Balticon is a four-day celebration of Science Fiction and Fantasy!

Join over fifteen hundred fans of all backgrounds as we gather to celebrate Science Fiction and Fantasy with more than 300 hours of diverse programming, from award-winning authors and publishers to twitch live-streamers, from cosplay experts to renowned scientists and tech innovators. Sing along with our filkers, soak in our stunning Art Show and Masquerade, laugh and cry at our Film Festival. We’ve got something for everyone.

Our Guests of Honor this year are as follows:

Celebrate Pride Month with us on a LGBTQ Heritage walking tour of Charles Village! You may know this neighborhood for its colorful “painted ladies,” but it was also home to many activists and institutions at the heart of the city’s LGBTQ community in the 1970s and 1980s. Guides Richard Oloizia, Louis Hughes and Kate Drabinski will take us on a walk past local landmarks from the original home of the Gay Community Center of Baltimore, now the GLCCB, to the St.

Baltimore is kicking cars off of portions of Charles Street for a day, and we’re taking advantage of it! On Saturday, June 3, only pedestrians and bicycles will be allowed on a good portion of Charles Street between Saratoga and North Avenue as part of the Charles Street Promenade. Join Baltimore Heritage’s Executive Director, Johns Hopkins, on a stroll down the middle of the street to get a perspective that we normally don’t get of many of the city’s most interesting historic buildings.

In February 1904, Baltimore’s chief firefighter cabled Washington DC: “Desperate fire here. Must have help at once!” A tremendous fire was sweeping through downtown and showed little signs of stopping. Not until 5:00 p.m. the next day was the fire brought under control. Overall, it destroyed 1500 buildings, left 35,000 people unemployed, and damaged $150 million of property. Resilient Baltimore rebounded quickly, erecting new buildings, widening streets, and improving fire safety designs.

For a tiny neighborhood squeezed between the University of Maryland and Camden Yards, Ridgely’s Delight contains an oversized history. George Washington slept here and Babe Ruth was born here! Join us to walk the preserved, picturesque streets of one of the earliest neighborhoods in Baltimore while we look back at the stories of both its famous visitors and the ordinary Baltimoreans who worked and raised their families here.

Join us for a guided tour of Baltimore’s Marble Hill neighborhood, which was the home to an astonishing amount of groundbreaking Civil Rights leaders. Reverend Harvey Johnson began one of the first collective action movements here in the 1880s. In the 1930s Lillie Carroll Jackson engaged youth in “The Movement” and pioneered new non-violent protest tactics that were later picked up in cities across the country. Thurgood Marshall grew up here, as did the chief lobbyist for the 1964 Civil Rights Act, Clarence Mitchell.

Summer Academy at St. John's College is the best pre-college program for top high school students seeking true intellectual engagement. Summer Academy begins with reading some of the greatest books ever written over the last 3,000 years old; providing a thematic academic experience that will engage students who have a variety of interests. Students challenge themselves by engaging in deep discussions with small groups of their peers in seminar style classrooms led by St John's College full time faculty.

Mount Vernon began as a country estate for Revolutionary War hero John Eager Howard and grew to be the place to live for Baltimore’s rich and famous in the mid-nineteenth century. The Garrett family, owners of the B&O Railroad, the Walters, founders of the Walters Art Museum, and the Thomases, owners of Mercantile Bank, are among the families that built handsome mansions along the four parks that surround the Washington Monument. Join us on a tour to hear the stories behind the landmarks of Baltimore’s grandest historic neighborhood.

Black Plays with Bethany Mayo

An online workshop

11am-12:30 EST Sundays November 6- December 18, 2022

6 sessions for $125

Join teaching artist Bethany Mayo for this guided play reading experience and survey of Black American playwrights prior to 1955. Sessions are broadcast via Zoom & accessible from anywhere!

Anchored by fantastical, handmade bedrooms created by three visionary artists as personal refuge, the American Visionary Art Museum explores the latest scientific research behind sleep as both force majeur to our total wellbeing and hypnagogic portal, enabling fresh revelations in science, art, and creative innovation of all sort.

Who are Marylanders, why are they so obsessed with their flag, and what does duckpin bowling have to do with the Baltimore Orioles? This exhibition explores how Maryland and its people have changed since its founding in 1634. Learn how the dynamic geography of the state drove its industry, population, and the identity of Marylanders, and how the arts and culture of Maryland reflect on its past. For traveling visitors and lifelong Marylanders, Discover Maryland shows there is much to uncover about Maryland. Open through March 2022.