feel disheartened as I reflected on the plethora of film and television industry stars such as Mr. Williams who arrive in Baltimore, shoot their productions and leave nothing for the locals.
Even those who have facilitated solid, transformative community work such as actress Sonja Sohn, who was also present that night, have failed to recognize that a fundamental way to curb juvenile violence and incarceration is to create sustainable pathways through arts institutions.
Why is the Baltimore School for the Arts the only arts school in the city? Despite their outstanding work, the school can only serve a tiny fraction of the city’s nearly 90,000 students.
Young people who believe they have no way of coping with circumstances of poverty and crime, and inner demons of self-hatred and low self-esteem, will either implode or explode. Mr. Williams referred to this as the “innie belly button,” where one turns against the self, and the “outie belly button,” where one turns against others. The actor/producer, who revealed his ongoing battle with substance addiction, would most likely have ended up a lifelong inmate or a resident in the cemetery if not for the arts.
There is a move toward a solution. The Baltimore Arts Education Initiative was created to institute comprehensive, sequential arts education programming by 2022. They are working with the city school board to fully fund and equip schools with full-time qualified arts teachers and resources.
In the years since in-school arts education programs have declined, violent classroom behavior, poor reading and writing skills, attention deficit disorders and truancy have worsened in some areas as children struggle with addiction or abuse in their home lives.
My challenge to Mr. Williams, and all of those who have prospered in the arts and entertainment industry, is to build something in Baltimore.
Build a music school, so that our young people will be singing music bars instead of grabbing prison bars. There are numerous aspiring singers, rappers and musicians needing technical skills to realize their dreams, and plenty of local professionals who can teach such skills.
Build a film school, so that young people can learn to create, produce and distribute, and their stories can be shown on large and small screens.
Build more schools for the arts, and spread them throughout the city so that children in outlying communities like Cherry Hill, Cedonia and Morrell Park won’t miss out because of their geography.
In other words, build a local arts and entertainment school pipeline, so we can replace the infamous school to prison pipeline.
Tragically in America, the arts are treated either as a commodity or a hobby. They have never been properly valued here as in other societies worldwide, where children are provided comprehensive exposure throughout their entire grade school careers.
This is why the arts are routinely eliminated first during school budget cuts, without understanding that a troubled child who does not pick up an instrument, a pen or a paintbrush now, may pick up a needle, a knife or a gun later.
To all of our icons who have ties to Baltimore — Mr. Williams, Ms. Sohn, Jada Pinkett Smith, Barry Levinson — build an arts and entertainment hub so our young people can actualize careers here and not be forced to flee to New York and Los Angeles to make it, returning to lick their wounds on their neighborhood stoop if they do not.
Art is an anti-violence program.
Deliver it to our children and let them make their own documentaries — about the things they create, and not the lives they waste.
Ron Kipling Williams is education manager at the Modell Performing Arts Center at the Lyric, and steering committee member of the Baltimore Arts Education Initiative. His email is ronkiplingwilliams@gmail.com.