Midday

The great jazz guitarist and vocalist John Pizzarelli released his first album 40 years ago. It was called I’m Hip (Please Don’t Tell My Father).  His father, by the way, was the great jazz guitarist Bucky Pizzarelli, who passed away in 2020. Since the release of that album, John has toured the world and established himself as one of the great interpreters of the Great American Songbook.

He’s appearing at Keystone Korner here in Baltimore this weekend, and his sets will feature music from his latest release: Stage and Screen, which celebrates great music from Broadway and Hollywood.

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WYPR is proud to announce the New/Next Film Festival, a weekend-long celebration of film culture, is taking place August 18-20 in Baltimore.

Sam Sessa is the Director of Events & Community Engagement for WTMD and WYPR. Eric Allen Hatch is the curator of films for the New Next Film Festival. They joined Tom in Studio A to share news about this exciting cinematic event.

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Cara Ober covers the latest in Baltimore's vibrant art scene. She is the founder, editor and publisher of BMore Art, a magazine that explores the arts in Baltimore.

Their latest print issue, The Migration Issue, came out last week. It features several international artists who now call Baltimore home.

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An array of fictional documents that take us behind the headlines of important historical events in Alexandra Petri's "US History: Important American Documents (I Made Up)"

Petri is a terrific political satirist and humor columnist for the Washington Post. The fictitious documents run the gamut from “top toys for Puritan parents” and “John and Abigail Adams try Sexting to” Aaron Sorkin’s “Gettysburg Address” and Richard Nixon “Tapes - But Just the Parts Where He’s Yelling at Checkers.”

Throughout the book, Petri demonstrates an impressive command of historical events and the people who comprise our nation’s history and mythology.

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It's time again for a visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage.

She joins Tom to tell us about Life is a Dream at Baltimore Center Stage, which runs until May 21, 2023.

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Reports indicate Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis is soon to officially announce his candidacy for the Republican nomination for U.S. President. He trails in the current polls behind former President Donald Trump, as does the rest of the growing field. The first caucuses and primaries don’t take place until February.

DeSantis has preceded his run for the White House with months of TV appearance focused on "wokeness" and political correctness, while lauding several bills he has signed into Florida law. Bills with names like the "Individual Freedom Act" and the "Stop Woke Act" place limits on the teaching of American history, sexual orientation and gender identity and prohibit spending on diversity, equity and inclusion programs.

Dr. Terry Anne Scott is a former history professor at Hood College, and the author of Lynching and Leisure: Race and the Transformation of Mob Violence in Texas.

She is the Director of the Institute for Common Power. Tonight and tomorrow, she is teaming-up with scholars from around the country to produce a 24-hour teach-in to confront the restrictions Florida educators are facing.

The event is called Truth in Education: A 24 Hour Teach-In for American Democracy.

Dr. Terry Anne Scott joins Tom on Zoom from St. Petersburg.

Dr. Yohuru Williams is the Distinguished University Chair and Professor of History and Founding Director of the Racial Justice Initiative at the University of St. Thomas in St. Paul, Minnesota. He’s also the We the People Fellow for the event tonight and tomorrow. He joins Tom on Zoom from Florida, as well.

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Baltimore Banner reporters Clara Longo de Freitas and Ryan Little explored the access to pharmacies for Baltimore City residents.

Analysis from the Banner found majority-Black and minority-majority neighborhoods in Baltimore have less access to pharmacies than majority-white neighborhoods.

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The story of modern food is a fascinating tale captured in a new book by physician and historian of science, medicine, and food, Dr. Lisa Haushofer. Her research reveals the connection between nutrition with money, business, conquest, and colonization.

The new book is Wonder Foods: The Science and Commerce of Nutrition. Haushofer makes a compelling case that the way we relate to food has been shaped by a variety of economic and geopolitical factors.

Dr. Lisa Haushofer joins Tom to discuss the book.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.

Title 42, the Trump era effort to restrict asylum seekers that was continued during the first two years of the Biden Administration, ended last Thursday. With the policy's end, immigration experts expected a surge of migrants at the U.S. southern border. Bu that hasn’t happened.

Last week, before the regulation was rescinded, U.S. Border Patrol agents apprehended as many as 11,000 migrants a day. Over the weekend, according to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, those numbers went down to 6,300 on Friday and 4,200 on Saturday.

Tom's guest on this issue is Krish O’Mara Vignarajah, the President and CEO of Lutheran Immigrant and Refugee Service, a non-profit organization that helps resettle refugees.

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The Baltimore Peace Movement is a community-based non-profit group that works to end violence in Baltimore.

On Mother’s Day weekend and three other weekends every year, they hold events to encourage all of us to act peacefully, and to help those who are in danger or in mourning.

On the Mondays following each Peace Movement weekend, we check in with the group’s co-organizers.

Letrice Gant is one of those co-founders, and also Deputy Director of the Baltimore Community Mediation Center. Since 1995 the Center has been providing free conflict resolution services to communities across the city.

Ms. Gant joins Tom Hall on Zoom.

Email us at [email protected], tweet us: @MiddayWYPR, or call us at 410-662-8780.