Today we’d like to introduce you to Todd Marcus.
Hi Todd, so excited to have you on the platform. So before we get into questions about your work-life, maybe you can bring our readers up to speed on your story and how you got to where you are today?
Intersection of Change is a community-based 501(c)3 nonprofit in Baltimore, MD founded in 1996 to serve Baltimore’s Sandtown-Winchester and Upton communities. These and the surrounding communities were once a stable neighborhood with a mix of professional and blue collar families. The neighborhood also was home to a strong arts and entertainment scene along historic Pennsylvania Avenue. Following the riots of 1968, an influx of drugs, and integration, the community lost approximately 75% of its population and has struggled for many years with major issues related to poverty.
Intersection of Change (IOC) has responded with a mission to provide programs that enrich the economic, social and spiritual lives of our target and surrounding communities. Our work has been focused on the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue at Presstman Street which was entirely abandoned and vacant and an open-air drug market when we began our efforts in 1996.
IOC was founded by Elder C.W. Harris, a life-long community resident and pastor of Newborn Community of Faith Church who choose to stay and advocate for the neighborhood even as so many residents moved away. Co-founders Amelia F. Harris, (Elder Harris’ wife) and Todd Marcus (a relocator to the community) also embrace the organization’s values of empowering the neighborhood from a grass roots level with a focus on work being driven by community residents.
In 2000, IOC created its first major program called Martha’s Place which is a recovery program for women overcoming substance abuse and homelessness that helps women achieve sobriety while maintaining a job and housing. The program offers housing with supportive services such as addictions counseling, money management training, case management, wellness classes, and community meals.
In 2008, IOC created a second major community program called Jubilee Arts, which offers dance, visual arts, creative writing and ceramics classes in partnership with the Maryland Institute College of Art, BOPA, area artists and writers, and dancers. Jubilee Arts is a catalyst for social change, using art as a tool for empowerment, community building, learning our history and changing our future. Jubilee Arts provides art classes six days a week and cultural activities to both children and adults for as low $3 per day.
In 2016, IOC incorporated the Strength to Love II program which operates an urban farm and serves ex-offenders returning to the community from incarceration. The farm entails 16 greenhouses totaling 1.5 acres, addresses community food apartheid issues, and offers employment to ex-offenders. The program also supports ex-offenders with ID renewals and food gift certificates.
Can you talk to us a bit about the challenges and lessons you’ve learned along the way. Looking back would you say it’s been easy or smooth in retrospect?
This work has always been challenging. The poverty related challenges we are tackling are intense and systemic and we have to both operate our three programs and fundraise to sustain them every year. Our community has faced significant disinvestment for decades which has often meant limited resources so we have always done a lot with a little and often have struggled to have limited salaries for our team as we fight to keep everything going.
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about your work and what you’re currently focused on?
I am a community activist, jazz musician, and resident of our Sandtown-Winchester community since 1997. As executive director and co-founder of Intersection of Change I supports the work of our Martha’s Place, Jubilee Arts, and Strength to Love II programs and hold a degree in urban studies from Rutgers University. I’m originally from New Jersey and came to the community as a volunteer with Habitat for Humanity in 1995 (while a student at Loyola College) and never left. As a musician, my work as a bass clarinetist and composer includes leading ensembles from 2-10 musicians and often incorporates Middle Eastern influences from my Egyptian heritage. I regularly perform and tour nationally and have performed abroad in Egypt.
Alright, so to wrap up, is there anything else you’d like to share with us?
Our work to date at Intersection of Change has resulted in significant neighborhood revitalization of the 1900 and 2000 blocks of Pennsylvania Avenue through the full renovation of six previously vacant and dilapidated buildings, transformation of 18 vacant lots into community green spaces and meditative gardens, creation of two dozen neighborhood murals, and conversion of 1.5-acres of vacant lots into an urban farm.
Since its incorporation in 1996, IOC has completed the following projects:
• complete gut-renovation of 1928 Pennsylvania Avenue (2000)
• establishment of Martha’s Place six-month transitional recovery program (2000)
• Transformation of six vacant lots adjacent to Martha’s Place into Martha’s Gardens, an outdoor meditative garden for residents, staff, and community (2003)
• complete gut-renovation of 592, 590, 588, & 586 Presstman Street for use as long-term housing for graduates of Martha’s Place (2005/2007)
• creation of the Choose Life Memorial, an outdoor memorial garden and mural for lives lost to drugs in the community (2007)
• creation of Jubilee Arts program to counter drugs & violence with arts & cultural opportunities (2008)
• complete gut-renovation of 1947 Pennsylvania Avenue as the Harris-Marcus Center which includes Jubilee Arts studios as well as offices for IOC (2009)
• creation of over three dozen community murals (2011-current)
• converted 1.5 acres of vacant land into an urban farm (2014)
Contact Info:
- Website: https://intersectionofchange.org/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/intersectionofchange/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/intersectionofchange/
- Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCz0zYalMoe9gu6Tdwnzu6jg
