Master: James Cooper Apprentice: Felix Wills Baltimore City Master-Apprentice Grant Recipients, 2008 & 2009
In a remote garage in West Baltimore, James Cooper builds and restores Arabber wagons— the critical tool to the success and vitality of a centuries-old trade of peddling produce through the streets of the city. Cooper and Wills learned aspects of the trade– driving, harnessing, and shoeing horses, shaping iron, hollering watermelon calls– as children from watching other Arabbers after school. Cooper began his own trade in 1979 and is today one of the primary wagon builders in the entire region. Wills commented that “to me, and to most of the guys within the community, it’s not a thing of value but a way of life. […] If you learn how to respect an animal,” he says, “you can learn to respect yourself. And you got to respect the horse. That’s first and foremost.”
For more about Arabbers:
Year of the Horse (2008): Interactive feature article by Charles Cohen in Urbanite magazine detailing the current state of the Arabber community in Baltimore.
