Snapshots to savor of times gone by
When Super Spouse says it’s time to clean out the old family photos, this husband salutes smartly and gets right to work. Of course, the job soon vaults well beyond pictures. Each snapshot has a story to tell, as any shutterbug will gladly tell you. So, more than once, I had to apologize to Super Spouse for going so slowly, because I had gotten lost in memories. My gosh,... READ MORE
Local songwriter pens an anthem for men
It’s February — the month of Valentine’s Day, chocolates, roses, romantic movies and love songs. If you’re tired of mushy-gushy romance, however, Ronald Robinson has a new song for you: “Don’t Bring No Suitcase.” Released last December, the song Robinson co-wrote with musician Kenneth Parker is the antithesis of a love song. Robinson, 66, became inspired to write it when ... READ MORE
Richmond area artist memorializes civil rights icon
When the Virginia Museum of History and Culture completes its renovations next year, it will display a significant new work in the collection: a portrait of Oliver Hill — a Richmonder who was a trailblazer in the civil rights movement. “The portrait of Hill fills a major gap in the VMHC collection,” William Rasmussen, senior museum collections curator and Lora M. Robins Curator of... READ MORE
Area filmmaker highlights Black artists
Cintia Cabib, 59, an independent documentary filmmaker who lives in Potomac, Maryland, has directed eight projects, including short films about immigration, a historic carousel, juggling and the community gardens of Washington, D.C. Her latest film, called “Kindred Spirits: Artists Hilda Wilkinson Brown and Lilian Thomas Burwell,” profiles two Black artists who worked in D.C. when it ... READ MORE
Memoirs from newsmaker, news writers
The Bibliophile These autobiographies provide fascinating perspectives into a prime newsmaker of the recent past and those who reported on other powerful Washington figures. A Promised Land, by Barack Obama, 768 pages, Crown hardcover, 2020 The 44th president takes readers on an intimate journey from his emergence on the political scene to the 2011 killing of Osama bin Laden. This is ... READ MORE
Unearthing Sugarland’s story
One day 26 years ago, Gaithersburg resident Gwen Hebron Reese visited the Maryland town where she was born in 1941 — at least what was left of it. Reese walked around the grounds of the shuttered church that had been the heart of Sugarland, established in 1871 by formerly enslaved people. “The church had been closed, and it was just sitting there. The door was nailed shut, and the ... READ MORE
Choral singers enjoying virtual technology
In March, when the pandemic hit, many members of a Washington state chorus fell ill after a rehearsal attended by a COVID patient, making it clear that singing in a group could be a dangerous, potentially fatal activity. So, Encore Creativity for Older Adults, which operates 22 choruses in the Baltimore-Washington area, cancelled all its in-person rehearsals and shifted to Zoom, the... READ MORE
Storyteller brings historical figures to life
When Janice Curtis Greene was growing up in north Baltimore, she often imagined herself portraying characters in Black American history. Fast-forward some 60 years, and Greene’s dreams have come to fruition. Now 72, she’s an award-winning Master Storyteller and author whose work focuses on the African American experience. Greene’s lively, rhythmic portrayals have delighted adult ... READ MORE
Conversations on race, culture
The new director of Maryland’s museum of African American history and culture has bigger things in mind than cataloguing or explaining events and artworks of the past. Terri Lee Freeman takes over as executive director of the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore on Feb. 15, at a time when the country is focused anew on the issue of racism. She hopes to involve the museum and its... READ MORE
Laughter yoga boosts health, connection
Four years ago, when author Slash Coleman was recovering from a collapsed lung, his surgeon gave him some advice: laugh more. Laughter would not only help Coleman move air into his lung, it would benefit his mental health. Coleman had stopped traveling the world for his one-man shows, moved back to Richmond, where he was born, and isolated himself for a year. Taking his surgeon’s... READ MORE
Arts 2024
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