Urban Discoveries Baltimore

One of Baltimore’s surest sources of glory over the last fifty years has been the Paul Laurence Dunbar High School basketball team, and now three Dunbar alumni have created even further cause for local pride. In June, David Manigault, Robert Foster, and Tommy Polley debuted their new film about the Dunbar basketball tradition at Sports Legends at Camden Yards, after four years of planning and production.

The East Baltimore school (1400 Orleans Street), which graduated its first senior in 1940, was named after the Ohio poet who knew “why the caged bird sings” long before Maya Angelou was around. The Dunbar High basketball team, appropriately called the Poets, have won eleven state championships in the last fifteen years, and have over the decades included a number of basketball greats, including Skip Wise, Reggie Lewis, Sam Cassell, and Muggsy Bogues, as well as Bob Wade, the first African-American coach of a major sport in the ACC.

The documentary, Poet Pride, which its creators hope will provide a contrasting, hopeful perspective of the city, will soon be available through Downtown Locker Room. You can watch a trailer here. Manigault, Foster, and Polley have started a production company, Big Vision Films, which is also working on projects dealing with the Baltimore music industry and crime in Baltimore.

What’s your favorite chapter of the Dunbar Poets legend?

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