Baltimore Music and Performance Collection

The materials in this collection represent distinct periods in the underground music and performance scene in Baltimore. The fliers characterize the dispersed, low-tech scene that existed before the prevalence social media, circa 1980-2005. Shows were often in houses or other pop-up, ephemeral venues, as evidenced by hand-written directions often included in flier design. In the mid-2000s, the scene galvanized around a group of performance artists and musicians who came to Baltimore from New York in search of a more accessible community. Under the name Wham City, this collective made their home in Baltimore’s Copycat Building, a bastion of creative output in the city’s arts district. Here, Wham City began to bridge the gap between the irreverence of early flier design and sophisticated poster printing via a concentrated circle of performers and an established venue in the city. Along with national popularity garnered by the integration of the internet and social media as an information-sharing resource, this group of performers, along with their various side projects and collaborations, solidified Baltimore as a veritable hub of innovative music and performance art.