In April of 2015, Baltimore launched its first major national marketing campaign, "Visit My Baltimore." And, when you consider that competing East Coast cities had up to seven times Baltimore’s marketing budget for tourism, it made Baltimore’s campaign a huge-ass deal.

Two weeks before the release of Baltimore’s full-page spread in the New York Times, the ground opened beneath us. On April 25th, the news of the tragic death of Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old West Baltimore resident, rocked the city!

Immediately, the marketing campaign was paused to focus all of the necessary attention on the people of Baltimore and their outcry which sounded across the city. During the weeks that followed, residents discovered what Black and brown people had known all their lives. There were indeed two Baltimores.

Though the campaign was relaunched, it was difficult for the celebrity-driven promotion to compete with the city's growing false perception. 

Impacted by the dark shadow that was cast by the events of April 2015, the campaign ended with little traction in 2017.

Baltimore’s summer season was on the horizon and there seemed to be no positive story to tell, and no dollars to pull from. How do we get people to want to visit Baltimore, when (on CNN) they have been watching one lone block in Baltimore “on fire” 24-7?

In 2017, the marketing team at Visit Baltimore led by Dionne Joyner-Weems, also a West Baltimore native, discovered that there were roughly 500 posts across social media where Baltimore residents were using #MyBmore. Though most of the posts were two years old, they reflected the humanity, the hurt and the healing that took place in Baltimore’s communities following Baltimore’s Uprising. 

Some images were gritty but honest, while others were fun and light. The photos revealed the authenticity and raw beauty of Baltimore’s neighborhoods and its people.

“Why spend our time trying to sway the world to see us, when our focus should be on elevating how the people of Baltimore see themselves,” Dionne Joyner-Weems exclaimed. And, it was then that the #MyBmore movement was born.

Today, the #MyBmore project has grown from 500 posts to more than 300,000, a dramatic feat for a grassroots city-wide movement.

It is fair to say that #MyBmore will forever mark the moment when the people of Baltimore stopped imploring the world to acknowledge their gifts, but instead, they grabbed the camera by the lens and showed the world who they are.

Please subscribe to mybmoreproject.com for Baltimore stories shared by the Baltimore community. And, join in, by tagging #MyBmore on your posts that highlight what you love about Baltimore.