By Rona Kobell

The Environmental Justice Journalism Initiative is pleased to share that our film, Eroding History, is going to be shown four times in Baltimore over the next two months. The showings are:

The Park School

5th Annual Baltimore County Community Outreach Forum/ Maryland Lynching Memorial Project

Saturday, January 13, 10am to 1pm

2425 Old Court Road, Baltimore

Register here

Reginald Lewis Museum (RESCHEDULED TO 2/22)

Martin Luther King Day Celebration, Inner Harbor

Thursday, Feb. 22, 6pm to 8pm

830 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore

IMET at the Inner Harbor

Wednesday, Jan. 24, 6pm to 8pm

701 E. Pratt Street, Baltimore

University of Baltimore 

Wednesday, Feb. 28, 6pm to 8pm

Wright Theater, Student Center, 5th Floor

21 W. Mt. Royal Ave., Baltimore

Dorchester Center for the Arts

Saturday, March 9, 5:30pm to 8pm

Todd Hall, Dorchester Center for the Arts, Cambridge, MD

Reception at 5:30; Film at 6:30; Panel discussion to follow

University of Maryland, Baltimore County

Thursday, March 14

Albin O. Kuhn Library, UMBC

This screening will be accompanied by several guest lectures from EJJI co-founder Rona Kobell.

We are also showing the film at the University of Maine in Orono this February. The university is bringing Rona and director André Chung to the school for a couple days of screenings and public lectures.

The recent screenings are part of an 8-month tour around the region for this 27-minute documentary about Black communities on the Eastern Shore. So far, we have screened Eroding History at The Senator Theatre, the MLK Library in Washington, Loyola University Maryland, the Natural History Society of Maryland, the Maryland Historic Trust, University of Nebraska and Georgetown University. We have also shown it to the Chesapeake Conservancy, Shore Rivers, the Nature City Forum, Washington College, and many others. 

We are still hoping to screen the film on the Eastern Shore and have been in contact with the Maritime Museum in Sr. Michaels, the Nabb Center at Salisbury, and UMES. These discussions are ongoing. Representatives from DNR, MDE, and the legislature have also reached out about screenings. Our emails are always open; it’s a matter of what we can schedule.

For us, the most rewarding part of the film’s success is getting the issue of equity out to the wider public. In many cases, we have deferred our speaking fees and instead asked for donations to the John Wesley organization, which is trying to restore its church and cemetery. We hope there will be more opportunities to do that.

We would love to see you at a screening - please come if you can. And if you can’t make it, the film will air on Maryland Public Television for Chesapeake Bay Week in April and will stream on PBS for those not in the state. You can also ask your public television station to air Eroding History.

I would like to again thank everyone who helped make this film possible. It has made a difference in the lives of so many, and we hope it will continue to have a positive impact going forward.