An African American woman with short hair and tattoos on her shoulders cuts a woman's hair in a salon.

400 East Patapsco Avenue

Signal producer Aaron Henkin and electronic musician Wendel Patrick stay true to form in this second installment of their award-winning audio documentary series, Out of the Blocks.  Henkin’s interviews blend with Patrick’s original music to generate an evocative collage of lives in juxtaposition: octogenarian pigeon racers, evangelizing barbers, philosophical convenience-store clerks, reformed and not-so-reformed drug dealers, aspiring hip hop musicians, mothers, daughters, and everybody else who agreed to share their stories on the 400 block of East Patapsco Avenue in South Baltimore’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Stories by Aaron Henkin; photos by Wendel Patrick. Click on the Headphones Icon at the top left…
A woman in a t-shirt and pony tail smiles in a close-up photo.

4700 Liberty Heights Avenue

The 4700 block of Liberty Heights Avenue is a portrait of survival and adaptability. It’s a self-governed, informal economy where the currency is respect.  Space is shared by merchants, churches, longtime residents, and drug dealers. Immigrants from Afghanistan, Pakistan, Nepal, West Africa, and Korea have set up shops alongside a dwindling number of African American-owned businesses.  Trust is earned here, not given lightly. Stories by Aaron Henkin; photos by Wendel Patrick. Click on the Headphones Icon at the top left of each image to hear the story! Listen to Jean JohnsonListen to Lena WynterListen to Anthony ArnoldListen to the Corner…
An African American woman listens to a takeout order on the phone in a restaurant.

2100 Edmondson Avenue

The corner diner, Soul Source, is the hub of the 2100 block  of Edmondson Avenue. The manager, Joyce, has been serving breakfast to the locals for 30 years. Her restaurant looks out onto a West Baltimore block scarred by gunshots and stabbings. But the block is more than its scars. It’s a block where a Pentecostal pastor keeps her faith in the face of suffering, where a reformed drug dealer works as a kitchen appliance repairman, and where a political reporter from Kashmir has found sanctuary working behind the counter at a sandwich shop. It’s a block where a former Nigerian soccer star operates…