The rear door of the yellow truck rolled open and Dimitri Reeves swung down.
“There’s a place in your heart, and I know that it is love,” sang Reeves, pressing his hand to his chest. “This place could be much brighter than tomorrow.”
Crooning Michael Jackson’s “Heal the World,” Reeves glided through a crowd at North Avenue and Monroe Street, the same spot where he performed during Monday’s riots.
Videos of Reeves dancing to “Beat It” between protesters and a phalanx of police have been viewed millions of times this week.
On Thursday afternoon, gray-haired ladies swayed together. A woman rocked her baby to sleep to the music. Men nodded their heads and hoisted their cell phones to record the man who has become known as the Michael Jackson of Baltimore.
“It healed my heart,” said Alvin Jackson, 27, who lives in this stretch of West Baltimore that was hardest hit by the week’s destruction. “This is how it’s supposed to be.”
For four hours, Reeves channeled the spirit of the King of Pop at this battered corner, belting out “Billie Jean,” shimmying up a police surveillance camera pole and a stopped garbage truck, moonwalking across the crosswalk in scuffed black loafers.
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