Artist, educator, and Afro Charities Executive Director Savannah Wood joins to reflect on legacy, growth, and leading one of Baltimore’s most ambitious cultural preservation efforts.
Savannah has overseen major milestones—most notably, the $16M redevelopment of the historic Upton Mansion, future home of the Afro-American Newspaper (AFRO) archives. We talk about curiosity as a compass, how archives become creative tools, and why joy, movement, and cultural memory drive her work forward.
Topics Covered:
- Activating history through artist commissions and intergenerational programs
- Transforming the Upton Mansion into a public anchor for Black archives
- The role of tennis and joy in creating grounding spaces
- Understanding cultural stewardship as an inherited and intentional act
- Collaborating across generations to develop meaningful public programming
🎧 Explore more conversations like this in our archive.
📸 Photo by Schaun Champion
Resources:
- Silent Auction
- Wildest Dreams Benefit for Afro Charities – June 7 Tickets
- Afro Charities Website
- Instagram: @afrocharities, @savannahinpublic
Host: Rob Lee
Music: Original music by Daniel Alexis Music with additional music from Chipzard and TeTresSeis.
Production:
- Produced by Rob Lee & Daniel Alexis
- Edited by Daniel Alexis
- Show Notes courtesy of Rob Lee and Transistor
Photos:
- Rob Lee photos by Vicente Martin for The Truth In This Art and Contrarian Aquarian Media.
- Guest photos courtesy of the guest, unless otherwise noted.
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Fractured Atlas (Fundraising): https://www.fracturedatlas.org
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Bluesky: https://bsky.app/profile/thetruthinthisart.bsky.social
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/truthinthisart/?hl=en
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Website: https://www.thetruthinthisart.com/
- The Truth In This Art Podcast Shop: Merch from Redbubble
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Special Summer Offer: Exclusively on Apple Podcasts, try our Dateline Premium subscription completely free for one month! With Dateline Premium, you get every episode ad-free plus exclusive bonus content.