All the Pieces Matter

Maryland Traditions Festival Today!

John Lewis — Sat, 15 Jun 2013 14:56:11 +0000

Two years ago, we cited the Maryland Traditions Folklife Festival as "Best Arts Showcase" in our Best Of Baltimore issue. The Zionaires, a local gospel group (pictured), stole the show in 2011. Today, you can head down to the Creative Alliance in Highlandtown and see what all the fuss is about. This year's fest features a legendary doo-wop group (The Swalllows), the city's best jazz band (Lafayette Gilchrist and the New Volvanoes), a cameo by a jazz master (saxophonist Carl Grubbs), a bluegrass band (The Carroll County Ramblers), Cambodian musicians and dancers, a Guatemalan marimba group, and a Native American dance troupe. There will also be workshops for egg decorating, yarn painting, pinata making, blacksmithing, and letterpress printing. And you can grab a slice of Smith Island cake! Did I mention that's it's free? What else do you need to know? Get down there—it starts at 11 am, and goes until 7 pm.

Amazingly diverse arts showcase at the Creative Alliance.

Blau, Winik at Ivy Tonight

John Lewis — Fri, 14 Jun 2013 20:02:34 +0000

Local authors Jessica Anya Blau and Marion Winik celebrate the release of their new books—The Wonder Bread Summer and Highs in the Low Fifties, respectively—at the Ivy Bookshop tonight. Both books make good beach reads, though they're hilarious in wildly different ways. I guarantee you'll never look at a bag of Wonder Bread the same way! Tonight's festivities begin at 7 pm.

Launch party for two great summer reads

Byrne-ing Down the Meyerhoff

John Lewis — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 16:39:43 +0000

David Byrne makes something of a homecoming tomorrow when he returns to Baltimore for a show with St. Vincent at the Meyerhoff. Byrne grew up in Arbutus and graduated from Landsdowne High School before going global with Talking Heads. Since that band combusted, he’s launched a record label, made a bunch of cool artwork, written an excellent book, continued to make good music, and rebuffed offers for a hits heavy/cash grab tour with his old band mates. The man exudes integrity and can still bring the heat, as this clip with St. Vincent (see below) makes clear. Although the pair’s Love This Giant album felt tentative, they seem to have hit their stride on this tour. For more evidence of that, download the free Brass Tactics EP.

Rock legend returns to Baltimore tomorrow night.

Life-Changing Art: Darryl Jenifer (Bad Brains, White Mandingos)

John Lewis — Wed, 12 Jun 2013 15:29:54 +0000

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?

The Temptations’ In a Mellow Mood album opened my musical sensibilities, especially songs like “A Taste of Honey,” “Young Lovers,” and “Ole Man River.” Imma pop that album on right now and learn.

Most folks know Darryl Jenifer as bassist for Bad Brains, the legendary punk band out of D.C. He’s also a member of The White Mandingos, an intriguing group that also includes Sacha Jenkins and the alt-rapper Murs (real name Tyrone White, hence the White Mandingos band name). When asked what each member brings to the group, Jenifer says that “Sach brings the salt, Murs brings the pepper, and I bring the Bad Brains FVK (“Fearless Vampire Killers”) Extreme/Fire Burn Babylon Hot Sauce. Together, we create a spectacular platter.” The Mandingos’ debut record, The Ghetto Is Tryna Kill Me (streaming at Okayplayer), doesn’t fit with contemporary hip-hop, as Jenifer cheekily acknowledges. “This record fits neatly on your turntable, and the cd slides effortlessly in to your disk player or computer,” he says. “The varied sounds and styles will shower you with joy and excitement. Hip-hop is some scary shit, but we ain't scared.” The D.C. native also shows some love for Baltimore, especially “the Marble Bar, crabs, football, and marble steps in the ‘hood.” I’ll keep you posted on a Baltimore show, but, for now, you’ll have to motor down I-95 to see the Mandingos, who’ll play what figures to be a dynamic show at D.C.’s U Street Music Hall this Saturday night.

Bassist's new band plays area show this Saturday night.

Whirligig Artist Remembered

John Lewis — Fri, 07 Jun 2013 16:05:05 +0000

I called Rebecca Hoffberger after hearing that visionary artist Vollis Simpson, creator of AVAM’s signature whirligig, had passed away at the age of 94. Hoffberger had just returned from the funeral, driving all day to North Carolina and back, but she was definitely in the mood to talk about Simpson, a longtime friend.

“After seeing his whirligigs, I couldn’t imagine anything else as the centerpiece of our campus,” said Hoffberger, who puts Simpson’s Whirligig Farm in North Carolina on a par with Simon Rodia’s Watts Towers and Leonard Knight’s Salvation Mountain. “He’s one of the three greats in America, when it comes to scale and original production.”

Hoffberger said Simpson was beloved in his home state, and people lined up to get into the funeral. Many in attendance talked about being profoundly moved by Simpson’s work, and they also spoke of his integrity and keen sense of humor. “He seemed to get happier and happier as he got older,” said Hoffberger. “He was a great artist and a great man.”

Next time you're in Federal Hill, stop by AVAM and pay your respects. And if you're heading south later this year, Simpson’s North Carolina whirligigs are being restored and moved to an art park in Wilson, not far from where he lived. The park will open sometime this fall.

Vollis Simpson created AVAM centerpiece.

Laura Lippman, Sujata Massey at the Ivy Tonight

John Lewis — Tue, 04 Jun 2013 13:35:50 +0000

Two of the city's finest writers, Laura Lippman and Sujata Massey, will be at The Ivy Bookshop this evening. Massey will be talking to Lippman about her latest book, And When She Was Good, which just came out in paperback. It's about time we stop pigeonholing Lippman and Massey as mystery writers. They're great writers, period. And Massey has an intriguing book coming out in August, a historical novel called The Sleeping Dictionary. Tonight's event starts at 7 pm.

Two local greats, another excellent Ivy event.

Route 50 Detours

John Lewis — Fri, 24 May 2013 16:40:52 +0000

Arts lovers on their way to the beach this weekend have a few reasons to pull off Route 50. That’s because, as noted in our April issue, the Eastern Shore continues to shed its rep as a cultural backwater—Mencken called it a “forlorn corner” of Maryland that “succumbed to its poor white trash, who determine its ideas and run its affairs”—and emerge as a viable, and vital, spot for art and culture. Here are a few suggestions…

Don’t miss the James Turrell exhibit—yes, that James Turrell—at Easton's Academy Art Museum. Turrell, a 1984 MacArthur genius grant recipient, is considered one of our greatest living artists. He’s known primarily for a decades-long effort to transform Roden Crater into a monumental work of art near his Arizona home. Turrell also lives, part-time, in Oxford, about a 20-minute drive from the Easton gallery, where he’s installed one of his trademark pieces (above) that uses light and space to bend perception and encourage stillness and contemplation. I didn’t know Turrell was a Quaker until a docent in Easton mentioned it, and that tidbit shed light (pun intended) on the man’s work.

The show also includes holographic pieces (which are for sale), Turrell’s photographs and handmade models of Roden Crater, and architectural drawings of the project’s three phases. This is the same gallery that hosted a fascinating Mark Rothko exhibition last year. The Turrell show closes July 7th.

In Cambridge, check out Paul Lockhart’s metal sculptures of Chesapeake wildlife at Joie de Vivre Gallery, vibrant folk at the Danny Doughty Gallery, the Harriet Tubman mural near Food Lion, and artfully aged signs by Kevin Davidson at Country Store Gallery. Baltimoreans will be particularly interested in Davidson’s series of Natty Boh signs.

For beach reads, pick up the latest Delmarva Review for evocative poetry and prose, Terry White and A.M. Foley’s That Reminds Me of a Story for a big-hearted dose of local history, Barbara Lockhart’s Mosey’s Field for a big-hearted children’s story (gorgeously illustrated by Heather Crow), and fiction by Helen Chappell and Diane Marquette (her Chesapeake Conference Center series will appeal to mystery lovers).

On your way home, stop off at the Cambridge Public Library and pay homage to John Barth, the Shore’s greatest writer. An interpretive sign on the library lawn tells about Barth’s years growing up in Cambridge and his many literary accomplishments. Barth will be 83 years old on Monday.

Art and culture lovers will want to check out these Eastern Shore gems.

John Waters at the Howard Theatre

John Lewis — Thu, 16 May 2013 16:11:41 +0000

John Waters’s comic genius lit up D.C.’s Howard Theatre last night. Appearing a half hour ahead of the scheduled 8:00 start—in the Q&A afterward, Waters said he was surprised to hear himself introduced at 7:30 and had to hustle onstage—he immediately paid tribute to the venue’s storied past and cited the many iconic African-American musicians/bandleaders that played the Howard back in the day. He noted the restored theater’s upscale look, comparing it to the dining room in The Poseidon Adventure, and mentioned attending shows at the Royal in Baltimore. Looking around the Howard, in its present state, makes it even more baffling that our city tore down the Royal, but that’s a rant for another day.

Over the next 90 minutes, Waters delighted the crowd—a great mix of young/old, black/white, gay/straight—with a deft mix of bawdy humor, sharp observations, and intellectual bravado. I can’t think of any performer who gives his audience more credit for being smart and open-minded. It's a winning combination that allows him to riff about sexual fetishes, race relations, Justin Bieber—who once told Waters, “Your ‘stache is the jam”—and Susan Sontag. Waters gets extra credit for working Cy Twombly and obscure D.C. hip-hop artist Michael Ivey into his routine.

When he talked about hitchhiking across the country last year, the person seated next to me—a grandmotherly, African-American woman—leaned over and said, “Everyone should do that at least once in their lives.” She howled with laughter throughout the show, just like the tattooed hipsters on the other side of me, and the gay couple across the table. The entire experience made me proud to be an American. No kidding.

And after the show, I met Gore Vidal’s sister, and we talked for 20 minutes about Baltimore’s dirt bike culture—a fitting end to a perfect evening

Amazing show at historic D.C. theater last night.

Life-Changing Art: Toshi Reagon

John Lewis — Sat, 11 May 2013 14:51:54 +0000

What piece of art changed your life? How did it affect you?

In 1976, the American Folk Life Festival lasted all summer on the mall. My mother (Bernice Johnson Reagon) produced a section called the African Diaspora. There was a church building with open sides; a front porch—Florida Ave Grill prepared the food; a winding lane, like a train of booths; and the booths had chefs cooking food, people doing hair, basket weavers, sculptors, and Flora Molton, the most amazing street singer, had a booth. I saw Black Music from all over the world: blues, jazz, folk, fife and drum, musicians and dancers from Ghana, Senegal, and Nigeria, and pop-and-lock contemporary dancers. Sweet Honey In The Rock sang on the front porch. You could see this every day. It was incredible.

It let me know I was incredible. The sky was the limit. I learned the amazing ways people figured out how to live and how to craft a necessary thing—a basket, a stew, a hairstyle, a song, a dance, poetry, clothing—the things we need in our lives. My people created, in a beautiful format, the landscape of life, which made it possible for me to grow up and live. I will always be grateful to my mom and all the people who worked at the American Folk Life Festival that summer. It is a powerful thing for a kid to learn, in such a beautiful way, that the world is more than what you know. And it is a powerful thing to understand that you are a part of that world.

This is one of the most incredible responses I've ever gotten to the "life-changing art" query, and it makes me wish we invested more, as a nation, in arts and culture. Toshi's response illustrates that it would be money well spent. Tonight, she performs at the Creative Alliance with her mother, Bernice Johnson Reagon, a national treasure and founder of Sweet Honey in the Rock. I can't think of a better way to celebrate Mother's Day weekend.

Toshi and her mother, the legendary Bernice Johnson Reagon, perform at the Creative Alliance tonight.

The Genius of American Idiot

John Lewis — Fri, 10 May 2013 17:17:36 +0000

My 13-year-old son, Levi, walked into the Hippodrome a bit warily for Green Day’s American Idiot musical. He expected watered-down versions of favorite songs servicing a Broadway-friendly narrative that stripped away the original album’s power. It didn’t help matters that he’d seen Green Day at the Patriot Center last month and was blown away by Billie Joe and crew. Well, guess what? Levi approves of the play, and I wholeheartedly agree.

At the outset, it takes a few minutes getting acclimated to the musical’s punk-ish intensity—did I just write that?—which comes from all directions: the cast’s all-out energy, the physicality of the choreography, the onstage band’s amped-up playing, the f-bomb dropping, and sensory overload generated by the set design (I counted 33 TV screens). But director Michael Mayer, who co-wrote the book with Billie Joe Armstrong, deftly handles three story lines that play out gracefully and concisely without jettisoning the swaggering attitude and social criticism of the original material. Although Levi and I initially questioned the St. Jimmy character’s glam-ish sheen, we came to appreciate Trent Saunders’s take on the role.

In fact, the entire cast impressed us. And they’re all newbies. Reading their Playbill bios, I was stunned to learn that none of them had previous Broadway experience. None at all. How punk rock is that?

You can catch American Idiot at the Hippodrome through the weekend.

The punk rock musical continues its run at the Hippodrome.