Midday

Anger is an emotion that's been much in evidence in our national life during these difficult times. When it comes to things like closing businesses, keeping kids out of classrooms, and even the wearing of masks during the pandemic, debate is often heated. Tempers flare. And particularly over the last four years, with a brutish U.S. president who relied on insults and personal attacks in place of reasoned argument, it seems that much public discourse all to easily devolves into a blizzard of angry epithets.

We’ve had plenty of reasons to be angry over the last many months, and anger might be an understandable response. But is it productive? Is it, in some cases, necessary as a prerequisite to action? Or is anger simply a fog-inducing reflex that clouds our judgement to no productive end? Is anger a vice or a virtue?

Tom's first guest today has thought a lot about that question, and how human understanding of this basic emotion -- number six on the hit parade of the Seven Deadly Sins -- has changed over the millennium.
Dr. Barbara Rosenwein is a historian and professor emerita at Loyola University Chicago. She is the author of many books. Her latest is called Anger: The Conflicted History of an Emotion.

Dr. Rosenwein joins us on Zoom from Illinois.

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Tom's guest now is Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck,. She's been joining us regularly throughout this pandemic, while the region's many stages remain dark, to tell us how theater companies are keeping their audiences engaged with a mix of outdoor and virtual streaming productions.

Today, she spotlights two local theater companies who've come up with unusual ways to create and present new work during COVID.

The first is Baltimore Rock Opera Society's Puppet 6-Pack, a collection of six short puppet and animated films produced by Baltimore-based artists. Three of the films premiered last Friday. The last three of the films are live-streaming in a ticketed event tonight at 7pm, and all six films will continue to be available on demand for ticket holders.

The second is a virtual, phone-based production of Healthy Holly’s Hidden Hideaway, an original political satire by Agyeiwaa Asante and April Amara, written in collaboration with the itinerant Baltimore troupe, The Single Carrot Ensemble. It’s streaming for ticketed patrons through February 15th.

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Last Sunday, our city was shocked when Dante Barksdale, an outreach coordinator for Safe Streets, was killed near the Douglas Homes in East Baltimore. Safe Streets is a city-funded violence interruption program. Dante Barksdale worked in the program for nearly 10 years, urging people who were considering violence to reconsider, and to choose alternative means to settle disputes and address beefs. The circumstances of his murder are not yet known. But the loss for our city is well known to be tremendous, and widely recognized.

We're thankful to Tom's next guest, JT Timpson, for joining us today, as he mourns the loss of his dear friend. JT Timpson is the Director of Youth Work and Crisis Intervention for Roca Baltimore, another violence interruption organization that started in Boston, and began here in Baltimore a few years ago.

JT Timpson joins us on Zoom.

We welcome listener comments.

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Yesterday, after Donald Trump improv’d his way off the national stage, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris made history. Inauguration Day was unusual and elegant. In an Inaugural Address that focused on unifying a beleaguered country, President Biden urged common purpose in what he called this “winter of peril and significant promise.” And then, Amanda Gorman, the nation's first youth poet laureate, stole the show.

President Biden wasted no time in addressing the serious challenges that face the country. Yesterday afternoon, he signed 17 executive orders that began a new era in the fight against the coronavirus, and which dismantled some of the initiatives of his disgraced predecessor. Significantly, President Biden ordered that the United States will rejoin the international climate-change accords.

Today on Midday, analysis of the challenging road ahead for the Biden Harris Administration.

We start with E.R. Shipp, a winner of the Pulitzer Prize for commentary, the first Black woman laureate of the prize. She is a founding faculty member and associate professor with the School of Global Journalism and Communication at Morgan State University, and she directs Morgan’s Baltimore Reporting Project.

Then, Tom talks with reporter Julie Bykowicz, who covers money and national politics for The Wall Street Journal.

Julie Bykowicz and E.R. Shipp join us today on Zoom.

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Today, it's another edition of Midday on Mental Health. In the first few weeks of the pandemic, we talked about the concept of "psychological first aid" with Dr. George Everly, who literally wrote the book about ways people can cope with the psychological effects of traumatic events: think 9/11, or hurricanes. Can those same techniques be employed in dealing with a prolonged crisis, such as the coronavirus pandemic?

We’ve invited Dr. Everly back today to talk about how we can deal with the anxiety and stress that, for some, has accelerated as the pandemic has dragged on.

Dr. Everly is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at the Johns Hopkins School of Medicine. He also teaches international health at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He’s a columnist for Psychology Today and the author of more than 20 books, including The Johns Hopkins Guide to Psychological First Aid.

Professor George Everly joins us on Zoom…

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Last week marked the end of an era in Maryland politics. On Friday, Mike Miller -- who had recently retired from the Maryland General Assembly after serving there for nearly 50 years -- passed away at the age of 78 following a long battle with cancer.

Miller, a Democrat, was elected to the House of Delegates in 1970, to the Senate in 1974, and in 1986, he ran unopposed to be the President of the Maryland Senate. By the time he relinquished the gavel a year ago, he had served longer than any other senate president in the country.

Joining Tom today to share his reflections about Mike Miller’s legacy is Sen. Jim Rosapepe, a Democratic former colleague who represents the 21st District in Prince George’s and Anne Arundel counties…

Senator Rosapepe joins us on Zoom.

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January 18, 2021 is Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, a federal holiday established by the US Congress in 1983 to honor the life and work of the slain civil rights leader and, in the words of this year's presidential proclamation, to "encourage all Americans to recommit themselves to Dr. King’s dream by engaging in acts of service to others, to their community, and to our Nation."

Midday marks this year's MLK Day of Service by focusing on the work of three local individuals for whom every day is a day of service.

Tom speaks first with J.C. Faulk, a diversity and inclusion consultant who was named a 2016 Community Fellow by Open Society Institute-Baltimore for his Circle of Voices project, an innovative effort to open dialogues between disparate communities. Faulk is also the founder of BMore Community Food, which is helping underserved communities weather the COVID-19 storm by re- distributing and donating surplus, healthful food to families on Baltimore's West Side and across the city.

Tom's next guest is Dr. Marisela Gomez. She is a physician, public health expert and the author of Race, Class, Power, and Organizing in East Baltimore: Rebuilding Abandoned Communities in America (2013). Dr. Gomez is also one of the co-founders of VOLAR, the acronym for Village of Love and Resistance, an organization promoting a new cooperative model for economic development that is bringing land and property ownership to marginalized communities in Baltimore’s East Side.

Tom's final guest today is Bishop Bruce Lewandowski, the Pastor of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Highlandtown, and an active member of BUILD, Baltimoreans United in Leadership Development. His Catholic ministry at Sacred Heart, like his previous ministries in New York, Saint Lucia in the Caribbean, and Philadelphia, is grounded in community organizing and activism. The Right Reverend Lewandowski's parish includes a LatinX community that has been particularly hard-hit by the coronavirus, and whose residents have had difficulties accessing traditional sources of relief.

All of Midday's MLK Day of Service guests today join us on Zoom.

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Tom took a few moments in today's program to acknowledge the untimely passing Sunday of a man whose service to his community was legendary:

"A word about incredibly sad news for our city. Dante Barksdale, the outreach coordinator for Safe Streets, was shot to death near the Douglas Homes in east Baltimore yesterday. I do not know the circumstances that led to Dante’s murder. I do know that as a “violence interrupter,” Dante dedicated the last ten years of his life to de-escalating disputes and intervening in situations where he convinced people who were considering violence to consider an alternative. He repeatedly placed himself in dangerous situations, using his skill, intelligence and compassion to show people a better way; a safer way; a way forward.

He was trying to make Baltimore better. He refused to give up on young people who had, in some instances, given up on themselves. Dante knew the pressures and stresses that people in communities of color experience, and how those challenges can sometimes lead to bad decision-making. He knew about this because of his own life experience, and because of his empathy and his love. His loss is profoundly sad. His presence and leadership will be sorely missed. His murder is a horrible reminder of the challenges we face as a city.

I last spoke with Dante here on Midday in August. A link to that conversation is here. Dante Barksdale was 46 years old."

-- Tom Hall, host, Midday

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(This program originally aired August 4, 2020)

When the novelist, journalist, playwright and activist James Baldwin died in 1987, his place in the panoply of great American writers was assured. He is remembered as one of the most eloquent observers of the Black experience, and an insightful and compelling critic of racial inequality. He was prolific and provocative, and one of the most important and invigorating public intellectuals of his time.

Dr. Eddie S. Glaude, Jr. is one of the most important and invigorating public intellectuals of our time. He is the chair of the Department of African American Studies at Princeton University, and a former president of the American Academy of Religion. In addition to many scholarly books and articles, he enjoys a wide audience as a contributor to MSNBC, and for his essays in publications such as the New York Times, Time Magazine and the Huffington Post.

Professor Glaude will be giving the Annual Martin Luther King Day Lecture for the Enoch Pratt Library and Reginal F. Lewis Museum this Saturday, January 16, from 1-2pm. For more information on this free virtual event, click here.

Eddie Glaude’s latest book draws on his imaginative reading of James Baldwin and his own trenchant observations about the current American moment. It's called Begin Again: James Baldwin’s America and Its Urgent Lessons for Our Own.

Eddie Glaude joined us last August via Zoom…

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

It’s another edition of Midday at the Movies, our monthly conversation about films and filmmaking. And Tom is joined once again on Zoom by our good friend Ann Hornaday – she’s a film critic for The Washington Post and the author of the wonderful movie-goers’ guide, Talking Pictures: How To Watch Movies.

Also with us on Zoom is our friend Jed Dietz, the founding director of the Maryland Film Festival, and a leader in the restoration of its historic Parkway theater.

And listeners, we’d love to hear from you today as well. Tell us about the films YOU’VE been watching recently, either streamed or on the big screen. Have any movies been especially helpful in getting you through these difficult times?

Here are links to more information on the films mentioned on today's program:

Soul (Disney+/Pixar); One Night in Miami (Amazon); Let Them All Talk (HBO Max); Promising Young Woman (Focus Features Films); Ma Rainey's Black Bottom (Netflix); and MLK/FBI (IFC Films). Available on many streaming platforms and in some cases, at COVID-limited theater screenings.

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

Wednesday is the first day of the 2021 session of the Maryland General Assembly. Given the restrictions occasioned by the pandemic, this 90-day session -- the 442nd in Maryland's legislative history -- will be unlike any other.

Today, Part Two of our preview of the session, with Senate President Bill Ferguson, a Democrat who has represented District 46 (Baltimore City), since 2011, and who was elected to the Senate Presidency on January 8, 2020. Sen. Ferguson spoke with Tom on Tuesday afternoon, via Zoom. Midday is posting their conversation online today, while our live broadcast is pre-empted by NPR's House Impeachment coverage. We plan to air the Sen. Ferguson interview during our noon broadcast on Thursday.

On Tuesday, we broadcast Part One of our preview: Tom's pre-recorded interview with the Speaker of the House, Adrienne Jones. You can hear that conversation on this Website, or on the Midday podcast.

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