Newsletter 2 - Walking with the community values of Valerie J. Maynard

The Valerie J. Maynard Foundation

Newsletter 002

Walking with the community values of Valerie J. Maynard

November 22, 2025

By: Antonio Lyons, Executive Director

Standing in front of the Charles North Community Association (CNCA) earlier this month was surreal. As an artist, activist and educator, I never imagined that it would be my position as Executive Director of the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation that would lead me here, advocating for community cohesion and resources. But, I thought, this should not be a surprise. As I spoke to the CNCA about our November 7th Community Walk and taking collective action to create a healthy, safe and thriving North Avenue, I remembered how this roadmap was laid by the women who led me here: Valerie J. Maynard and my mother, Audrey Lyons-Howell.

Community development is a communal effort, one led by neighbors. As members of the Station North neighborhood, The Valerie J. Maynard Foundation initiated this walk to deepen conversations that had been ongoing via email all year regarding North Avenue homeless encampments, a proposed smoke shop, open drug dealing and a general sense of safety and security. I saw this as a starting point for future advocacy: a walk with 19 of our neighbors and community members. Residents, housed and unhoused, business owners, artists, city representatives, council persons, law enforcement, homeless services, community developers, educators, service organisations and cultural institutions all rounded the corners of our Station North neighborhood together, discussing our vision for what was once one of Baltimore’s most vibrant arts districts. What kind of neighborhood are we developing toward and how does it serve even our most vulnerable members?

As long as I’ve known Valerie, she’s carried forward a life philosophy that never separated the role of the artist from the role of the human to foster environments and experiences of love and growth. These lived values are as critical a part of her legacy as the art she created. Early in her career, Valerie J. Maynard utilized her art to both educate young people in her Harlem neighborhood and advocate for the liberation of her brother, Tony Maynard. Later, she designed the Foundation to be a hub of community engagement. This vision and ethos are at the core of our work here at the Valerie J. Maynard Foundation.

Growing up in South Florida, I watched and benefited from my mothers work as a community development worker whose sole purpose was to bring critical resources to communities across Broward county. She, too, lived a life philosophy that drove her to be a tool of joyful progress by providing neighbors the opportunity to live fuller and more dignified lives. Fifty years later the young people she poured into are leaders in their own communities and critical neighborhood infrastructure has been the bedrock for sustained growth across the county.

Within the walls of the foundation we strive to create an inclusive inter-generational community that feels like family, that embodies the love of self and community that Valerie so deeply valued. It is through her lived example that we are called to extend that care to the surrounding blocks she would frequently stroll. To treat with dignity every neighbor, whether housed or unhoused. To patronize our local businesses. Cultivating deep partnerships with city services and structures and to challenge ourselves to be lovingly curious about all aspects of this wondrous city called Baltimore.

It is not easy work, particularly in these present times, but to intentionally choose a path towards progress is never for the faint of heart. The community walk was an inflection point for sustained engagement and collective action towards a better Station North Arts District. We will continue to make time to gather monthly to chip away at the varied challenges that this diverse urban space faces. I believe in the power of art to lead the way with the community-driven blueprint Valerie left as a guide.