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Kick Off
Baltimore Architecture Foundation is proud to present the third annual Love Letters Live – a revamped Doors Open kick-off event. Join us Wednesday, September 30 for a casual evening (5:30-7:30pm) of storytelling showcasing a variety of voices, perspectives, and special places in Baltimore as we take our letter writing campaign to the stage!
Hosted by the The Baltimore Streetcar Museum (1901 Falls Road), the event will include light fare. Tickets will be available the afternoon of September 1. We’re excited to introduce this year’s speakers!
Bree Jones is the founder of Parity Homes, an equitable development company revitalizing West Baltimore without displacement. Bree began her career on Wall Street, becoming the youngest and first Black female VP at a $12B hedge fund before transitioning to venture capital. Determined to build an economic system that uplifts Black communities, she launched Parity Homes in 2018. Despite early skepticism, her vision is now a reality—restoring abandoned homes, expanding Black homeownership, and proving that equitable development is possible.
Her work has been featured in The Washington Post, Fast Company, and Brookings Institute. She holds fellowships with Ashoka, Open Society Institute, New Profit, Aspen Ideas Festival, and the Obama Foundation. Bree has also delivered a TED talk, showcasing her insights and ideas, a regular keynote speaker, and was a panelist for the Rockefeller Foundation’s Big Bets for America: Baltimore, a national gathering of leaders exploring solutions for economic mobility and neighborhood reinvestment.
Gary C. Norman, Esq., LL.M. is a lawyer, consultant, scholar, mediator, and adjunct law professor whose work spans health law, disability rights, public policy, conflict resolution, and civic leadership. Drawing on 25 years of federal service, nationally recognized policy engagement, and lived experience as a lawyer with a disability, he brings a distinctive interdisciplinary perspective to teaching, consulting, and public service.
In May 2025, Norman concluded a 25-year career as a Staff Attorney at the U.S. Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. He also served as a Maryland Public Policy Conflict Resolution Fellow while chairing the Maryland Commission on Civil Rights. As an educator, Norman teaches Alternative Dispute Resolution, healthcare law and finance, and public health law. His scholarship and public policy work explore disability law, healthcare disparities, legal epidemiology, public health justice, social entrepreneurship, and the development of inclusive institutions. A former policy advisor in the Office of Minority Health, he has contributed to national disability and health equity initiatives, combining academic rigor with practical policy experience.
Ashley Minner Jones is a community-based visual artist and folklorist from Baltimore, Maryland where she has lived on the same block her entire life. Her interdisciplinary practice is deeply rooted in place—usually within the context of the U.S. South—and is focused on honoring and celebrating everyday people by lifting up their stories. As an artist, she has exhibited widely and her work is represented in several prominent collections. A monograph on one of her recent projects, a reconstruction of East Baltimore’s historic American Indian “reservation,” is forthcoming. Ashley earned an MFA in Community Arts from the Maryland Institute College of Art and a PhD in American Studies from the University of Maryland College Park. She is an enrolled citizen of the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
Tiffanni Reidy is a multi-hyphenate creative whose work encompasses interior architecture, creative direction, graphic design, photography, and publication design. Her interior architecture and design studio, Reidy Creative, specializes in colorful and bespoke hospitality and residential interiors for remodels, renovations and new builds.
Tiffanni lives in Waltherson, one of the eight neighborhoods within Hamilton-Lauraville, a NE neighborhood full of creatives and creative business owners. She got involved with Main Street back in 2016 as a promotions committee volunteer for the community-led Light City project. She also helped with initial renovations on the Strand Theater as a volunteer on their design committee.
In 2021, her business, Reidy Creative, began working with Hamilton-Lauraville Main Street to renovate their community gathering space dubbed “The Lot”, where they hold events like the weekly farmers market and holiday celebrations. The design for this project set the course for many of the facade projects seen along the Main Street corridor in the past five years. Tiffanni has worked with several retail businesses along the Main Street corridor to upgrade their storefronts, and worked with several residents of the neighborhood on their home renovation
projects. As a former locally-focused shelter magazine owner and current interior architect, she knows the value of supporting local businesses, the joy of placemaking, and the transformational power of color.
Alanah Nichole Davis (She/Her) is a Baltimore-raised, award-winning storyteller, social designer, and community advocate. With a background in journalism, communications, and human-centered design, she brings a multidisciplinary approach to understanding people, places, and the stories that shape them. As a former lead reporter covering technology, design, and civic news, Alanah has a talent for making complex ideas accessible and connecting people to the work happening in their communities.
Alanah holds an MA in Social Design from the Maryland Institute College of Art (MICA), where she deepened a practice rooted in listening, collaboration, and designing with communities rather than simply for them. Her work has spanned Baltimore’s arts, land stewardship, youth engagement, and civic ecosystems, giving her a deep appreciation for the people, places, and grassroots efforts that make the city what it is.
Known affectionately as Baltimore’s Godmother, Alanah is a connector, convener, and storyteller who regularly hosts events, moderates conversations, mentors emerging leaders, and creates spaces for people to share ideas. She is passionate about Baltimore and believes deeply in the power of design, storytelling, and community knowledge to help cities become more connected, equitable, and imaginative.
Outside of work, she enjoys sharing crabs with friends, swimming, dancing, and savoring a good mocktail.
Mark Supik first encountered studio woodturning as an undergraduate at the Maryland Institute College of Art studying sculpture. After graduating, he worked for several woodworking business before starting his own shop in one of Baltimore’s old industrial neighborhoods. Monday through Friday, Mark directs a staff of woodturners and finishers producing custom architectural millwork, furniture parts, crafted wood products and tap handles for craft brewers. On the weekends, Mark teaches woodturning to beginning and experienced turners. His own turnings of natural edged vessels and sculpted spindle pieces have been displayed in local galleries. Mark is a member of the American Association of Woodturners and of a number of local woodturning clubs.
Mark Supik & Co is a family-operated business employing ten woodturners and artistic finishers. Our shop is currently located in southeast Baltimore City in the Orangeville Industrial neighborhood. We have been turning wood since 1981, producing custom architectural millwork for historic restorations and wood turned products for furniture makers. In 1995 we began making beer tap handles for the craft brew industry and we now ship those handles all over the country. On the weekends the shop becomes a woodturning school offering all day classes for hobbyists, tradespeople, artists and crafters.
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