American Jewish Life

Baltimore Ceasefire 365, Interview #1

Baltimore Ceasefire 365 offers a community based approach to gun violence reduction. Many crime rates have dropped in Baltimore during the pandemic, but gun violence continues. The goal of Baltimore Ceasefire 365 is for everyone in the city to commit to zero murders. We started by calling ceasefire weekends, where we ask everyone to be peaceful and celebrate life. In doing the outreach for ceasefire weekends, residents are: helping each other get the resources they need in their lives, having conversations with each other about how to handle conflict differently, and making commitments to one another to be non-violent in thoughts, words, and deeds, for AT LEAST the ceasefire weekend. When people are killed in Baltimore, we believe that their lives matter. We believe that the places where people are taken by violence should be Sacred Ground. We believe that just like somebody showed up to kill them, people should show up in that same space to send love and light to that person's spirit, to the community, and to their loved ones. During Sacred Space Rituals, people are invited to do whatever they believe will put love and light in the space. Baltimoreans show up to make sure that love has the last say in that space, how much the person matters has the last say in that space, and that murder does not have the last say. Baltimore Ceasefire 365 volunteers who have been trained to facilitate these Rituals are the people who schedule when they happen. Trained facilitators see who has been murdered, and check their calendars to see when they are available to bless the space. The CSRC grant will allow us to provide outreach materials, support families who lose loved ones to violence during ceasefire weekends, and to expand Baltimore's ability to address and heal the root causes and impacts of violence

"24 sec: About organization/movement (movement not organization)
3:03: every 3 month, first friday -sun. of month
5:21: ""honoring fathers who have lost their child from violence""
6:22: ""make it a sacred place""
7:17:""sacred place rituals happen @7:00""
8:34: ""understand violence as an epidemic""
14:25: can become ceasefire ambassador 51
15:52: where name originated?
18:22: 2017 Baltimore had highest murder rate of time per capita
19:52: ""no to all violence""
20:35 : ""call to life celebrations""
21:42: ""use same energy and focused it peace""
22:55: 15-20 people named the movement includes everyone
25:20 : ""redemption is a real thing""
26:27 : ""hard to find an offender who wasn't a victim""
28:00 : ""society has us living in criminal conditions""
28:44: ""food apartheid in Baltimore""
34:11: Forgiveness is accepting this persons amnesia of how great they were""
36:10: ""find ways to address root causes of violence""
38:06: what do sacred place rituals look like?
40:22: ""burning sage in African tradition for a while""
21:21: ""spirits led them to burn sage""
42:26: ""poor love and life in space""
43:14: ""murder is energy and vibration""
48:27: ""show up to love a person who was killed""
48:58: ""emotional and physical exhaustion""
50:38: people started wanting to be blessed/having their house blessed"

November 3, 2020

Abel Gomez

Ariel Meija

Kayla Wheeler (advisor)

Ericka Bridgeford

Baltimore Ceasefire 365

Maryland

Baltimore

oral history

Center for the Study of Religion and the City

Sacred space

gun violence

urban space

ritual

ceremony

food

food apartheid