the conference went really well. i was in charge of organizing the opening panel session the first day and presenting a workshop the second. my panel featured 5 leaders in the field of youth development programming, including Kazi, the founder of the Hip Hop Project in nyc, on whom i immediately developed a debilitating crush. he was only supposed to stay one night and do the panel, but i convinced my boss to give him another night in the hotel and for him to perform later in the evening at the networking reception where everyone was milling about, looking at the exhibits and eating crab and brie filo off silver trays. we hooked him up with a mixer and a mic and he did some spoken word and a couple songs, complete with audience participation bits. it was great and i was beeming, but i kind of felt like an asshole, as everyone there including myself was dressed in suits, sort of gingerly swaying and trying not to seem as old and uncool and sooo not hip hop as we truly are.
on the last day, i met up with a friend who just moved to bmore from nyc (against the general migratory grain up the east coast) and had coffee and walked around Fells Point, which seemed like a quieter, less douchebaggy adams morgan. we even walked by the police station building where Homicide was filmed. i'm kind of stoked to know someone in baltimore now, so i'll have an excuse to get to know the city (my job's impending move there aside, god help us). it always gets me how, just by having tall buildings, other cities look and feel so much more like a real city than dc. effing washington monument. but its good to be back.
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