Upcoming Events

March Lunch and Learn: Preserving the AFRO News Archives

Join Afro Charities's executive director Savannah G.M. Wood for an engaging discussion about the organization's efforts to preserve the historic AFRO American Newspapers Archives. Founded in Baltimore 1892, the Afro was a crucial voice in the fight for civil rights from the very beginning. It grew into a vital news source for the African American communities along the East Coast, with editions in Washington, D.C., Richmond, Philadelphia, and Newark, New Jersey.

Wood will discuss Afro Charities's current processing project, public programs, and their redevelopment of Baltimore's historic Upton Mansion as the public research center for the collections; an artist's rendering of the completed building is shown here.

Savannah G.M. Wood is an artist with deep roots in Baltimore and Los Angeles. As the Executive Director of Afro Charities, she is leading the charge to increase access to the 130+-year-old AFRO American Newspapers's extensive archives. In this role, she has shepherded the organization through a period of historic growth, initiated new programming, and attracted support from national funders including the Mellon Foundation, the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, and The Ruth Foundation.

Wood is a graduate cum laude of the University of Southern California. She is a 2025 Tabb Research Center fellow, a member of the 2023 class of The Leadership Baltimore, a 2022 Saul Zaentz Innovation Fund fellow, 2022 Creative Capital finalist, and a 2019-2021 Robert W. Deutsch Foundation fellow. Like four generations of ancestors before her, she lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland, sharing and preserving Black stories.

April Lunch and Learn: Exploring Pocomoke Country: The History of the Indigenous People of the Lower Eastern Shore

Hear Norris Howard, Jr., Pocomoke Council Member and Tradition Bearer, speak on the history of the Pocomoke Indian Nation.. This talk will touch on European contact as well as the paramount relationships among sub-tribes or bands in the Pocomoke Homelands, including the Annemessee, Quindocqua, Morumsco, Gingoteague, and Mananoakin tribes. He will also describe interactions between the Pocomoke and the colonial governments of Maryland and Virginia, and the subsequent treaties which they signed. Shown here is a 1722 treaty between the Pocomoke and the colony of Maryland.

Norris "Buddy" Howard, Jr., lineal descendant of a Pocomoke Person, is a Council Member and Tradition Bearer for the Pocomoke Indian Nation, Inc. An alumnus of Wor-Wic Technical Community College and Salisbury University, he is a retired investigator for the Maryland Office of the Public Defender, where he served from 1983 to 2023.

He has presented on the Indigenous history of the Pocomoke Nation at numerous events, including the National Folk Festival, the Maryland Folk Festival, McDaniel College, Frostburg University, Salisbury University, Delmarva Discovery Museum, Pocomoke River State Park, Janes Island State Park, as well as schools and other local events on the Lower Eastern Shore of Maryland.

He has collaborated on several statewide projects including Indigenous Maryland and the Maryland State Arts Council's Land Acknowledgement Project. He currently serves as a commissioner on the Maryland Commission on Indian Affairs. At this event, he is speaking on behalf of his Tribal Community, the Pocomoke Indian Nation.