Midday

2020 comes to a close a week from tomorrow, and for many of us, it can’t end soon enough. It has been a year of unprecedented calamity, with levels of disease and death that are incomprehensible. Nearly 80 million people are infected with the Coronavirus around the globe; about 18 million are infected in the United States. More than 10 million Americans are out of work. Hundreds of thousands have been killed by this pernicious disease, and our health care system, in some places, and for some people, is under tremendous strain.

It is my custom on this program to take some time at the end of the year to remember, briefly, some of the people in our local area who have passed away during the year. None of the folks I am mentioning died of COVID-19, and as always, this is not an exhaustive list. I simply want to call attention to a few of the people in the area who I was blessed to know, and who our community was blessed to have...<--break->
Sigmund, “Sig” Shapiro died in March at the age of 92. He was in the business of international trade, but his true passion was music. He was a self-taught, and very capable pianist, who delighted in entertaining his friends and family in weekly jam sessions in his beautiful home. Sig Shapiro always had a glimmer in his eye, and a song in his heart.

Chrystelle Bond started the dance program at Goucher College. She specialized in historical dance, and she led a group called Choreograph Antique for many years. Chrys and I worked together on several productions over the years, and she was always a generous and wise collaborator. Chrystelle Bond was 82 years old.

In June, our community lost a beacon of joy and inspiration when the actor and director Shirley Basfield Dunlap passed away at the age of 67. Dr. Dunlap was the coordinator of theatre arts and associate professor of fine and performing arts at Morgan State University, guiding countless young actors through the challenges and deep rewards of working on stage. Like all good directors, she was demanding, and like all great artists, her talent was premised in her passion and her remarkable gifts.

In August, Bill Lee passed away just one month shy of his 80th birthday, leaving our Reservoir Hill Community deeply saddened and very grateful for his years of selfless leadership and advocacy for our neighborhood. Bill and I lived a few houses apart from each other for more than 30 years. Bill and his wife Nancy were the go-to people when it came to organizing and animating people to make where we live better, and to serve as a paradigm for how a diverse and vibrant community can best serve the people who live in it.

The singer and teacher Lauretta Dorsey Young, a fixture on the faculty of the Baltimore School for the Arts for decades, was an extraordinary talent, who broke racial barriers when she appeared on the stages of leading opera houses, and who modeled a tremendous work ethic for her students. She was beautiful and gifted, and well aware of the fact that talent alone was never sufficient to realize an artist’s dreams. She was admired, respected, and cherished in Baltimore and beyond. She died at the age of 77.

Michael Warlow, who died in October at the age of 76, was a highly respected lawyer and litigator, with an abiding love of singing and the theater. A mainstay of the Young Victorian Theater Company, an a cappella group called The Foxheads, and the Annapolis Chorale, Michael’s love for making music in community shone through every measure he sang. Michael’s wife of 52 years, Melissa, is the director of the William G. Baker Memorial Fund, one of the area’s most important philanthropic supporters of the arts.

And earlier this month, Linda Panitz, who worked tirelessly for social justice causes and the arts, died at age 81. A longtime member of the board of the Baltimore Symphony, Linda was as informed and passionate and strategic a patron of the arts as our town has ever known. She was super-smart, funny and delightful in every way, and her list of accomplishments on behalf of the cause she championed is lengthy and vitally important.

And finally, I’d like to remember the great pianist, conductor, and teacher Leon Fleisher. Leon and I worked together on several occasions, and I interviewed him several times. We close this remembrance with part of a conversation I had with Leon when his autobiography was published in 2010, and I was the Culture Editor of WYPR's old Maryland Morning program.

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

Yesterday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. held a news conference with the city’s Inspector General, Isabel Mercedes Cumming, and the Baltimore County Inspector General, Kelly Madigan, to discuss the release of a joint report about serious problems with the city’s water billing system. The two inspectors general estimate that the city and county have lost millions of dollars in water and sewer revenue. This despite the $133 million dollars in contracts that have been awarded over the past ten years to improve the water system and billing processes.

We’ll have more on this latest outrage from City Hall a little later in the program, but first, Tom welcomes a woman who has certainly witnessed her share of outrages during her long tenure in Baltimore City Government. Former City Councilwoman Mary Pat Clarke joins me. She retired earlier this month after more than three decades on the Baltimore City Council, representing the old 2nd and later the 14th Districts. Her service on the council included two different tours of duty as Council President - the first woman ever elected to the post.

Mary Pat Clarke joins us today on Zoom.

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

Need some podcast recommendations to freshen up your playlist? We asked a few of our colleagues at WYPR to drop by and share their current favorites.

Podcast Recommendations

Emily Sullivan, WYPR City Hall Reporter

• Floodlines, (The Atlantic)
• My Year in Mensa (iHeartRadio)
• The Dream

Maureen Harvie, Senior Producer at On The Record

• Reply All (Gimlet Media)
• You're Wrong About
• Ear Hustle (Radiotopia)

Luke Spicknall, Sound Engineer / Director at Midday

• This is Love (Criminal Productions)
• Snap Judgement Presents: Spooked (WNYC Studios)
• Office Hours Live (Starburns Audio)
• Stoop Storytelling Series

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

Yesterday, Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott and Baltimore County Executive Johnny Olszewski, Jr. held a press conference to announce the release of a joint report by the City and County Inspectors General that outlined egregious revenue losses in the water system that serves both jurisdictions.

The two inspectors general estimate that the city and county have lost millions of dollars in water and sewer revenue, despite the fact that $133 million dollars in contracts have been awarded over the past ten years to improve the water system and billing processes.

Emily Opilo covers City Hall for the Baltimore Sun. She wrote about the report for today’s paper. She joins us on Zoom…

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

As record numbers of new COVID-19 infections and deaths threaten the nation's beleaguered health system, 1.7 million people have applied for unemployment benefits in just the past two weeks.

Last night, Senator Chuck Schumer (D., NY) and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell (R., KY) announced a deal for a $900 billion dollar stimulus bill. The House and Senate are expected to vote on the bill today. It’s the first COVID-relief package since the CARES Act was passed way back in March. It includes a direct payment to adults and children of $600, half of what the direct payment was nine months ago, and a $300 supplemental job benefit, which is also half as big as the first federal unemployment supplement that Congress passed at the beginning of the pandemic. Will the stimulus be enough to keep the economy -- and millions of struggling Americans -- afloat as winter sets-in?

Plus, Russia has attacked a wide array of government agencies with a major hack of their information systems. Corporate America was targeted as well. President Trump has dismissed the attack and tried to implicate China as the perpetrator. This, as the new Trump-appointed Acting Secretary of Defense is refusing to meet with the Biden transition team, and as the president himself continues to call, without foundation, for the November election results to be overturned.

Tom's Newsmaker guest today is Maryland's Senior Senator, Ben Cardin.

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

Helicon has been delighting their super-loyal fan base with a Winter Solstice Concert for 35 years. Despite the pandemic, they will continue this great Baltimore holiday tradition with a streamed performance tomorrow night at 7:30 PM EST.

In addition to Helicon, the show will feature Charm City Junction, with Brad Kolodner, Alex Lacquement, Patrick McAvinue, and Sean McComiskey. The violinist Elke Baker will also be part of the festivities. You can find more information on the Creative Alliance website.

Guests

Ken Kolodner, hammer dulcimer, and fiddle.

Robin Bullock, piano, guitar, cittern, and mandolin.

Chris Norman, wooden flutes, tin whistle, piano, and small bagpipes.

Brad Kolodner, is a clawhammer banjoist with Charm City Junction.

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

Tom is joined by the 52nd Mayor of the City of Baltimore, Brandon M. Scott. In the first ten days of his administration, Mayor Scott has made several appointments and at least one very controversial decision about indoor and outdoor dining restrictions in city restaurants.

Mayor Scott discusses how he plans to attack the city's problems and how the government itself will operate.

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.

Tom is once again joined by Washington Post film critic Ann Hornaday, author of the bestselling film-lovers' guide, Talking Pictures: How to Watch Movies, and by Maryland Film Festival founder Jed Dietz. Today, we spotlight a trend Ann noted in her recent piece in the Post: the year's remarkable run of new films by pioneering directors such as Steve McQueen (Small Axe) and George C. Wolfe (Ma Rainey's Black Bottom) that affirmatively chronicle and celebrate the Black experience, at a time when the pandemic and persistent racial injustice are exacting an especially deadly toll on Black Americans.

Ann and Jed also size up some of the best new streaming flicks. And they discuss the news that Warner Brothers studio -- predicting that the COVID-19 pandemic will continue to depress US move-theater operations until at least next fall -- has decided that all of its 2021 movie releases will arrive simultaneously in movie theaters and on the HBO Max streaming service. Will other big studios follow suit? Could streaming become the dominant new movie platform? And what will this mean for the future of America's movie theaters?

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

Midday theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins Tom with reviews of several new productions on the pandemic-inspired virtual stage, including two one-woman shows.

Judy starts off with Everyman Theater's virtual production of Black Girl in the Green Mountains, the third and final installment in playwright Caleen Sinette Jennings's "Queens Girl" Trilogy. Directed by Everyman's new Associate Artistic Director Paige Hernandez, the one-woman play features resident company member Felicia Curry as Jackie, who must confront the gulf between Black and White cultures as she begins her studies at a Vermont college. The play is available as a ticketed stream until February 4, 2021.

Join Everyman tonight for a unique conversation with the powerhouse women behind the Trilogy: Queens Girl: An Inside Look, featuring playwright Caleen Sinnette Jennings, Director Paige Hernandez, and the three transcendent actors who have portrayed the title character. Join them live tonight (Thursday, December 17) at 7pm or access it On-Demand until February 4.

Judy also reviews another extraordinary one-woman play called Unveiled, written and performed by Rohina Malik and directed for Baltimore's Theatre Project. Malik portrays five Muslim women as they sequentially explore Racism, Hate Crimes, Love, Islam, Culture, Language, and not least, Tea. The play is available to stream through January 1, 2021.

Another streaming production Judy spotlights today is Miss Bennet: Christmas at Pemberley, a play by Lauren Gunderson and Margot Melcon that's directed for Strand Theatre Company by Erin Riley. The cast includes Emily H. Gilson, Volcano Jones, and Anna O’Malley Steuerman (who identifies as gender neutral (they/them)). All performances are online, and tickets/viewing links can be purchased here.

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

Today on Midday, a church's reckoning on race. In September, the Maryland diocese of the Episcopal Church committed to making reparations for slavery by creating a fund to support initiatives in the African American community.

Rev. Eugene Taylor Sutton, the Bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Maryland, joins Tom to discuss the role that a fund for reparations will play in how the church is repenting for its complicity in slavery and segregation.

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