Celebrating ten years of CHARM

By Amir Muhammad | April 11, 2025

I’ve been in CHARM: Voices of Baltimore Youth since I was in middle school, now I’m in high school, and at the rates it’s going it’ll be here well after I graduate college.

CHARM, as an organization, was formed in 2013 by a group of teachers and their students, all of whom had the goal of uplifting the voices of youth across Baltimore City. It’s published seven anthologies, a book in collaboration with BMore Me, three books in collaboration with the Youth Poet Laureate Library, and four digital publications over this decade. Its track record of highlighting youth voices is incredible, especially because we were able to survive the harshness that the COVID-19 pandemic brought with it.

Charm has had over 100 kids go through its editorial program and published the works of hundreds more. Also, hosting multiple workshops to enhance students' writing, creativity, and other skills.

I got the opportunity to sit down and have a conversation with the Executive Director, co-founder, and my boss, Whitney Bierenbaum, to talk about CHARM’s formation, why it matters, and the future of expansive possibilities on the horizon.

This conversation has been edited for length and clarity:

Amir Muhammad: For those who don’t know Charm, what would you say to get them interested?

Whitney Birenbaum: “I think our country needs to listen more to young people, and Charm exists to amplify youth voices… both for the general public, but also for young people to hear what each other has to say.”

AM: What would you say to someone who wants to share their voice but is scared to do so?

WB: “There are lots of ways you can express yourself, and I think CHARM offers that to kids and teens. Some kids are really comfortable with a microphone, but others are more comfortable behind the scenes, producing a publication or writing a poem or a story or a news article or creating art.”

AM: If someone is visiting Charm’s website for the first time, which publication would you recommend they read first?

WB: “I think the publication that you were part of, ‘Voices Unmasked,’ is a great example of young people taking a moment in time that was really challenging and getting creative… Our collection, ‘Poems for Black Lives Matter,’ is also really inspirational.”

AM: How was Charm created, and what inspired its formation?

WB: “I was a middle school teacher in Baltimore for 13 years, and along with some teacher friends, we wanted to have a platform for our students to share their stories and talents outside of our classroom walls… I saw students get really excited and motivated to learn reading and writing skills when they knew that what they were writing had a real impact.”

AM: What art forms are accepted with every publication?

WB: The students create the theme, and they try to pick a theme that is broad enough to invite lots of different interpretations, but also not something that's too broad, that doesn't really have a cohesive thread. Typically, people can submit writing of all forms, poems, stories, essays, letters, articles, and art, visual art, and then our editorial board will kind of wrestle with that discussion. If there is a piece that comes in that maybe feels too violent or has language in it that's offensive, and those are conversations that students have. We don't have just a sense or a policy of like, no curse words, but we do want the editors to wrestle with that.

Full interview below: