A list of upcoming events organized or supported by Baltimore Sister Cities and our sister city committees (Changwon, South Korea; Gbarnga, Liberia; Kawasaki, Japan; Luxor & Alexandria, Egypt; Piraeus, Greece; Rotterdam, the Netherlands; Xiamen, China) and our affiliates. Events include:
Census: Outreach to Baltimore’s immigrant communities
MIMA (Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs) has released a website for Census 2020, with information available in multiple languages.
The site contains Census outreach materials in multiple languages as well as opportunities to get involved. You can help promote the census in your community by requesting MIMA to share Census info at an upcoming event or let MIMA know if you are interested in volunteering as a Census Ambassador to help Baltimore’s immigrant communities fill out the census.
MIMA is looking to our community partners (YOU!) to help ensure that every Baltimore resident is counted this year.
Baltimore Sister Cities food drive for Maryland Food Bank
Baltimore Sister Cities is proud to partner with the Maryland Food Bank to host a Virtual Food Drive this spring to support our hungry neighbors. Every dollar you give will provide not only the gift of food, but the gift of hope for food-insecure children and families during this difficult and uncertain time. Visit mdfoodbank.fenly.org/drive/baltimoresistercities-fooddrive to make a donation to our food drive today!
More information about our drive
Asia North 2020
Asia North–a celebration of art, culture, and the Asian heritage of Greater Baltimore, especially the Korean history of the Charles North community (a.k.a. Station North). Asia North was inaugurated in 2019 and is co-presented by AA&CC, Central Baltimore Partnership, Charm City Night Market, and multiple community partners. In 2020, there are periodic online events throughout the year
- Asia North website
- Online introduction to Baltimore’s first Koreatown and the Korean community in Greater Baltimore
Online exhibition: Twenty-five Asian and Asian American artists from the Baltimore-Washington, DC region express, illustrate, and address the fusion of cultures, drawing from traditional art forms, memories of homeland, and more. Exhibition entry page
Promoted by Baltimore Sister Cities and its Asian sister city committees (Changwon, South Korea; Kawasaki, Japan; and Xiamen, China)
Saturday, August 8, 2020
Hiroshima & Nagasaki 75th Year Commemoration
As the inaugural initiative of the newly created “Japan Committee” of Sister Cities International, this project will promote the simultaneous ringing of bells in sister cities across the United States and Japan to mark 75 years of peace since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. They call on citizen diplomats and city leaders to coordinate these bell ringings in sister cities across the United States and Japan. City residents can mark the occasion by ringing bells—in a public space, a church or temple, or outside their own homes. The bell ringing event occurs on Weds, August 5 at 7:15pm, and on Sat. August 8 at 10:02 pm, to coincide with the actual times and dates the atomic bombs fell on Hiroshima and Nagasaki, respectively.
More information on Sister Cities International website.
Promoted by Baltimore-Kawasaki Sister City Committee
Tuesday, August 25, 2020
Baltimore Sister Cities presents Raising the Curtain on Race
Time: 7–8:30pm
Format: Virtual Workshop on Zoom platform
Admission: Free; advance registration required
To register: Eventbrite page
Baltimore, one of the oldest cities in the United States, is also known as Charm City and a City of Neighborhoods. Its rich history includes waves of immigration but also years of racial injustice right up to the present day.
Our guests for this evening will share personal stories on the Black and immigrant experience in Baltimore, focusing on systemic, institutional and structural racism and the role of White privilege. Our speakers for this learning experience are all members of Baltimore Sister Cities (BSC):
- Geri Byrd — Mayor’s Office representative and BSC Vice President
- Diana Zilberman — BSC Education Champion
- Teresa Leslie — Vice Chair, Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee
This is a global conversation on race and ethnicity in Baltimore City, part of BSC’s ongoing commitment to care for each other and work to improve our community, our city, our country and our world.
September 2020
Xiamen China International Fair for Investment & Trade (CIFIT)
Details to come.
Promoted by Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee (BXSCC).
Wednesday, September 30, 2020
WTCI’s 2020 Maryland International Business Leadership Awards
World Trade Center Institute (WTCI) hosts this annual event with Maryland Governor Hogan and 70+ presidents and CEOs to honor 2020′s award winners that have guided their companies and the state of Maryland to new global heights.
More info: Event page
October 2020
23rd annual meeting of the International Friends of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina (IFBA)
Members of Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee plan to attend this meeting in Alexandria, Egypt.
Supported by Baltimore-Luxor-Alexandria Sister City Committee (BLASCC).
Annual Baltimore Japan Arts Festival
Festival will be sometime in October. Date to be announced later. Stay tuned for more information!
Organized by Baltimore-Kawasaki Sister City Committee in conjunction with other partners.
Seagull Mamma — A Performance Piece about Trash and Recycling
Rotterdam-based, American-born theatre artist and educator Kathie diStefano visits Baltimore each semester. Her next trip is in fall 2020.
Ms. Kathie is part of the artist roster at Young Audiences Arts for Learning, Maryland and she performs “Seagull Mamma” at several schools in our region each semester. Public schools can sign up on the Young Audiences website to schedule the “Seagull Mamma” performance for this spring or in the future, for kids in kindergarten through grade 2. Young Audiences can provide subsidies to public schools to significantly reduce the cost of the performance by up to 80%; schools can inquire with Young Audiences for details.
This interactive show takes young audience members on a journey through the eyes of a seagull mamma who mistakes trash for fish while hunting for food for her young. The term ‘plastic soup’ is introduced; lakes, rivers, and seas that have so much plastic trash that no fish can live there.
Supported by Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC).
October 7-12, 2020
Baltimore Black International Film Festival
The annual Baltimore International Black Film Festival (BIBFF) provides a venue for independent films for, by and about African Americans, the African Diaspora, and members of the SGL-LGBT community locally, nationally and globally.
Baltimore Sister Cities encourages filmmakers from its sister cities to submit their films to the festival organizers for consideration to include in this festival.
More info: Call for submissions | About the festival
Saturday, October 24, 2020
Enoch Pratt Free Library’s Imagination Celebration
This event was originally scheduled for March 28 but will likely be rescheduled to October 24.
Location: Enoch Pratt Central Library, 400 Cathedral Street, Baltimore, MD 21201
Admission: Free
Pratt Library hosts Imagination Celebration (formerly known as the Fairy Tale festival. This signature event celebrates creativity and honors diverse voices and experiences within children’s literature and our communities.
Baltimore Sister Cities will have a table at this event with fun activities for kids from some of the countries around the world where we have sister cities.
Supported by Baltimore-Changwon Sister City Committee (BCSCC), Baltimore-Rotterdam Sister City Committee (BRSCC), and Baltimore-Xiamen Sister City Committee (BXSCC).
Note: due to the evolving worldwide COVID-19 coronavirus pandemic, we advise you to check each event’s page or event organizers for the latest updates about the event, before you go to attend an event.
