An African American woman with Buddy Holly-style glasses and a plaid shirt stands in a restaurant kitchen.

2400 St. Paul Street

The locals call it Black Wall Street, and it’s earned the nickname. Seventeen black-owned businesses operate on the 2400 block of St. Paul Street, which sits on a bustling intersection at the geographic center of Baltimore city.  In this episode, we meet the crew at Reflection Eternal Barbershop, where an aspiring music producer creates hip hop tracks in between haircuts. We visit Deleen’s Boutique, where the namesake proprietor works wonders on a Juki sewing machine. We drop in at Flourish, a shop that specializes in crystals, essential oils, and Tibetan Singing Bowls. And we check out what’s cooking in the kitchen…
An African American man with a plaid, button-down shirt and sun glasses looks at the camera.

1100 Ward Street

Back in the 1800's, they literally herded pigs through the streets of Southwest Baltimore's Washington Village, from the terminus of the B & O Railroad to the neighborhood's meat packing plants and butcher shops. The nickname, 'Pigtown,' has stuck, but the industry is long gone from this part of the city. These days, the neighborhood is known for unemployment, homelessness, and drug addiction. The 1100 block of Ward Street stares these problems in the face and does everything it can to turn the tide. Paul's Place Outreach Center is a beacon of hope on Ward Street, and in this episode…
A white woman wearing artsy glasses and denim shirt stands in what appears to be a gallery space.

200 West Saratoga Street

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…