Midday

Tom's next guest is Devin Allen, the self-trained Baltimore-born artist and photographer who has achieved international renown for his compelling images of social justice protests.

Devin Allen's photo of the 2015 Freddie Gray uprising, and his 2020 image of a Black Trans Lives Matter protest, were separately featured on the covers of Time Magazine, making him one of just a handful of amateur photographers to have had their work published on that prestigious platform.

His photographs have also appeared in New York Magazine, The New York Times, The Washington Post, and Aperture, and are part of the permanent collections of the National Museum of African American History & Culture in Washington, D.C., the Reginald F. Lewis Museum in Baltimore, the Studio Museum in Harlem, and the Jule Collins Smith Museum at Auburn University.

He is the founder of Through Their Eyes, a youth photography educational program. He has been honored by The Maryland Commission on African American History and Culture for dynamic leadership in the Arts and Activism. He was the winner of the inaugural 2017 Gordon Parks Foundation Fellowship. Also in 2017, he was nominated for an NAACP Image Award as a debut author for his book A Beautiful Ghetto.

His new book is called No Justice, No Peace: From the Civil Rights Movement to Black Lives Matter. It's a themed collection of his own photographs with essays on the struggle by a variety of writers interspersed among them, as well as selected historical images by the late great Black photographer, Gordon Parks.

Devin Allen will be speaking about the book and signing copies Thursday evening (tonight) at 5:30 at Spark Baltimore in the Power Plant Live complex in Baltimore. It’s sponsored by our news partners,The Baltimore Banner.  For more details on the event, click here.

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

Today, we begin the hour with another installment of Midday with the Mayor, our live monthly conversations with Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott about important issues on his, and the city's, agenda.Today's topic list includes:

• departures of some of the mayor's senior staff;
• school-based violence intervention;
• upgrades to the city's procurement systems; and
• the city's new Cherry Hill Recreation Center.

Your comments and questions are welcome.

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

Historically, voter turnout in American elections is horrible, and turnout in midterm elections is particularly lousy. But the midterms in 2018 set records for turnout, and with six days left in this cycle, there are indications that turnout this year will rival the historic participation four years ago.

For a long time, common wisdom held that high turnout favored Democrats. At least that’s what Republicans thought, which is why so many GOP dominated state legislators passed so many laws that targeted people of color and restricted access to the polls.

Tom's guest today is Brandi Collins-Dexter, a keen observer of politics, race and the cultural landscape. In her new, first book, she takes a fresh look at the relationship between Black voters and the Democratic party, an alliance that began during the Civil Rights movement of the mid-20th century. She argues that there are many reasons that old assumptions about that relationship need to be re-examined.

Brandi Collins-Dexter is associate director of research at The Technology and Social Change Project (TaSC), housed in Harvard Kennedy School’s Shorenstein Center on Media, Politics and Public Policy. She is the former Senior Campaign Director at Color of Change, a 7 million-member social justice organization. Her new book is a provocative and persuasive collection of essays called Black Skinhead: Reflections on Blackness and Our Political Future. 

Brandi Collins-Dexter was raised in Chicago. After several years in Oakland, California, she now lives in Baltimore.

She joins us today on Zoom from Dublin, Ireland…

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

Today, it’s Midday on Development.  Every so often, we talk to the folks who are involved in some of Baltimore’s commercial and residential projects that in many cases are game-changers for the neighborhoods in which they are being built, and for the city at large.

Certainly, there are few game-changing projects in Baltimore that rival the enormity and significance of Port Covington, the 200-acre waterfront development in South Baltimore that will eventually provide a new headquarters for the Under Armour company, and 14 million square feet of retail, residential and office space, along with parks and open areas.

To view videos of the new neighborhood, including a CG fly-through, click here.

Tom's first guest is MaryAnne Gilmartin, the founder and CEO of MAG Partners. Her development firm is working on finding tenants for all of the first tranche of new buildings in the Port Covington neighborhood that are just a few months away from completion.

MaryAnne Gilmartin joins us on Zoom from New York…

Later in the program, Tom talks with Melody Simmons, a business development and real estate reporter for the Baltimore Business Journal. The veteran journalist updates us on some of the other big projects underway here in Baltimore.

Melody Simmons joins Tom in Studio A. 

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Reminder: Election Day is next Tuesday!

Early voting continues through Thursday at 8:00 PM. If you want to request a mail-in ballot by mail, the deadline to postmark your request is today (Tuesday). You have until Friday to ask for a mail-in ballot via e-mail.If you are not yet registered to vote, you can register when you vote early, or on election day. Bring a form of identification that proves you live in your jurisdiction.

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

Today on Midday, a conversation about age and leadership.

President Joe Biden turns 80 in less than a month. He’s the oldest president in US history. He himself has said it’s reasonable for people to worry about whether he is capable of handling the demands of the office. Speculation abounds as to whether or not he will seek a second term. The results of the midterm elections next week will undoubtedly affect his decision. If he decides to run, he would be 86 years old by the end of this second term.

And he’s not alone as an older leader in government. More than a quarter of the members of Congress are in their 70s and 80s. The median age of federal judges is 68.

Experience is valuable, of course, but is advanced age - in a US president, a legislator, a jurist - on balance, an asset or a detriment?

A recent investigative series in Business Insider takes a comprehensive look at that question. The series is called Red, White, and Gray: How America's Gerontocracy is Weakening Democracy.

Tom's first guests are two of the authors of the series. Dave Levinthal is a deputy editor who oversees political investigative reporting and enterprise stories. He also writes about politics, power and policy. Kimberly Leonard is one of the many reporters who contributed to this 31-part series. She covers politics and policy.

Later in the hour, our conversation is joined by Dr. Jeremy Walston, the director of the Johns Hopkins Human Aging Project. That's an ongoing clinical research program whose stated aim is "to increase the length of time that older adults spend in good health without cognitive or functional decline."

Dave Levinthal and Kimberly Leonard join us on Zoom. Dr. Jeremy Walston joins Tom in Studio A.

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

Tom's guest for the hour today is the journalist and author, April Ryan. She is the Washington, DC Bureau Chief and Senior White House correspondent for The Grio, and a political analyst for CNN. Previously, she reported for the American Urban Radio Networks.

A native of Baltimore and a graduate of Morgan State University, April is the longest serving Black female White House correspondent covering urban issues from one of the most prestigious beats in all of journalism. She has covered every President since Bill Clinton.

She is also the author of four books, including The Presidency in Black and White (2015); Under Fire: Reporting from the Front Lines of the Trump White House (2018); and At Mama’s Knee: Mothers and Race in Black and White (2016).

Her latest book is an homage to African American women, many of whom she has covered, all of whom she admires. It’s called Black Women Will Save the World: An Anthem.

April Ryan joins us on Zoom from her home in Baltimore. ____________________________________________

April Ryan will be discussing her new book tomorrow (Saturday Oct. 29) when she delivers the keynote address at the Enlighten, Inspire, Empower Summit at the Doubletree Hilton Hotel in Pikesville, presented and hosted by India McCleod. (The event is sold out, but check the link for availability.)

Ms. Ryan will also be speaking at the Enoch Pratt Free Library at 7pm on Monday, November 7, in conversation with University of Baltimore President Kurt Schmoke. Click the link for details.

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

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

Today, Judy tells us about Maryland Ensemble Theatre's new production of The Lifespan of a Fact.

The 2018 stageplay, written by Jeremy Kareken, David Murrell and Gordon Farrell, is an adaptation of a book by John D'Agata and Jim Fingal that explores the complexity of sorting truth from fiction in writing and in public narratives.

Gené Fouché directs the three-person cast, featuring Sean Byrne, Jack Evans and Laura Stark.

The play contains adult themes and is recommended for mature audiences.

The Lifetime of a Fact continues at MET in Frederick, Maryland, through October 30.

Click the links above for showtimes and ticketing information.

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

Tom's next guest is Marc Nathan. He's the proprietor of Cards, Comics and Collectibles, a comic book store in Reistertown, and the founder of the Baltimore Comic-Con, a festival that celebrates all things comic book.

For 23 years Comic-Con has attracted fans of comics from all over the world to the Baltimore Convention Center. This year’s edition begins Friday and runs through Sunday. Click the links for more details.

Marc Nathan join us on Zoom with a preview…

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

More than 600,000 Maryland voters have requested a mail-in ballot, and early voting is now underway. Early voting locations are open every day, 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM, including this weekend. Voters have until next Thursday to cast an in-person ballot in advance of Election Day on Novemberf 8th.

Today on Midday, the final installment in our series of Conversations with the Candidates: 2022.  Tom's guest is Gordana Schifanelli, a lawyer from Kent Island who is the Republican nominee for Lt. Governor, running with MD Delegate Dan Cox, the Republican gubernatorial nominee.

In 2020, Schifanelli led the effort to oppose Dr. Andrea Kane, an African American Superintendent of Queen Anne’s County Schools. Dr. Kane left the school system after being criticized for her support of the Black Lives Matter movement and for advocating for racial dialogue in the majority white county.

Ms. Schifanelli holds a Bachelor’s degree in economics and a Masters in economics and finance from the University of Belgrade, in Serbia. She emigrated to the United States in the 1990s, and earned a law degree from the University of Baltimore School of Law. In addition to practicing law in a firm with her husband, she was until last year an adjunct faculty member at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis.

Gordana Schifanelli is 51 years old, and the mother of three sons. She and her family live in Stevensville.

Gordana Schifanelli joins us on Zoom.

A reminder: Early voting polling places are open from 7:00 AM until 8:00 PM today (Thursday, October 27) through next Thursday, November 3. You can register to vote on the day you vote, if you come to the polling location with proof of your place of residency.

Election Day is a week from Tuesday, on November 8.

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

Early voting in Maryland begins tomorrow.

Next on Midday, it's another in our series of "Conversations with the Candidates: 2022. Tom's guest is Aruna Miller, a former Maryland Delegate (representing District 15 from 2011-2019) and now the running mate for Lt. Governor with Democratic gubernatorial candidate Wes Moore.

Before her tenure in Annapolis, Miller worked as an engineer in Montgomery County transportation department in Montgomery County for more than two decades. Recently, she served as the Executive Director of Indian American Impact.

Aruna Miller holds a degree in civil engineering from Missouri University of Science and Technology. She is 57 years old, married, with three daughters. She lives in Darnestown. Wes Moore announced her as his running mate in December of last year.

Aruna Miller joins us on Zoom. 

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