“What I love about Baltimore is that it's a city of neighborhoods and for the most part it’s a very welcoming community where you can really get involved and make a difference if you want to. People aren’t looking down on you, they aren’t judging your pedigree, they aren’t trying to assess what college you graduated from. It's really: Who are you? Are you a good person? And if you want to get involved you can. Professionally, I do urban planning; economic development; shaping neighborhoods. For me, the arts are still a vital component of neighborhood and place making. Transforming vacant lots, activating abandoned buildings with murals, having performances in underutilized spaces, that's all really important to me.”