CITY FROM BELOW | Friday March 27th - Sunday March 29th
Baltimore, MD

For all urban and non-urban dwellers...well just about everyone, the end of this month will be bringing us the City from Below conference! Red Emma's , the 2640 space , the Indypendent reader , Baltimore Development Cooperative, Camp Baltimore, and the Campaign for a better Baltimore have teamed up to bring together a gathering of activists, artists and intellectuals from here and abroad to reexamine and redefine our cities from below.

The City from Below seeks to provide a space where theory and practice can be kneaded together, with an understanding that the urban terrain is now an indispensable part of all struggles for social justice and change. This conference is committed to a horizontal framework, ie. where participation is key and the dichotomy of presenter and audience is blurred.

Consisting of three days of panels, workshops, discussions and presentations by a very long and exciting list of groups and people, (viewable here: http://cityfrombelow.org ) , the City from Below hopes to set or fuel the motion of movement(s) for social justice.

Full schedule and locations right here: http://cityfrombelow.org/event/2009/03/27/list/all/all

To get the dialogue going before we all see each other face to face please check out the news and resources panel on the website, here you can see news articles, papers, and writings by or of some of the conference presenters as well as the themes of the conference.

For news and resources view here: http://cityfrombelow.org/cityfrombelow/blog

This conference is being organized by all volunteers, so we of course need your help and participation! If you would like to do anything from documentation to panel moderation or child care to general staffing, please sign up!

Speaking of childcare there will be special programming for the young and old to participate in, dubbed KID(z) CITY.

KID(z) CITY is a creative program intended to support children and parents' access to participation at the City from Below conference and to promote all ages interaction—with respect and equality.

To learn more or to be involved view here: http://cityfrombelow.org/category/city-from-below-topic-tag/childcare

To be informed of any updates, news, and general information about the conference please go to the website: www.cityfrombelow.org

We look forward to seeing and engaging with you...and please help spread the word!

the City from Below Organizing Committee

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Also coming up is the B'More Fair

Following up on their historic victory to secure a living wage for the day-laborers who clean the Camden Yards baseball stadium, the UW is taking on Baltimore's Inner Harbor next. In many ways the template for corporate-driven, tourist-focused, city-center urban renewal in North America, the Inner Harbor provides very little to the city itself besides low-paying, precarious service work. The United Workers are specifically addressing their organizing towards this problem, but with an eye towards facilitating larger processes and networks of community mobilization - the Inner Harbor, before it's current incarnation, used to host the "City Fair," bringing all the neighborhoods of Baltimore together for a weekend of celebration. With the B'MORE FAIR this April 18th, the United Workers, in conjunction with a very large group of allied organizations, is proposing to reappropriate this civic tradition in the name of community and social justice.

More details at http://b-morefair.blogspot.com/