Midday

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins us each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she spotlights Baltimore's Vagabond Players production of Stop Kiss, a 1998 drama by playwright Diana Son.

This complex tale of love, endurance and compassion is directed at Vagabond Players by Belle Burr, and is recommended for mature audiences because it contains descriptions of assault and hate crime.

(Today's review contains an audio clip in which the word "dyke" is used.)

Stop Kiss continues at Vagabond Players through September 25. Follow the link for more information.

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

It’s Midday on the Law. On Monday, Adnan Syed was released from prison and allowed to go home, with a GPS monitor, after 23 years behind bars. His conviction for murdering Hae-Min Lee in 1999 was vacated. He was not exonerated of the crime, although that may happen.

Mr. Syed’s case was chronicled in the podcast, Serial, and in an HBO documentary series. Mr. Syed remains, at this moment, charged with killing Hae-Min Lee, his high school classmate and former girlfriend.

The Baltimore City States Attorney’s Office has 28 days to decide whether or not to re-try Mr. Syed. Mr. Syed has always maintained he was not the person who murdered Ms. Lee.

Tom's guest today is Erica J. Suter, the director of the Innocence Project Clinic at the University of Baltimore School of Law, and Assistant Public Defender in the Maryland Office of the Public Defender.

Ms. Suter is the lawyer for Adnan Syed, and it was her advocacy and the work of Becky Feldman, the Chief of the Sentencing Review Unit in the Baltimore City State’s Attorney’s Office, that persuaded Baltimore Circuit Court Judge Melissa Phinn to overturn Mr. Syed’s conviction.

Erica J. Suter joins us here in Studio A…

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

The ballot for Baltimore City residents in the November election will include several referendums, the last of which, Question K, reads: “for the purpose of establishing a two-term limit for Baltimore City elected officials, including the Mayor, Comptroller, City Council President, and City Council members. None of these elected officials shall hold office for more than eight (8) years during any 12-year period.”

The President of the United States is limited to two terms. The Governor of Maryland is limited to two terms. County executives in Baltimore County, Anne Arundel County, and Howard County are limited to two terms. Should the Mayor of Baltimore and other city officials be term-limited too?

We want to hear what you think about this idea. Elections give voters the chance to term-limit most elected officials every four years. Do we need a law in the city charter that will do it automatically?

Tom's guests today bring a perspective to this issue that is born of direct experience.

Kurt Schmoke served as the Mayor of Baltimore for three terms, from 1987-1999, after serving as the Baltimore City State’s Attorney…

Sheila Dixon served as Mayor for three years, from 2007-2010, after serving as City Council President…

They join us on Zoom.

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

We are delighted today to welcome back to Midday the writer Elizabeth Strout. She is the best-selling author of nine novels and many short stories. In 2009, she won the Pulitzer Prize for a terrific book, Olive Kitteridge. A film adaption of that book on HBO starred Frances McDormand and won eight Emmy Awards.

Elizabeth Strout has revisited two of her iconic characters in subsequent books. We met Olive Kitteridge once more in Olive Again, and Olive makes an appearance in Elizabeth Strout’s latest novel, too. In this new book, Strout keeps us current with another one of her magnificent characters, Lucy Barton. It’s the fourth novel in which Lucy figures prominently.

Like her book, Oh William! from last year, Strout centers this one on Lucy’s friendship with her first husband, a successful scientist named William Gerhardt. The setting is a small town in Maine, where Lucy and William have sequestered themselves at the beginning of the COVID pandemic.

Lucy is a rich, wonderful character, and Elizabeth Strout is a wonderful writer who brings us into Lucy’s loving and insightful mind with grace and compassion.

The new novel is out today. It’s called Lucy by the Sea. 

Elizabeth Strout joins us on Zoom from New York City.

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

Queen Elizabeth II, who died September 8 at the age of 96, was honored in a state funeral Monday morning in London, attended by leaders from around the globe.

Hundreds of thousands lined the streets; millions more viewed the somber ceremonies on television, as the Queen's regally bedecked casket was driven from Buckingham Palace's Westminster Hall to its final resting place at the royal family's 900 year-old Windsor Castle.

Later Monday, in a private ceremony, she was interred in the Royal Vault in Windsor's St. George's Chapel, beside her husband Prince Phillip, who died last year,

NPR’s London Correspondent Frank Langfitt has been covering the somber events and he joins us on our digital line from London.

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

Joining Tom now is journalist Jack Brewster. He’s a senior analyst for NewsGuard, a media monitoring organization based in New York.

In this month’s edition of Newsguard’s Misinformation Monitor, he and his colleagues report about misinformation on Tik Tok, an Internet domain that is wildly popular with young people in particular, and which, according to the report, is chock-full of posts that include conspiracy theories and all manner of bad information.

Jack Brewster joins us on Zoom from Ridgefield, Connecticut.

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

Election day in Maryland is less than two months away. Early voting starts Oct. 27. Election day is Nov. 8. If you are requesting a mail-in ballot, you have until Nov. 1 to request one by mail, and Nov. 4 to request one on-line.

Today, the Sarah T. Hughes Center for Politics at Goucher College released a wide-ranging poll, commissioned by WYPR and the Baltimore Banner, that shows the Democratic candidates for the state’s top three offices in commanding leads over their Republican challengers. The poll also explored what issues remain top of mind for Maryland voters.

Dr. Mileah Kromer is the director of the Hughes Center. She joins Tom in Studio A to tell us what the numbers reveal…

On Wednesday night (Sept. 21), Goucher College and our partners, the Baltimore Banner will hold the first in a series of “Promote the Vote” events. Mileah Kromer will talk about the results of the WYPR/Banner poll from 6-8. Follow the link for more information.

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

Tom's next guest is Jenenne Whitfield, the newly appointed director of AVAM, the American Visionary Arts Museum.

She comes to Baltimore from Detroit, where she headed the Heidelberg Project. She succeeds AVAM’s founding director, Rebecca Hoffberger, who led the museum for three decades.

If you’re not familiar with AVAM, it’s worth the trip to Key Highway here in Baltimore to check it out. It’s dedicated to intuitive, self-taught artistry, and it has garnered kudos from all sorts of national news outlets since it opened 30 years ago.

Jenenne Whitfield joins us in Studio A…

AVAM's next mega exhibition, which will be up for a year, opens on October 8. It’s called ABUNDANCE: Too Much, Too Little, Just Right. 

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

Today, we begin the hour with another edition of Midday with the Mayor, Tom's monthly conversation with Baltimore City Mayor Brandon Scott, about key issues facing the city.

Today's topics include: lessons learned during the E. coli contamination incident and the DPW response; the Squeegee Collaborative Community Conversation; and Gov. Hogan's proposal to hand over the State Center complex to Baltimore City.

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

It's time for another visit with Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck, who joins Tom each week with her reviews of Maryland's regional stage. Today, she tells us about Everyman Theatre's world-premiere production of Dinner and Cake, a debut work by Vietnam-born playwright/actor Tuyết Thị Phạm about race, politics and a family's struggle to bridge deep cultural divides.

Paige Hernandez directs the complex, bi-lingual play for Everyman, which also features Carolina Đỗ as Mỹlinh, Định James Đoàn as Mr. Trần; Helen Hedman as Mrs. Joyce Drumming; Bruce Randolph Nelson as Mr. Murray Drumming; and the playwright Tuyết Thị Phạm as Mrs. Trần.

Dinner and Cake continues at Baltimore's Everyman Theatre through October 2. Follow the links for showtimes and ticketing information.

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