Baltimore Social Innovation Journal, Fall 2016 Fall 2016 | Page 18

Border Policy
Social justice activism and art combine to bring
insight and understanding to an East Baltimore neighborhood.
By Lisa Simeone

When Juan Ortiz told friends he was
moving to Baltimore, the most common
response he got consisted of two words:
“The Wire.” Then they asked him if he was
worried.
“Why should I worry?” he says. “I come
from a border town. And Baltimore is a
border town.”

NA ME: Juan Ortiz
INNOVATI ON: Conducting art workshops to discuss

and confront racism

A G E: 40
HO ME: Highlandtown
O CCUPATI ON : Leading Neighborhood Voices at

Creative Alliance

HO BBI ES: Traveling, creating art, dancing
FU N FACT: Believes that eating together
is as important as talking together, so every
Neighborhood Voices workshop includes a good
meal.

pg. 1 7

Growing up in El Paso, Texas, with
Ciudad Juarez right across the border
in Mexico, Ortiz experienced his share
of violence. He grew up in poverty, was
victimized by crime as a teenager, and
watched various neighbors and relatives
get swept up into the drug trade, ending
up dead or in prison. He grew up fast,
becoming a father at age 17 and realizing
he needed to take responsibility for his
family. After graduating from the University
of Texas at El Paso, he moved to New York
to attend NYU’s Tisch School for the Arts,
where he earned a Master’s Degree in Art
and Public Policy. It was while working on
a PhD at Texas Technological University
that he saw TV coverage of the Freddie
Gray unrest and decided to transfer to the
Maryland Institute College of Art, where he
earned an MFA in Community Arts. And it
is art, as much as political awareness, that
drives his work.
For the past four years, Ortiz has been
part of a group called Neighborhood
Voices. Its members conduct workshops
to talk about race and racism, and they
create artworks while they’re doing it. Ortiz