By: A. W. Taylor

In the 2021-2022 school year, a new period was added to the schedule at the Baltimore School for the Arts. The advisory period—known to BSA as the “crew” period—aimed to give students a space to debrief, talk about the challenges of life, and get to know their classmates better.

Editor’s Note: For the purpose of this article, the terms “advisory period” and “crew period” will be used interchangeably. 

According to the Baltimore City Public School System, the idea of the advisory period came out of the feeling of isolation students felt during the COVID-19 pandemic. During this time, BCPSS implemented some virtual activities in hopes of improving students’ social-emotional learning. 

But, when it came time for students to come back to school, City Schools realized that they had to redefine what schools and students would need.

To do this, they put in place their Reconnect, Restore, Reimagine plan, which outlined different strategies to accommodate student’s social and emotional needs, one of which was the advisory period. The plan stated that the advisory period would include “wellness activities, opportunities for individualized learning, and college and career exposure.”

“The year 2020 really peeled the layer off of what our students, teachers, and school communities value as necessary and important,” said Monique Crawley, an educational specialist at City Schools, in an email. She expressed that many students felt like they were missing a sense of community due to schools being closed. 

At BSA, the advisory period took the form of the crew period, a 36-minute period where students got together with their “crew,” a group of around 20 students from the same grade level, and two faculty advisors. 

In an email announcing crew to the student body, Thomas Askey, the assistant principal for academics at BSA, wrote that crew was a chance to “meet new adults, peers in other art areas, and build a community within a community.”

Ileana Imhoff, a Spanish teacher at BSA, recalls the introduction of crew being unclear. During those early days of crew Imhoff and fellow BSA teacher Jocelyn Providence volunteered to design the format and curriculum for the period. They helped develop announcements and guiding slides for advisors to use during the crew period. 

Imhoff, who has previous experience in advisory and crew-like activities, is an enthusiastic supporter of crew. She believes that students should have a space to talk about the happenings of the world, process moments of crisis, and a time to just “play.” She also enjoys guiding her group of students throughout their four years of high school.

Senior Brayden Hamilton, the vice president of BSA’s student government, enjoyed Crew when it was first introduced last year. She liked the opportunity it gave her to bond with other students. 

The crew period at BSA is not just used for bonding. The school administration, the student government, and other groups use the crew time to host all-school performances, town halls, assemblies, and other events of the like. 

Imhoff expressed that, while she hopes crew can be a time for students to connect to their peers and advisors, there is not much time to do that.  

“In reality it’s a very short period of time. We, I think this month, only had one meeting,” Imhoff said. “I think the building up or the cohesion of the curriculum or the values or the things that we want to do it’s just not there because I don’t remember when we saw crew last time, but it won’t be until maybe April or after spring break.”

Another criticism of the crew period is that it disrupts the schedule. In order to fit the crew period into BSA’s 10-period day, every period is shortened. Hamilton feels that this disturbance is hard on students.

“I feel like when we’re ripping and running that fast sometimes we could miss things or we could overlook things, and that’s not one hundred percent good for the student mind. So, I think we could slow down just a little bit sometimes,” expressed Hamilton.

Hamilton also believes that there should be set guidelines for crew, as she feels that the activities in each crew change from group to group. 

Imhoff also mentioned that there are differences between the crews, but she feels that this is natural.  

“Some teachers might want to be low key and do a homeroom kind of thing, like where everybody does their homework, others are more community-building oriented, others may be social justice or sports-oriented, so I think we always have these suggested activities, but it really is subjective because groups have to evolve in a way that feels organic,” said Imhoff.

Even though there are some students and staff that are skeptical about the crew, Imhoff believes that more people will buy into it. According to her, “Everybody should have somebody.”

To contact these writers email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Photographs taken by Audrey Weiss for the BSA Muse.

By: Scarlett O’Comartun and Jude Harvey

Many students roam the halls of Baltimore School for the Art’s very own fourth floor. Said floor is home to some of BSA’s brightest teachers, for example, Valerie Johnson, Ileana Imhoff, and Maria Tronolone. 

But how do students get to this sweet haven you might ask? And what does it say about them? 

Main stairway – Risk Takers 

The main stairway is for people who are either going to get water in the middle of class or who have incredible amounts of patience. You have guts if you go up the main stairway. 

You have  top-notch behavior when going up or down this red carpet. It is the perfect place to show off the outfit you had planned the night before or strut your stuff in front of your hallway crush. 

Although it might not be avoidable, the main stairway is only safe in the dead middle of class periods. For if one attempts during transition periods, the possibility of tripping and ramming into another student’s crotch is enevedable. If you take these stairs, you are a risk taker. 

You probably really like The 1975 or wear those slippers made of rubber golf balls. You have no fear and don’t mind the awkward smile you have to exchange when you bump into someone and they turn around to glare.

The only upside to the main stairway is when the devil has taken over you mid-academic class and your absolute quench for water becomes your main priority, then you can race down those main stairs like your life depends on it and feel that sweet paper rim on your tongue. 

Then those steps are like walking down a cloud. Or those foam slippers made out of rubber golf balls. 

Back stairway – Go Getters 

Although the back stairway may seem like a place to hike up your Y2K low rise jeans, eat an in-between class granola bar, or take a moment of peace, it’s not. Many people take this route, even though it’s shadowy and lacks renovations. Watch out for running into Mr. Ventimiglia. 

But do take a second to stand and watch the choir class as they sing along to Mozart on the second floor through the tiny window. 

On your way to your after-lunch classes, be sure to watch out for the hundreds of empty water containers right by the door; or are they modern art? We will never know. Stay clear! 

Be sure to be cautious when exiting to the first floor through these stairs because you will have to successfully navigate through the backrooms of the stage design and production department if you ever want to see the light of day again. 

Make sure to add the looming doom of the stage design room that you pass in between the first and second floor to your phobia list. 

You also might bump into the occasional class-skippers who think they’re being sneaky by lurking in the shadows of the dark halls. 

If you take the back stairway up, you’re a go-getter! A fast walker who just hates staring straight at people’s behinds as they move at a snail’s pace up the stairs. You enjoy the Silence of the Lambs aesthetic and find comfort in the Brazil-like, uncanny valley atmosphere. 

Front elevator – Newbies

The front elevator is located to your left as you walk through the front doors and is a well-lit and obvious way to get to the fourth floor. The ride takes you to many stops, including the second floor, for musicians who don’t like walking up the stairs. 

This elevator is almost always jam-packed. If you are coming from a crowded class or lunch period, be prepared to be uncomfortably close to people, hear their music full blast through their earbuds (or with no earbuds at all!), or  be turned away awkwardly by the already sardine-packed students in the elevator. 

And be sure to protect your sinuses from the whiffs of Ariana Grande perfume you will inhale. There will also be a stop at the third floor where people will complain about how it is not that far from the lower floors and students should just walk.

If you take this elevator, you are either more of a newbie or a teacher. You like the obvious way and have not yet learned, or simply do not care, that there are less stressful ways to make your way up to the fourth floor. 

Back elevator – Subtle Loners

The back elevator, which you can find to your right as you walk through the main doors, is more exclusive. Even though it’s in clear sight, people tend to forget about it due to the dim lighting. 

But, if you learn the ways of it, you can learn to enjoy its fake wood paneling and slight smell. This lift’s basement stop also comes with a free show! Students get the joy of gawking at the set of abandoned washing machines as they wait somewhat patiently to hear those music-to-the-ear elevator dings. 

If you take this elevator, you are more of a subtle loner. You enjoy the peace and quiet, but like seeing a few film students taking giant carts of film equipment down from the third floor. 

You’re a mellow student, but probably take weekly trips to the nurse because you “have a migraine.” 

You may be the kind of person who enjoys a bit of Arctic Monkeys or wears sweatshirts with niche pictures on them that only certain people would understand. You probably have Letterboxd and are sure to ask Mr. Roblin if he “ever had an emo phase” so you two can relate. 

This is also the elevator that defiant visual artists slip into on their way to the top of the building in the morning in an attempt to get out of the routine bag checks. We see you! 

SPECIAL OPTION:

Main stairs, film stairs, then main stairs – Free Spirit

If you decide to take the long way to the fourth floor, which is up the main staircase, through the music department, up the stairs leading to the film department, and then up the main stairs, you are a stroller. 

You are a wanderer, a free spirit, and a nomad. You’re a real Jack Karouac, On The Road! You don’t need no schedule and no man! 

When given an icebreaker on the first day of school, such as two truths and a lie, one of them is definitely your star sign, and Never On Sunday is where you call home. 

You are almost always late to class because it takes 15 minutes to go this way. Some of your favorite activities might include going to the bathroom during class and sitting on the toilet on your phone, starting BSA finest people instagram pages, and eating those smiley face french fries in the cafeteria. 

In conclusion, we all fit one of these stereotypes, even if we would not like to admit it. And we most definitely all know the back stairway go-getter or a front elevator noob.

So next time, join those free birds on their way to the fourth floor. Or take a risk and walk down the main staircase at 3:51pm. 

We can all find contentment in the fact that no matter what way, route, or mode of transportation students take to the fourth floor, We all have shortness of breath far into our next class.

To contact these writers email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Photographs taken by Quinn Bryant for the BSA Muse.

By: Malik Savage

Tyre Nichols, a 29-year-old Black man who lived in Memphis, Tennessee, was brutally assaulted and ultimately killed by five Memphis Police Department officers. The incident has reignited debate over the decades-long issue of police brutality, especially in the newer age of video and social media. After being captured on film by police body cameras and a nearby pole camera, footage of the encounter spread like wildfire on the news and social media. But what complicates this case is that all five officers involved in the killing were also Black: Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills, Emmitt Martin, Justin Smith, and Tadarrius Bean.

This cuts against the routine narrative of excessive, targeted police violence simply being the result of individual or interpersonal racism; in other words, the “bad apples” in a good system. After George Floyd’s death at the hands of officer Derek Chauvin, then-National Security Advisor for the Trump Administration Robert C. O’Brien took to CNN to say, “We have got great law enforcement officers, not the few bad apples, like the officer that killed George Floyd. But we got a few bad apples that have given law enforcement a bad name; 99.9 percent of these guys are heroes. […] I think they’re the minority. […] and we need to root them out.”

The danger of this argument not only lies in its dismissiveness of the issue, but also in its shift of blame. In his statement, O’Brien had no issue seeing that Chauvin be blamed for Floyd’s death, but while personal accountability is especially important, it can remove focus from the bigger picture: the system. If one only focuses on the individual, nothing else changes. The idea that these cases of excessive police violence are incidental encourage complacency in small steps toward progress. The firings and arrests of these officers does offer a sense of justice, but it doesn’t dismantle the system that produced them. It is not only necessary that we remove the bad apples, but that we also chop down the tree responsible for their initial growth.

Newer cops who join the force are compelled, if not trained, to assimilate into that police culture, pushing their limits of authority to the extreme. But the officers who killed Tyre Nichols were not new; all five had been employed in the Memphis Police Department since 2020 (Haley and Bean), 2018 (Martin and Smith), and 2017 (Mills). These are notions embedded into an officer’s psyche early into their career, so consequences only propagate as time goes on.

This span of consequence from police culture—from the direct permissiveness of violence to an overall lack of accountability—calls for public action. For insulation to be disrupted, the force must come from outside. A way in which individuals can help disrupt this is to watch the videos that are released of these encounters in order to combat the policing culture that allows excessive violence to pervade and go unpunished. However, the funnel through which the video is being seen is an important caveat. In today’s age, the spread of misinformation runs rampant on the Internet, and spreads well beyond the heart-wrenching genre of unequivocal police violence footage, admitting space for false narratives. On the opposite end of the spectrum, social media—especially Twitter—allows for videos to be uploaded with very little to no context, so people are inclined to make uninformed judgments. This is also harmful to the cause of dismantling the police system.

One sound way of receiving information regarding police encounters is through visual investigations and articles, such as coverage by the New York Times. Robin Stein, Alexander Cardia, and Natalie Reneau’s “71 Commands in 13 Minutes” is an article which analyzed the videos released of Nichols’s encounter, offering detailed information and context necessary to form illuminated judgments, all without even having to watch it. The Times has also released investigative coverage on the cases of Breonna Taylor, George Floyd, and Ahmaud Arbery. When researching such disputed information, it is important to make the distinction between whether it is being distributed with the intention to enlighten, or to push a particular agenda.

Although difficult, this is how the system can be worked against from outside. An institution designed for public safety cannot be allowed to operate largely in private, especially in such a culture of protecting and promoting officers prone to violence.

To contact this writer, email Muse Newspaper at musebsa@bsfa.org.

Headline photo credit goes to Gerald Herbert for the Dallas Morning News.