Midday

(This program originally aired on October 23, 2019.)

Tom’s guest in this archived edition of Midday is Reginald Dwayne Betts. He came to our attention last year when he wrote a wonderful piece in The New York Times Magazine entitled, “Could an Ex-Convict Become an Attorney? I Intended to Find Out.” He won a National Magazine Award for that essay.

Betts grew up not far from here, in Suitland, Maryland, in Prince George’s County. When he was 16, he was part of a group that committed an armed car-jacking. For that crime, he spent eight years and three months in adult prisons, including many months in solitary confinement.

After his release from prison, Mr. Betts attended Prince George’s Community College. He earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Maryland College Park, and an MFA in poetry from Warren Wilson College in North Carolina. He then went on to get a law degree from Yale.

It was in prison that he started reading and writing poetry. His latest collection is called Felon. He is the author of two previous collections, "Bastards of the Reagan Era" and "Shahid Reads His Own Palm."

(This conversation was pre-recorded, so we were unable to take any listener calls or messaging.)

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This show originally aired Sept. 30, 2019.
Tom’s guest is the acclaimed writer Ann Patchett. She is the winner of the Pen Faulkner Award and the Orange Prize for fiction, and her work has been translated into more than 30 languages.

Patchett is the author of eight novels. The latest is The Dutch House. As with her other immensely popular books -- novels such as Commonwealth, State of Wonder and Bel Canto -- in The Dutch House, Patchett writes with grace, authority and compassion.

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(This program originally aired on October 15, 2019)
On this archived edition of Midday, Tom's guest is the award winning writer, Charles Johnson. In 1990, Charles Johnson won the National Book Award for his best-selling novel Middle Passage, a heroic, complex and powerful story that acutely and authoritatively explores the brutality of the slave trade. Johnson’s place in the panoply of great American writers has been unquestioned ever since.

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Hello and Happy Holidays! Welcome to the Midday Christmas Eve Special, with host Tom Hall.

Today, we’ll spend the hour listening to some music and some poetry of the season, plus, a story by Baltimore writer Raphael Alvarez.



Here's a playlist of the selections, in the order you'll hear them:



1. MUSIC: I Saw Three Ships Come Sailing In. A carol arranged by Robert Shaw and Alice Parker.
(from a 2010 CD recording by the Baltimore Choral Arts Society, "Christmas at America’s First Cathedral," Tom Hall, conducting.)

2. POEM: Ring Out Wild Bells, by Alfred, Lord Tennyson (read by Midday producer Cianna Greaves)

3. MUSIC: A Clean Heart. A motet for a cappella chorus by James Lee, III. He’s on the faculty of Morgan State University, and his music is performed all over the world. This is a setting of a text from the Psalms, Create in Me a Clean Heart. (from "Christmas at America’s First Cathedral.")

4. MUSIC: Ogo ni fun Oluwa, by the great African American composer Rosephanye Powell, sung by the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. This is an African Praise Song, on a text from the Yoruba tribe in Nigeria. The title means "Rejoice! Glory be unto the Lord." (from "Christmas at America’s First Cathedral.")

5. READING: "Aunt Lola," written and read by Baltimore writer Raphael Alvarez.

6. MUSIC: Ring the Bells, by Rosephanye Powell, commissioned by Tom Hall when he was the Music Director of the Baltimore Choral Arts Society. (from "Christmas at America’s First Cathedral.")

7. MUSIC: Have You Seen the Baby Jesus? by Rosephanye Powell, with soprano Janice Chandler Eteme. (from "Christmas at America’s First Cathedral."

8: READING: A Chinese proverb, read by WYPR Digital producer, Jamyla Krempel.

9. MUSIC: Precious Gifts. Music by Dave Brubeck; text by his wife Iola. Most people know Dave as one of the most iconic pianists in the history of jazz. But Dave was also a frequent composer of choral music, in collaboration with Iola. This is one of their beautiful, a cappella gems, in its world premiere recording, featuring the Baltimore Choral Arts Society.

10. POEM: The Journey of the Magi, by T. S. Eliot. Read by Tom Hall. The poet was born in St. Louis in 1888, but he moved to Britain as a young man and eventually became an English citizen.

11. POEM: "Twas the Night Before Christmas," by Clement Moore; a classic reading by Louis Armstrong.

We hope you enjoy this hour of holiday inspirations. Thanks for listening!

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Today on Midday we continue our series of Conversations with the Candidates. Tom's guest is a member of the Maryland House of Delegates, having first been elected in 2014. Now, Delegate Terri Hill is one of 24 Democrats running to succeed Elijah Cummings in Congress. She is a physician who grew up in Columbia, MD. She earned her undergraduate degree from Harvard University and her medical degree from Columbia University in New York. She is a plastic and reconstructive surgeon who has practiced medicine in the Baltimore metropolitan area for nearly 30 years.

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The intense acrimony between Republicans and Democrats was on full display during the impeachment debate and vote in the House of Representatives Wednesday. During more than six hours of impassioned discourse on two articles concerning abuse of power and obstruction of Congress, lawmakers considered the same set of facts in wildly different ways. Most of them spent most of the day and into the night, talking over each other’s heads, and pining for the sound bite that would merit mention on cable news. For his part, President Donald Trump flew to Battle Creek Michigan for an invective-filled diatribe about Democrats, living and deceased.

Now, the question is, when will the Senate embark on the next part of this impeachment journey? House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has indicated that she will wait to send the two impeachment articles the House approved to the Senate until she is assured that a trial in the upper chamber will be fair. That could take a while, given Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s disdainful characterization of the House Impeachment efforts.

And in the middle of all of this impeachment drama, Democrats hoping to succeed Mr. Trump faced-off in Los Angeles, in the penultimate debate before the Iowa caucuses.

Joining me with analysis of the week’s historic - and sometimes hysterical - events is Domenico Montanaro, the Senior Political Editor and Washington Correspondent at NPR.

Read Domenico's reporting on the highly partisan nature of this Trump impeachment process, and his 6 takeaways from the 6th Democratic presidential candidates' debate.

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Today, Helicon, the renowned traditional music trio, joins us live in Studio A.

Tomorrow, they continue a great Baltimore holiday tradition with their 34nd annual Winter Solstice Concerts at Goucher College’s Kraushaar Auditorium.

Helicon will be joined on Saturday by Charm City Junction, the Ken and Brad Kolodner Quartet, and other traditional music performers, as well as the North American Step Dance champion, Jonathan Srour.

Today, we’re sustaining a tradition of our own here on Midday. For many years, Helicon and the other band members have treated us to a preview of their Winter Solstice concert, right here in Studio A. Here's who's with us today:

Helicon’s Chris Norman plays wooden flutes and small bagpipes, and he sings; Robin Bullock plays guitar, cittern, and mandolin, and Ken Kolodner plays hammered dulcimer and fiddle. Also here from Charm City Junction: Alex Lacquement, on upright bass and vocals; Sean McComiskey on the button accordion; and Patrick McAvinue, who was the International Bluegrass Music Association's 2017 Fiddler of the Year. The great old-time fiddler and vocalist Rachel Eddy is also with us today. Ken's son and CCJ bandmember Brad Kolodner was unable to join us today. But they’ll all be performing at the two Winter Solstice concerts tomorrow, at 3:30 pm and 7:30 pm. The 3:30 performance is sold out, but tickets are still available for the 7:30pm concert. Click here for more information. For directions to Goucher College, click here.

We live-streamed our program today, and you can enjoy the video at WYPR's Facebook page.

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It's Thursday, and theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck joins us for another of her weekly reviews of the Maryland stage. Today, Judy describes the new North American touring production of Jesus Christ Superstar, the iconic Andrew Lloyd Webber and Tim Rice musical that began as a 1970 concept album, debuted on Broadway in 1971, and is currently lighting up the stage during an eight-performance production at Baltimore's Hippodrome Theatre.


Fresh off its hit run in London, this Olivier Award-winning new production weaves the dramatic events of Christ's last weeks of life with a driving rock and funk score. Directed at the Hippodrome by Timothy Sheader -- who has streamlined the 50-year old show for modern audiences -- the powerful rock opera features the well-known hits "Superstar" and "I Don't Know How to Love Him," and a large ensemble cast, with lead performances by Aaron LaVigne as Jesus, James Delisco Beeks as Judas, and Jenna Rubaii as Mary. Scenic and costume design is by Tom Scutt. Music Supervision is by Tom Deering. Choreography credits go to Drew McOnie.

Jesus Christ Superstar continues at The Hippodrome through Sunday, December 22.

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Today on Midday, Tom's guest is world renowned social historian Judith Flanders. In her book, Christmas: A Biography, Ms. Flanders examines the facts and fiction of Christmas past – and how they inform and sometimes mis-inform our understanding of Christmas present.

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Last night, the House of Representatives voted along party lines to impeach President Donald Trump. A trial in the Senate is likely early next month.

Senator Ben Cardin, the Senior Senator from MD, joins Tom on the line from Capitol Hill.

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