How a young candidate set out to overthrow a broken political system and rebuild trust between government and people on the street.
by Michael Corbin, photo by J.M. Giordano
De’Von Brown went from Boys of Baraka to city council candidate. And he lost. But Brown wasn’t just out to win a political race; he hoped to rewrite a contract between the people and their government.
De’Von Brown looked like a preacher on Sunday as he stepped to the podium. He took a beat to eye the camera and take in the small but enthusiastic crowd that had gathered at Terra Café on East 25th Street last spring.
“I am here today to announce that I am running for city council in the 12th district,” said the 21-year-old Maryland Institute College of Arts senior. “I offer change … Baltimore can do better than The Wire. We are more than this.”
Brown, an aspiring filmmaker, knows intimately the power of images to control a narrative and make meaning. His 12-year-old innocence and pathos were captured in the 2006 documentary Boys of Baraka, about a group of Baltimore youth who were sent to school in Africa through a program that attempted to protect kids from the depredations of the inner city.
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