Founded in 2017, the mission of the Billie Holiday Center for Liberation Arts is to document and disseminate the unique history of African American life, letters, and art in Baltimore, Maryland, and to foster intellectual linkages between the Johns Hopkins Homewood campus and the historic “inner city” of Baltimore. We accomplish our objectives through five core programs:

• Jazz in the Square
• JHU-University of Baltimore Community Archives Program
• The Baltimore Africana Archives Initiative
• Helena Hicks Emancipation School

In addition to programming, the Billie Holiday Center promotes teaching and learning initiatives that support its mission through student-led humanities research and exhibitions, and innovative classroom teaching with Africana archives, artifacts, and digital resources.

Sample Courses

• Frederick Douglass Maps
• Baltimore’s Billie Holiday
• Arts and Social Justice
• Qualitative Research Methods: Community-based Learning in West Baltimore
• Graduate Proseminar: Teaching with Africana Objects and Collections
• Commemoration, Mourning, and Race: The Stories of Mount Auburn Cemetery
• Anti-Racism 101