Baltimore Social Innovation Journal, Fall 2016 Fall 2016 | Page 11

Harvey realized that if she could create
clothing and accessories from her art, so
could kids in Baltimore, kids who may
otherwise never have been encouraged in
their endeavors. So she founded Baltimore’s
Gifted. It’s an art and e-commerce site
designed for black youth to sell their own
original work, whether paintings, sketches,
photography, or digital art. The work is
made into T-shirts, purses, tote bags,
pillows, coffee mugs, and the like, and the
artists get 80% of the sales. Harvey relies on
herself and other artists in the city to scout
out young talent and introduce them to
Baltimore’s Gifted.
“I’m not pushing a certain theme,” she
emphasizes. “I’m just looking for art that
impresses me, for self-expression. I don’t
want black kids to feel that they have to
feed into the struggle narrative. We are
more than struggle. They can make their
own narrative.”

N A ME: Cadeatra Harvey (nickname “C”)
I N N O VAT I O N : Selling the artwork of young people

and given them the profits

A G E: 29
H O ME: Northeast Baltimore
O CCU PAT I O N : Multi-media entrepreneur, CEO of

Generation of Dreamers, LLC

H O BBI ES : Reading, listening to TED talks, fishing
with her father, driving motorized go-carts really fast
FU N FA CT: Spent a week in Austria as a Fellow of
the 2016 Salzburg Global Forum for Young Cultural
Innovators
T W I T T ER H A N D L E: @baltimoresgifted

B A LTI M OR E SOC I A L I N N O VAT I O N JO U R N A L