True Laurels

oluwa shower me your blessing times 2 🦀🤝

The next installment of True Laurels' summer film series is a super special one for me. Sunday at 6pm at The Parkway we'll be showing the amazing 'Two Gods' from Zeshawn & Aman Ali, a personal favorite from 2020. Then right after I’ll be having a discussion w/ the filmmakers + the doc’s main subject, brova Hanif. Slide thru! Flier by .el 🦀🚨🦀

Feelin vurry regal. Vurry presidential. 📸:

🦀🚨 All 10th Anniversary merchandise is now available for purchase in True Laurels online shop. Hit the bio link! 🦀🚨⁣
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1- True Laurels Issue 06⁣
2- Nu Chesapeake Trucker⁣
3- Crab Mallet Keychain⁣
4– 10th Anniversary Tee⁣
5- Nu Chesapeake Flag Bandana ⁣
6- True Laurels Tote

🚨 In 2004, one of the most important pieces of East Baltimore documentation was released when t.p. Luce’s Tha Bloc: Words, Photographs and Baltimore City in Black White and Gray was published. In it are beautifully-shot black and white photos (captured between 1995 and 2003) of people living their everyday lives: getting ready for church, loving on each other, shooting dice on the porch, playing video games with extension cords coming from inside the house. There’s poetry inspired by the community which serves as social commentary on what you’re seeing. It documents the transformation of a neighborhood in less than a decade. Tha Bloc is just as much an assessment of the things wrong with American society as it is one of the specific neighborhood that t.p. Luce lives in.⁣
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This book holds a special place in my heart because most of it is shot on Ramona Avenue, a street in Northeast Baltimore’s Belair-Edison neighborhood. My family lived on this block from the time I was 9 until about 15. A lot of the people photographed are people I saw everyday. I’ve known some since elementary school and some I still rock with today. And to make it even crazier, t.p. Luce is the father of one of my closest friends.⁣
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So it’s extra special to share this as the fourth and final cover of True Laurels Issue 06. For the story, I talk to t.p. in depth about the origins of the project, its legacy, and how he feels about it now that it’s almost 20 years old. Also extremely honored that he allowed me to dig through his archive of photos from the project (some that made the book and more that didn’t) and share them for this story. Link in bio! ⁣
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Words: Lawrence Burney⁣
Photos: Courtesy of t.p. Luce’s archive⁣
Publication Design: .el