Elijah E. Cummings Festival Asks How We Make Space for Democracy

On Oct. 15, the Fifth Annual Elijah E. Cummings Democracy and Freedom Festival will bring Baltimore residents, students, scholars, and civic leaders together for an afternoon of exchange and reflection. The SNF Agora Institute at Johns Hopkins University will host the festival to honor the late Congressman Elijah Cummings and open space for new conversations about democracy’s future.

This year’s theme, “Making Space for Democracy,” asks where democratic life happens and what conditions allow it to thrive.

“We kept coming back to the question: where does democracy actually happen?” said Mary Bruce, SNF Agora’s assistant director for public programs. “Not just in voting booths or legislative chambers, but in the everyday places where people connect, disagree, and figure things out together.” This theme draws on SNF Agora’s Mapping the Modern Agora project, which uses computational social science to study the civic spaces that allow democracy to function. It also reflects the work of faculty such as Hahrie Han, Leah Wright Rigueur, and Scott Warren, who will share research and insights at the festival. What makes the event distinctive is that it brings scholars and practitioners together in a common space, linking research with the lived experience of building democratic life.

The program will feature both plenary sessions and informal encounters. Plenary speakers include Isaac Saul, founder of Tangle, who will address ideological diversity, and researchers from SNF Paideia’s Political Empathy Lab at the University of Pennsylvania, who will share research conducted during the 2024 presidential campaign.

“These are not just lectures,” Bruce said. “They are master classes in democratic practice.”

Between sessions, participants will have time to talk, reflect, and build connections. “Democracy requires practice, not just observation,” she added. “The spaces between sessions are the practice field.”

Festival sessions will focus on empathy, community, and storytelling.

“The through-line is pretty simple,” Bruce said. “Democracy requires us to see each other as fully human, even, especially, when we disagree.”

Research from the Political Empathy Lab will show how real engagement can replace abstract divisions. Community discussions will look at the places where people solve problems together. The Stoop Storytelling Series will share practical ways participants can use their own stories to break down barriers and open dialogue.

On Oct. 14, the night before the festival, the SNF Parkway Theatre will host a free community screening of Leap of Faith, directed by Nicholas Ma. The film follows 12 Christian leaders brought together by Michael Gulker of The Colossian Forum for a series of retreats in Grand Rapids, Michigan. Over the course of a year, five women and seven men confront some of today’s most divisive issues. Their disagreements test the bonds they form, as well as their shared belief in the power of love and kindness. The film asks whether people can disagree and still belong to each other in a divided world. Following the screening, Ma will join Nancy Proctor, executive director of the SNF Parkway, and Kristen Cambell, senior fellow at Philanthropy for Active Civic Engagement (PACE), for a discussion on democracy, connection, and civic life and the role that film can play in sparking community dialogue.

Students from five Baltimore high schools will take center stage in the Democracy Design Lab. The Lab asked them to imagine democracy as they would design it for the future they will inherit. The winning teams will present their visions at the festival in conversation with Maya Rockeymoore Cummings, founder of the lab, festival, and a leading policy expert.

For Rockeymoore Cummings, widow of Congressman Cummings, the festival serves as both commemoration and invitation:

“Elijah fell on his sword for democracy, pushing the limits of his health, personal safety, and peace of mind to ensure that he could help build a bridge to a multicultural future in the U.S.,” she said. “He started his life in a racially separate and unequal Baltimore, risked it all at the age of 11 to challenge the Jim Crow system in a march to integrate a South Baltimore pool, and spent a lifetime trying to ensure that our country remained committed to expanding opportunities for marginalized communities.

“As we embark on the 5th anniversary of the Democracy and Freedom Festival (being held two days before the 6th anniversary of Elijah’s death), I hope people remember his unwavering commitment to advancing the goals of an inclusive democracy and adopt his same passion and purpose to advance the next leg of justice and opportunity in the United States.”

Her words frame the day as a continuation of the work that defined Cummings’s life.

“I want people to leave feeling more hopeful, more inspired, more connected, and more equipped to be part of solutions,” Bruce said. “Democracy is fundamentally relational. It is not only about big ideas in the abstract. It is about the person sitting next to you and whether you can work together, even, especially, when you have differences.”

Now in its fifth year, the festival has become a civic tradition for Baltimore. It honors a leader who gave his life to democracy and challenges participants to carry that work forward.