Midday

Baltimore Center Stage is streaming a new virtual production called “A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction.” It’s a timely world premiere by playwright Miranda Rose Hall (who happens to be the daughter of Midday host Tom Hall), that tackles the urgent issue of climate change with both personal passion and scientific rigor.

The one-woman play, directed by Taibi Magar and starring Los-Angeles based actor Lindsay Rico as "Naomi," was taped at Center Stage before a small masked audience, who respond during the performance to Naomi's direct questions about the environment.

The production was stage-managed by Norman Anthony Small, with scenery and costumes by Clint Ramos, lighting by Stacey Derosier and sound by Twi McCallum.

We have a review today by Mike Giuliano, a freelance arts and culture reporter and a regular contributor to the Baltimore Sun and the Sun’s Media Group papers. He is also a Professor of Film and Interdisciplinary Arts at Howard County Community College.

A Play for the Living in a Time of Extinction" is streaming from Baltimore Center Stage through August 8th. Follows the BCS theater links above for more information.

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Joining Tom now is Brittany Young, the founder of an organization called B-360. She offers STEM education to local kids by showing them what they can learn about Science, Technology, Engineering and Math when they ride and study dirt bikes. Her goal is to inspire confidence and responsibility in the young people, and interrupt the school-to-prison pipeline.

Ms. Young and B-360 were recently awarded a $75,000 unrestricted fellowship grant, to be paid annually for three years by the Fund for New Leadership. Additionally, they'll receive mentorship, leadership training and peer coaching to expand their organizations' impact.

Young was also a Class of 2020 TED Fellow, and received a Baltimore Business Journal Best in Tech Award.

Brittany Young joins us on Zoom…

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Tom's first guest today is an artist and community organizer named Errigh Laboo, Jr., better known in the Baltimore dance community as Neek. He’s the CEO and founder of B More Than Dance, a non profit organization that coaches and inspires young people to elevate their dance talents to art and monetize it in some form of artistic enterprise. He’s one of the people featured in the Netflix documentary, Dark City Beneath The Beat, a film about the Baltimore Club Music scene by another formidable presence on the local and national arts scene, TT the Artist.

As we hear in a clip of the film's director, one of the problems in Baltimore is that there's so much young dance talent in Baltimore that for too long has had no place to grow.

Neek joins Tom on Zoom to explain how B More Than Dance is helping to inspire and fuel the artistic career aspirations of the city's young people.

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Today, on this archive edition of Midday, Tom Hall's conversation with Michelle Zauner, a terrific composer and musician who has written a wonderful book. One could also say she’s a compelling writer who has a great and popular band. The band is called Japanese Breakfast. The book is called Crying in H Mart.

Her band is good because her music speaks to universal notions in a unique and universal way. Her book is good because the story is poignant and sad and beautifully told. It’s flecked with joy, regret, and insight, enlarged and invigorated by her ear for beautifully formulated prose, a keen feeling for tempo, and abundant grace. An overarching love and respect permeate every page.

Ms. Zauner's memoir is a reflection on her relationship with her Korean mother, particularly during the final months of her mother’s life, before she died of cancer. Michelle cared for her mother during her illness, and after her mother’s passing, she found herself drawn to cooking the traditional Korean dishes her Mom and her relatives had made for her while she was growing up.It’s rare for a debut book to garner as much attention as this one received, but in this case, that attention is richly deserved.

Since Michelle and Tom spoke, it’s been announced that Crying in H Mart will be made into a movie, and that she and her band will write and perform the soundtrack.

Michelle Zauner joined us from New York. Today's conversation was recorded earlier, so we can’t take any new calls or on-line comments.

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On June 19th, 1865, Major General Gordon Granger issued General Order No. 3 in Galveston, TX, declaring that all slaves were free, two months after General Robert E Lee had surrendered to Gen. Ulysses S Grant in Appomattox, VA.

Tom's guest on this archive edition of Midday is the author and historian Annette Gordon Reed. She has written a beautiful peroration about the meaning of the holiday that marks the anniversary of that event. It is at once an homage to her home state of Texas, and a wholly original and fascinating exploration of how history and legend and myth all shape what we learn when we’re young, how our understanding evolves as we grow older, and how social dynamics inform the evolution of societal understanding as well. Professor Reed writes with erudition and grace, authority and humility, weaving a touching personal memoir into the stark reality of a harsh historical record.

The book is called On Juneteenth. Annette Gordon Reed and Tom spoke about it on June 11th. Because the interview was pre-recorded, we couldn't take any calls or comments.

Annette Gordon Reed joined Tom from her home in New York…

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(This interview was first broadcast on May 31, 2021)

Next on this archive edition of Midday: a conversation about one of the darkest chapters days in American history.

One hundred years ago this past May 31st, a white mob rampaged in a two-day campaign of terror that wiped out a thriving black community in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The Greenwood section of that city, which had come to be known as “Black Wall Street” for its distinctive prosperity, was destroyed. At least 300 African Americans were killed. Hundreds more were injured and thousands were left homeless.

Carole Boston Weatherford is an award-winning author whose books have chronicled important events in African American history. She has written a book for children that tells the story of this horrific event. It is beautifully illustrated by Floyd Cooper, who is also a multi-award winner artist. It’s called Unspeakable: The Tulsa Race Massacre.

Carole Boston Weatherford joined us on Zoom…

(Because the conversation was recorded, we couldn't take any questions or comments)

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

Today, on this archive edition of Midday, we begin with a conversation Tom had a few months ago with Anna Malaika Tubbs, the author of a book about three fascinating Black women, Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin. It’s part biography of these women, and part clarion call for recognition of all Black women.

Anna Malaika Tubbs writes that erasure, mis-recognition and historical amnesia are, sadly, part of the formation of African American female identity, and her book is part of her effort to erase that erasure. In exploring the revolutionary power of these women, who came of age between the two world wars, Tubbs shows how their stories inspire the struggle for survival today.

Alberta King, Louise Little and Berdis Baldwin were each accomplished in their own right, and in their own way. Between them, they raised many children, three of whom grew up to be among the most significant figures in the American civil rights movement.

The book is called The Three Mothers: How the Mothers of Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, and James Baldwin Shaped a Nation.

Anna Malaika Tubbs joined Tom on Zoom this past April from Los Angeles.

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

Tom's guest is the journalist and best-selling author Lionel Shriver.

Born in North Carolina, she divides her time today between London and New York. A regular columnist for the Spectator in Britain and Harper’s Magazine in the United States, Ms. Shriver has also written commentary for the New York Times, The Guardian, and The Wall Street Journal, among other publications. She has written more than a dozen novels as well, including We Have to Talk About Kevin, which sold more than 2 million copies, was made into a movie, and won the Orange Prize. She was also a finalist for the National Book Award in 2010 with her novel, So Much for That, a contemplation about the American health care system.

Lionel Shriver's latest book is a deeply compelling and fascinating novel that is a rule-busting barrage of iconoclastic brilliance. It’s called Should We Stay or Should We Go. It imagines a parade of possible outcomes when a healthy couple in their early 50s decides that when they reach their 80s, they will commit suicide.

The story unfolds in the context of, among other events, a world-wide recession, Brexit and COVID-19. Shriver asks penetrating questions about what the metrics of a well-lived life could or should be, and what responsibility, if any, one has to others and to oneself if those metrics begin to show inescapable diminishment.

Lionel Shriver joined Tom on Zoom from her home in Brooklyn, New York.Their conversation was pre-recorded, so we aren’t taking any calls or comments today.

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This book imagines many different outcomes after these fictional characters have decided to commit suicide.If you or someone you know is considering suicide, phone the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline and talk to somebody about it. Call 800-273-8255.

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

Tom's guest today is the internationally acclaimed writer, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie. She is the author of the novels Americanah, Purple Hibiscus, and Half of a Yellow Sun. She has also published best-selling collections of essays and short stories. She has won several prestigious awards, including the Orange Prize, a National Book Critics Circle Award and a MacArthur Foundation fellowship.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie was born and raised in Nigeria. She splits her time between Nigeria and the United States, where she has a home here in Maryland.

Her latest book is profoundly sad and consummately beautiful. It is a meditation on the nature of grief, occasioned by the unexpected passing of her beloved father, James Nwoye Adichie, who died in June of last year, at the age of 88. After the book was published, Chimamanda and her five siblings suffered another tragedy, when their mother, Grace Ifeoma Adichie passed away in March of 2021 at the age of 78. A favorite aunt had died suddenly in London a year before that. Another aunt died shortly after her father. It’s been a rough year for the Adichie family.

The book is called Notes on Grief. It expands on her series of essays that were published last year in The New Yorker.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie joined Tom on Zoom from her home in Lagos, Nigeria.

Their conversation was pre-recorded, so we aren’t able to take any calls or comments today.

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

Tom's Newsmaker guest today is Baltimore City Police Commissioner Michael Harrison.

Last weekend, as the nation celebrated independence from the scourge of 18th century tyranny, the scourge of 21st century violence was felt from coast to coast. The Gun Violence Archive reported that at least 189 people were killed in the US during the 4th of July holiday. In the city of Chicago alone, 104 people were shot over the weekend.

As of this morning, 177 people have been counted as victims of homicide in Baltimore this year, and 361 people have been victims of non-fatal shootings.While the murder rate and the number of non-fatal shootings is up from last year, the BPD has made some significant arrests in recent weeks, and crime is down in several other categories.

On Wednesday, the BPD announced the arrests of suspects who had 15 guns and the material to make as many as 40 more “ghost” guns. These untraceable weapons are figuring in more and more crimes on Baltimore streets. At the current pace, police may seize as many as 300 ghost guns this year.

On Tuesday, police announced the arrests of 25 people suspected of committing murder and outstanding warrants for five more. This follows indictments last month of 15 alleged members of a gang who officials think are responsible for as many as 18 murders.

Tom discusses these and other issues with Commissioner Michael Harrison. Baltimore's top cop joins us for the hour on Zoom. Listeners comments and questions are welcome.

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