Up and raring to go at the crack of dawn
It was 8 a.m. on the East Coast. I was poised over my computer keyboard, stuck for an answer to a student’s question. So I picked up the phone and called the guy who would know — a former colleague from ages ago who had become an expert in the appropriate field. He answered on the first ring. “Didn’t wake you, did I?,” I asked. “Are you kidding?,” he replied. ... READ MORE
Allison Janney finally wins her first Oscar
The Academy Awards seemed like a formality when it came to the best supporting actress category this year. Since the world devoured Allison Janney’s brilliantly acidic performance as Tonya Harding’s abusive mother in I, Tonya, she has won nearly every major award she’s been up for — including a BAFTA, a Screen Actors Guild award, a Golden Globe and a Critics’ Choice... READ MORE
Ways to celebrate National Poetry Month
April is National Poetry Month, and there are numerous readings and events throughout the area in celebration. Many venues also offer poetry events year round. Here are a few options. Split This Rock Poetry Festival This biennial festival will take place April 19 to 21. Subtitled Poems of Provocation & Witness, the event gathers more than 700 poets and activists for readings,... READ MORE
Making sense of the world
Publisher’s note: Sometimes life sends us groping for answers. That’s generally true, for example, during our teenage years. But it’s also the case after the loss of a loved one or a personal setback. We may also search for words when we’re moved by intense feelings for natural beauty. For example, see our travel story on the tiny paradise nation of Andorra. But even in... READ MORE
A Columbia sculptor with animal instincts
What have we here? There’s an elephant with its trunk holding up a striped umbrella, a bear sitting behind a desk, a bird perched on an outhouse titled “Bird with an Urge,” and a “Sweet Beak” work with another bird tipping into a scoop of ice cream in a cone. These are but a few of the sculptured works created by Columbia artist Ken Beerbohm. About 10 years ago, Beerbohm,... READ MORE
Expressing our inner essence
Iambic pentameter, free verse, quatrains and a haiku or two will resound around Howard Community College on April 26, as students, local writers and prize-winning poets Marilyn Chin and Joseph Ross gather on the Columbia campus for the 10th annual Blackbird Poetry Festival. The all-day event, co-sponsored by HCC and HoCoPoLitSo (the Howard County Poetry and Literary Society), will be... READ MORE
Immigration Museum welcomes newcomers
“Not many people know that Baltimore was the third most active port — following New York and Boston — at which immigrants from many different nationalities across Europe would arrive in the United States,” said Brigitte Fessenden, president of the Baltimore Immigration Museum in Locust Point. “We want to highlight and promote the role Baltimore played during the country’s... READ MORE
Band brings back the Roaring Twenties
Lynn Summerall loves the early big band sounds of the 1920s and 1930s, and is counting on Baltimore audiences to feel the same way. The Hampden resident is bringing the music of that era back with the Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra. They will perform in Hampden on Sunday, April 8, and Sunday, May 13, at Paulie Gee’s. The Hotel Paradise Roof Garden Orchestra is a 12-piece big... READ MORE
Moss and clover taking over your lawn?
It’s almost spring, and you’re imagining an emerald green lawn. After a rain shower, you follow the rainbow to find moss and clover in your yard. Is this the luck o’ the Irish? Mosses naturally occur when the soil is compacted, acidic, and/or poorly drained. They also thrive in medium to dense shade or if there is repeated mower scalp of lawn turf. Under such conditions, these... READ MORE
Two exhibits for World War I centennial
A statue of a Doughboy surrounded by bright red poppies with a backdrop of the graves in Flanders Fields stands at the end of one of two WWI centennial exhibits at the Virginia Museum of History and Culture. It’s a fitting symbol of the “war to end all wars,” as my father (born in 1917 and named “Wilson” in honor of President Woodrow Wilson) remembered it. The larger of the two ... READ MORE
Arts 2024
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