By Michelle Richardson
Special to the AFRO
On Saturday, June 7, Afro Charities held its second annual Wildest Dreams Spring fundraiser at Cinghiale Restaurant in Harbor East. Guests enjoyed a live DJ, passed hors d’oeuvres, and a silent auction of various art pieces from local artists such as Tom Miller, SHAN Wallace, Quinn Bryant and Charles Mason III. The fundraiser was sponsored by Discover, The Wood Family, Tony Foreman and Co and Torain Advisory.
The Wildest Dreams fundraiser was a chic cocktail soiree with a guest list that included former Baltimore Mayor Kurt Schmoke and former City Council President Nick Mosby. The event honored artist Joyce J. Scott as Baltimore’s “Wildest Woman,” and celebrated its groundbreaking at the Upton Mansion, a project that will preserve the AFRO archives.
Afro Charities won the right to develop Upton Mansion in 2019 and broke ground on February 28.
“Wildest Dreams is Afro Charities second ever fundraiser! And today we are celebrating our ancestors’ ‘wildest dreams,’” said Savannah Wood, Afro Charities executive director. “My ancestors founded the AFRO in the late 1800’s and I feel like a manifestation of their wildest dreams.”
Wood moved back to Baltimore in 2019 to work with the AFRO Archives. The fundraiser secured more funds for the operating cost of the Afro Charities organization.
“We have a very small team caring for one of the most important Black press archives in the entire world so our goal over the next year is to really scale our team and to scale the services and programs we provide to the public.”
That scaling includes the $16 Million Upton Mansion project. Afro Charities has raised $15 million of its goal.
Attendees were dressed in their finest cocktail attire as DJ Seven spun tunes that got everyone onto the dance floor. Sitting right next to the DJ booth was honoree, Joyce J. Scott, taking it all in.
“I tell people I’ve been called everything else so you can call me a ‘wildest woman’ now. I’m very honored to be honored by Afro Charities because it talks about the uplifting and the support of African American artist in the city,” said Scott, who is a Baltimore born visual and performance artist.
Scott said she got her creative start in “utero,” with her mother being an artist and her first art teacher. Scott attended MICA (Maryland Institute College of Art), completed graduate work in Mexico, and from there she traveled the world telling a story with her art.
“A lot of my art is socially and politically oriented. Some people think artists live in art houses, in art neighborhoods and eat art food, but we still have to pay gas and electric and we vote,” said Scott, a MacArthur Fellow. “A lot of my work is centered around those political and social issues also about how they directly affect all of us in general, but African Americans specifically.”
Afro Charities Board Chair Robert Matthews, who has been with the organization since April 2024, felt it was important to hold the fundraiser because the AFRO archives represent the past, present, and future.
“For communities like ours, there are challenges and there are dreams and goals and what the archives represent is the manifestation of dreams becoming true- wildest dreams becoming true. Our responsibility at Afro Charities is to preserve the expressions and realities of those dreams so that we can reinforce for communities to come, for centuries to come that it is possible.”
Dana Cole, board treasurer for Afro Charities, explained what the fundraiser theme, ‘wildest dreams’ meant to her.
“This event is important because it relates to what’s happening in our current world. There’s absolutely a requirement of us, as Black people, to support the organization that records our history– that keeps the rest of the world honest with what has happened here in the United States from the past all the way to the present,” said Cole. “As one of the oldest, continually running publications of Black news in the United States, it is essential that every last one of us support this organization.”
Baltimore artist Alma Roberts, whose art piece, ‘Not So Furtively’ was on auction and sold for a $1,000, has a deep, personal connection to the Afro Newspapers stating, “I’ve grown up with the Afro Newspaper being our voice and way of learning and Afro Charities is a way I can give back to all that the Afro American newspaper has done and through my art, I want to extend the messages that I convey about our history and culture and the two came together for me to be able to be a part of this and I’m deeply honored.”
For a party held in the middle of the day, Afro Charities raised $14,239.80 with its silent auction. Not bad Afro Charities! Not bad!
To learn more about the Afro Archives, and the Upton Mansion Project, visit the Afro Charities here.