The 200 block of West Saratoga Street is nestled in the frenetic bustle of downtown Baltimore. Church bells ring in a duet with the clanging Light Rail, city buses rattle and hiss, and loud sidewalk conversations compete with the din. These are the sounds that reverberate through a block peppered with Bengali body oil shops, barbershops and salons, a magic candle store, and the shoe-repair shop of a Russian cobbler. A vanguard of artists populates a five-story building on the block, a honeycomb of musicians, painters, fashion designers, and jewelers. As a sum of its parts, 200 West Saratoga is an ecstatic cacophony of optimism, ambition, anxiety, and resilience.
Click the Headphones Icon at the top left of the image to hear the story.

Listen to Alex Shkolnak, The Cobbler Shop 
Listen to Amy Cavanaugh Royce, Maryland Art Place 
Listen to Babar Ali, Down Town Gift and Variety 
Listen to Bishme Cromartie 
Listen to Brandon Lackey 
Listen to Clifford Lull, North Charles Street Design Organization 
Listen to Denise Tisdale, Beauty of a Woman Salon 
Listen to EZE Jackson 
Listen to Grandma, Grandma’s Candle Shop 
Listen to Gregory Lamberson 
Listen to Marcel, My Barber Shop 
Listen to Priya Bhayana 
Listen to Ronnie Downes 
Listen to Abdullah, Bismillah Body Oil 
Listen to Bulbul Ahammed, Ahmed Body Oil & Variety Shop 
Listen to Hamza, Saratoga Grocery Store 
Listen to Jordan Faye Block 
Listen to Mohammad Kazal, Bismillah Body Oil 
Listen to Nick Costanzi and Jim Berg, Baltimore Society of Model Engineers
Transcripts
- Grandma at Grandma’s Candle Shop
- Mohammad Kazah at Bismillah Body Oil
- Alex Shkolnak at The Cobbler Shop
- Denise Tisdale at Beauty of a Woman Salon
- Nick Costanzi and Jim Berg at the Baltimore Society of Model Engineers
- Abdullah at Bismillah Body Oil
- Babar Ali at Down Town Gift and Variety
- Amy Cavanaugh Royce at Maryland Art Place (MAP)
- Gregory Lamberson
- Bishme Cromartie
- Jordan Faye Block
- Priya Bhayana
- Brandon Lackey
- EZE Jackson
- Ronnie Downes
- Bulbul Ahammed at Ahmed Body Oil & Variety Shop
- Marcel at My Barber Shop
- Clifford Lull at North Charles St Design Organization
- Hamza at Saratoga Grocery Store
