BALTIMORE SPEAKS OUT
Baltimore Speaks Out (BSO) is a 10-12 week after school program, teaching young people aged 10 to 14 digital media production, critical thinking, public speaking, team-building, and leadership skills. BSO operates each fall, winter and spring.
Through regular attendance, students are eligible to earn service learning hours for their participation.
In Spring 2025, our BSO program will be offered at Baltimore Design School, KIPP, and Mt. Royal EMS for their students only, and at Bon Secours Community Resource Center and Langston Hughes for all middle school students.
Interested in bringing middle school programming to your school? Complete our intake form.
STUDENT WORK
Photo Walk
Students learn the basics of photography including composition strategies, rule of thirds, framing, and different types of photography (e.g. portrait, environmental, conceptual, abstract). They review how to make images focusing on light and DSLR camera basics. From there, youth are ready to experiment with what they’ve learned through photo walks.
This exercise gives students a hands-on opportunity to interact with their school environment in a way that highlights their own creativity and practice the foundational skills learned. At the end of class, students gather in a circle and pass their cameras to see what other students captured. This strengthens our community, and celebrates their brilliance.
Photo Walk photography by BSO students at Mount Royal EMS.
Light Painting
Students experiment with DSLR camera settings to explore the way light is recorded.
Camera shutter speed, aperture, and ISO can be changed for specific photography goals. Fast shutter speed captures fast motion without blur and small aperture settings create a blurred background (bokeh). By lowering their shutter speed and using colorful lights, students work in teams to draw in space and create an image. This project was inspired by DariusTwin aka Darren Pearson.
Light paintings rely on communication, playfulness, and teamwork. Students behind the camera and those holding the lights work together to create. Youth review their photos and work together, in a choreography to make adjustments that develop the image they imagine.
Light Paintings by BSO students at Calvin M Rodwell and Baltimore Design School.
Lego Printing
Participants explore how art and technology come together by connecting printmaking with animation. By using Lego plates and dots, students design images, turn them into inked stamps, and transfer them onto paper, similar to traditional printing methods. This not only allows them to refine their work but also teaches that even mistakes can lead to exciting results. Lego printing connects to stop-motion and 8-bit style animation, by using limited repeated shapes to indicate characters, places, objects, and lettering. Students explore how to use the simplest shapes to create movement and complex images.
Lego Prints by BSO students at Baltimore Design School.
Abstract Photography
Students embark on a creative journey to capture pictures that highlight shapes, colors, and lines, but not discernable objects. They are challenged to take photos in a way that doesn’t reveal where they are taken —no obvious clues allowed. The lesson kicks off by exploring 10 different techniques to create unique photos, emphasizing the playful and experimental nature of abstract photography where settings can be tinkered with. In the assignment featured, you’d never know that students were in a library!
Abstract Photography by BSO students at Calvin M Rodwell
Stop Motion Animation
Participants create and understand the illusion of movement to create clips of stop motion animation. By taking sequential photos of drawings on white boards and creating clay puppets, students incrementally alter the image to create sequences. Animations can be abstract or narrative, so there are few limitations in what can be created. In today's technology, animation is everywhere and stop motion is an easy way to figure out how some their favorite media is created. Students explore the process of creating moving image frame by frame as well as prop fabrication for physical assets.
Animations by BSO students at Baltimore Design School.
PROJECT ARCHIVE