Buzz

Baltimore Pride festival to feature mass wedding

Washington Post Tuesday, May 21, 2013

The Baltimore Pride festival will host a mass same-sex wedding with Baltimore Mayor Stephanie Rawlings-Blake presiding over the ceremony, writes the AP in a story that ran in the Washington Post. The June 16 event will take place in Druid Hill Park.

The mayor has officiated other same-sex marriages since gay marriage became legal Jan. 1. Event planners and marketers in the wedding industry said last year that legalizing gay marriage would boost business.

New York Times profiles Centerstage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah

New York Times Friday, May 03, 2013

The New York Times chats with Centerstage Artistic Director Kwame Kwei-Armah just before his new play begins its run at the Mount Vernon theater.

Over a meal at an Afghan restaurant in Mount Vernon (gee, could it be the Helmand?), Kwei-Armah talks about "Beneatha's Place." Written by Kwei-Armah, the play is part of the theater company's so-called "Raisin Cycle," which included productions of Kwei-Armah's "Beneatha's Place" and Bruce Norris's "Clybourne Park."

Both "Clybourne Park" and Kwei-Armah's plays are contemporary reactions to Lorraine Hansberry's seminal 1959 work, "A Raisin in the Sun."

"Clybourne" is currently running at Centerstage now through June 16 while "Beneatha's Place" runs May 8-June 16.

"Mr. Kwei-Armah has put his reputation on the line with an ambitious new work that, although it doesn’t take on “Clybourne” directly, will invite inevitable comparisons," the Times writes.

Kwei-Armah also says in the interview that Norris's play, which won a Pulitzer Prize in 2011, unwittingly gives the message that " 'whites build and blacks destroy.'"

Read the entire story here. And see Kwei-Armah's interview with BmoreMedia.

New York Times features a tour of Jewish Baltimore

New York Times Tuesday, April 09, 2013

"I grew up on stories about the glory days of Jewish Baltimore, when, in my father’s telling, Jews were really Jews," writes Jennifer Moses in the New York Times.

Moses says Jewish Baltimore is on the rebound, in both the city and the suburbs. She points to the Jewish Museum of Maryland, Attman's Deli and Eutaw Place Synagogue.

"Happily, Jewish Baltimore is on the rebound, and not just in the suburbs. On a cold day in February when I went in search of the settings of my father’s stories, I landed in a place where perseverance, preservation and memory have conspired to keep that vanished world available," Moses writes.

You can read the entire story here.

USA Today highlights Reginald F. Lewis Museum's Harriet Tubman exhibit

USA Today Tuesday, March 19, 2013

Museums and tourism officials are honoring abolitionist Harriet Tubman, 100 years after her death.

USA Today features some of these homages, including a contemporary art exhibit "Homage to Harriet" at Baltimore's Reginald F. Lewis Museum of African American History & Culture. It starts March 23 and runs through June 23.

The USA Today also features three other Maryland honors to Harriet Tubman. Earlier this month, officials celebrated the groundbreaking of the 17-acre Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad State Park, just south of Cambridge.

"The same day, the state designated a 125-mile driving tour, dubbed the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Byway, that cuts through her home turf on Maryland's Eastern Shore," USA Today writes.

Maryland also passed a bill to establish the 5,700-acre Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Historical Park on Maryland's Eastern Shore.

Centerstage to produce plays inspired by the Civil War

New York Times Tuesday, March 12, 2013

Baltimore's Centerstage is one of four performing arts organizations that are producing several theatrical works commemorating the 150th anniversary of the Civil War, writes the New York Times.

The National Civil War Project partners the theater troupes with the arts department of an academic institution. In the case of Centerstage, the Mount Vernon theater is teaming up with the Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center at the University of Maryland, College Park. The duo has commissioned “At War With Ourselves,” by the Kronos Quartet that promises to feature a "legendary composer."

Theaters and universities in Atlanta, Boston and Washington, D.C., are also taking part.

Michigan professor teaches a class on 'The Wire'

USA Today Tuesday, February 26, 2013

Who knew McNulty and Omar had so much to teach us.

University of Michigan professor David Harding is using storylines from "The Wire" to teach his students about public policy, USA Today writes. The HBO crime drama is set in Baltimore.

Titled "Urban Public Policy Through the Lens of HBO's The Wire," the class connects storylines in the HBO with real-life city challenges, such as housing, labor, health care, substance abuse and urban decay.

"It's a growing trend across the nation -- take some piece of pop culture, tie it to an academic subject and hope it grabs students' attention more than a standard academic class," USA Today writes.

You can read the entire story here.

Oscar-winning 'Searching for Sugarman' writer lived in Baltimore

Baltimore Sun Tuesday, February 26, 2013

If you were watching the Oscars Feb. 24, you know that "Searching for Sugarman" won Craig Strydom the Oscar for best documentary.

If you were searching for the movie's writer Craig Strydom, look no further than Charm City, the Baltimore Sun writes. Strydom lived in Baltimore for 13 years and worked for marketing firm IMRE.

The movie tells the story of a music fan searching for the enigmatic 1970s singer Sixto Rodriguez whose music was used in South Africa's struggle against apartheid.

SNL spoofs Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis

NBC.com Tuesday, January 29, 2013

Baltimore Ravens linebacker Ray Lewis is known for getting teary-eyed after a winning game and doing his famous squirrel dance.

His antics have caught the attention of Saturday Night Live actors who lampooned Lewis in the Jan. 26 show, eight days before the Ravens square off against the San Francisco 49ers at the Super Bowl.

In the skit, "Lewis" says if his team wins the Super Bowl, he'll kneel down and "ascend into heaven." And then Thompson does the squirrel dance.

You can see the video here.

Meanwhile, Chris Tucker and other Hollywood actors attempted their own version of the dance.

Forbes reviews Baltimore's Digital Harbor Tech Center

Forbes Tuesday, January 22, 2013

The South Baltimore Recreation Center has officially reopened as a neigborhood technology center, thanks to the efforts of the Riverside community and Digital Harbor High School supporters.

Forbes takes a look at the new venue, where Balitmore City school students can learn about web design, mobile app development and digital media production.

"The center’s grand opening was a packed house, where excited participants got to show equally excited visitors the fruits of some of their early work, providing a taste of what’s to come from the space," the magazine writes. "Shelly Blake-Plock, the executive co-director of the Digital Harbor Foundation, delivered such an impassioned welcome speech that you could almost see where all this excitement was coming from."

You can read the rest of the story here.

Ray Lewis boosts Baltimore Ravens brand by $125M

Forbes Tuesday, January 22, 2013

What a year for Ray Lewis to retire. In his last year as No. 52, the Baltimore Ravens' linebacker is squaring off against the San Francisco 49ers in Super Bowl XLVII.

Just how valuable has Lewis been to the Ravens?

Forbes estimates that Lewis helped boost the value of the Ravens franchise by as much as $125 million during his 17 years of play by helping to make the brand more appealing.

"The historic brand appeal of the franchise has helped keep the Ravens franchise value among the NFL’s top third," Forbes writes.

Baltimore's Same-Sex Wedding Website Featured in USA Today

USA Today Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The day after Maryland voters approved same-sex marriage, Baltimore's tourism bureau launched its website that helps gay couples who are planning a wedding.

"Celebrate your wedding day in Baltimore!" Visit Baltimore's site says.

And USA Today took note of the quick response.

"Visit Baltimore is helping with venues, lodging, group rates and vendor suggestions," the paper writes. "It also has the fine print on how to wed there."

Same-sex couples can wed in Maryland starting Jan. 1.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Jewish Leaders Hold Convention in Baltimore

MSNBC Tuesday, November 13, 2012

The Jewish Federations of North America is holding its 2012 convention in Baltimore this week for the first time in 30 years, writes WBAL TV in a story that was picked up by MSNBC.com.

The meeting takes place Nov. 11-13, bringing thousands of Jews who represent 155 Jewish federations and 300 networks that "raise and distribute more than $1 billion each year for social welfare and education," the story says.

The annual convention is a once a year chance for Jewish leaders to get together and talk about the positives and the challenges, Bruce Sholk, a past chairman of the Associated, tells WBAL.

You can read the rest of the story here.

Walters Art Exhibit Gets a Plug in the New York Times

New York Times Friday, November 09, 2012

The Walters Art Museum's latest exhibit, which explores the depiction of Africans in Renaissance art, gets a writeup in the New York Times.

"Visually the exhibition is a gift, with marvelous things by artists familiar and revered — Dürer, Rubens, Veronese — along with images most of us never knew existed," the Times writes. "Together they map a history of art, politics and race that scholars have begun to pay attention to."

"Revealing the African Presence in Renaissance Europe" runs through Jan. 21 and features paintings, drawings, sculptures and printed books depicting black Africans in Europe from the 1400s to the 1600s. Africans living in or visiting Europe at this time included artists, aristocrats, saints, slaves and diplomats.

You can read the entire Times' review here.

CNN Covers Maryland's Gay Marriage Debate

CNN Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Maryland voters will decide Nov. 6 whether the Free State will allow gay marriage and are now divided on the issue.

CNN.com highlighted the debate in Maryland, as well as in Maine and Washington, which are also putting the issue before voters on Election Day.

"From her Baltimore kitchen, Rebecca Murphy is lobbying legislators, crafting signs and making phone calls as she wages a battle to allow gays and lesbians to marry in her state," CNN.com writes. "As national polls show a shift in attitudes about same-sex marriage, Murphy's state of Maryland is one of three poised to put the issue to an up-or-down popular vote for the first time next month."

Currently, six states allow same-sex marriage and five allow civil unions for same-sex couples.

You can read the entire story here.

Centerstage Asks Playwrights to Reflect on America

Broadway World Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Centerstage has asked some of the nation's most prominent playwrights to create short films to answer the question "What is My America."

Neil LaBute, Baltimore-born Anna Deavere Smith and Lynn Nottage are some of the writers involved in the 50 films directed by 90s indie director Hal Hartley, Broadway World writes.

"From foreclosure to gay marriage, from the judiciary to the little-known circumstances surrounding the death of James A. Garfield, these monologues, with a wry mix of humor and heart, shine a light on our particular American moment—and tug at the seams of political rhetoric as only theater can," Broadway World writes.

Centerstage, which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is releasing the videos weekly up until the Nov. 6 presidential election. You can read the entire story here.

Diversity : Buzz