Jamyla Krempel

Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been to see "Wild With Happy" at Center Stage. She brings us this review.

The Hubert V. Simmons Museum of Negro Leagues Baseball opened in late March.

Tom Hall recently traveled out to Owings Mills to pay a visit to the Museum, which illustrates the history of the Negro Baseball Leagues in America. He spoke with Ray Banks, the Museum's Ambassador, as well as Geraldine Day, widow of the Hall of Fame pitcher Leon Day.

It’s been six months since the shooting at the Mall in Columbia on January 25 that took the lives of two mall employees: 21-year-old Brianna Benlolo and 25-year-old Tyler Johnson. The shooter, 19-year-old Darion Marcus Aguilar, shot and killed himself.  

A couple months later, it was discovered that Aguilar had been searching online for mental health resources…at the same time he was acquiring a shotgun and ammunition. There are many county residents who don’t follow Aguilar’s path – but are in need of help with mental health issues.  

Baltimore-based author James Magruder has just published a new collection of inter-related short stories called "Let Me See It."  It’s about family.  It’s about coming of age.  It’s about coming out. 

You could call it a rematch…even though the two Republicans running for the nomination for Anne Arundel County Executive haven’t faced each other in an election before. 

Last year they were both competing to be appointed county executive after John Leopold’s criminal misconduct conviction.   Incumbent County Executive Laura Neuman got the nod then from the county council.  Now, in next Tuesday’s primary election, she again faces two-term State Delegate Steve Schuh.  

The struggle to be understood through sign, and through sound. Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been to see "Tribes" at Everyman Theatre. 

This segment originally aired on September 29, 2006.

Ruby Dee, legend of the screen and stage, died on Wednesday in her New York home. Her contributions to the entertainment world and to the civil rights movement are being fondly remembered. Dee was a guest on Maryland Morning in September 2006 as she was planning to participate in the Baltimore Book Festival.  In this interview with Sheilah Kast, that we would like to share again, Dee talked about her 56-year marriage with fellow actor and civil rights activist Ossie Davis.

The interviews heard in this segment originally aired on October 11, 2013. 

This weekend, members of the LGBTQ community and their allies will gather for Baltimore Pride 2014.  The Pride Festival has grown exponentially in recent years.  The growth of Pride is a testament to how many people have come out, as society has moved toward equal treatment for gays, lesbians and transgendered people.   But in the early years of the gay rights movement, many people experienced great difficulty in coming out.   Last year, in honor of National Coming Out Day, we heard from Marylanders as they reflected on their experiences when they came out to their family and friends. Today, we revisit that conversation. 

  The choreographer, writer and teacher Liz Lerman is Tom Hall's guest this morning.

Last week, she premiered her latest theatrical dance piece, "Healing Wars," which is an examination of how healers deal with the wounds of battle. 

Next month, Cornell Brooks, an activist, lawyer and ordained minister, will be introduced to the membership of the NAACP at their annual convention in Las Vegas.  Following that, he’ll move into the organization’s national office in Northwest Baltimore, as its 18th president. To find out what the implications of his appointment might mean to Marylanders, Tom Hall's guest this morning is Gerald Stansbury.  He’s the president of the NAACP Maryland State Conference, which includes 24 different local branches from around the state.

This weekend, nearly 3,500 athletes from across the US will travel to Princeton, New Jersey to participate in the week-long Special Olympics USA Games. They’ll compete in more than 14 Olympic style sports.  Team Maryland will be sending a delegation of 160 athletes and their families, along with 40 coaches to the Games. 

Tom Hall talks with two Maryland athletes: Adam Hayes, a Frederick cyclist and Tammy Holibaugh, a Taneytown soccer player.

The nuns in "Sister Act" are singing and dancing across the Hippodrome's stage. Will it make you a believer? Tom Hall asks Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck.

Ann Hornaday of The Washington Post and Jed Dietz, director of the Maryland Film Festival stop by to share their rundown of must-see movies this summer.

At least ten Baltimore teenagers have been murdered this year.  The trauma for their families ripples through their communities, and the city worries about what the summer will bring.  Last week 16-year-old Oscar Torres was fatally shot sitting in a Ford Fusion that was carjacked; police say the same car killed 12-year-old Shanizya Taft the next day in East Baltimore.

In a severe thunderstorm, you might hear someone say, “it’s raining cats and dogs.”  In the United States, even in the sunniest of weather, it really is raining cats and dogs. More homes in the United States have cats and dogs than have kids. There are more than four times as many feline and canine residents of American homes than there were in the 1960s, nearly 150 million, one of them for every two of us. In a new book, the Baltimore-based writer David Grimm takes a look at how the status of our animals, in our homes, and in our society, has changed over time.  It’s called Citizen Canine: Our Evolving Relationship with Cats and Dogs.  David Grimm talks about it with Tom Hall. 

The legendary gospel singer Mahalia Jackson is the subject of the current show at Baltimore’s Arena Players. Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been to see this homage called, “The Gospel Songstress.”  It continues at Arena Players through June 8. 

Sharayna Christmas Rose is the founder of Muse 360, a program for young people in Baltimore that combines training in the visual and performing arts with trips to places around the world that are important to the history of Africans and African Americans.  Muse 360 is 10 years old, and they are celebrating that milestone with a special performance and gala on Saturday night .  Sharayna Christmas Rose joins Tom Hall in the studio.

In this interview with Sheilah Kast, U.S. Senator Barbara Mikulski talks about her efforts to return the kidnapped Nigerian school girls to their homes, the scandal over health care in the Veteran Affairs Department, how to close the gender pay gap, and she tells us who she would back for President in 2016.

As the winner of the Preakness prepares to compete for the Triple Crown at the Belmont Stakes next weekend, many Marylanders still have horses on their minds. Tom Hall visits an exhibition at Coppin State University that highlights the role of African-American jockeys in horse racing. It's called "The Legacy of the Black Jockey through Art."

In this interview, he speaks with Camay Murphy, the exhibit's curator.

More people live in Baltimore than any other city in our state. But during the summer months, Ocean City is number 2. Year-round, only about 7,000 people live there, but between Memorial Day and Labor Day, Ocean City population explodes to 320,000 or more.

This conversation originally aired May 23, 2008.

Today is the 146th anniversary of Memorial Day. First known as Decoration Day, thousands of civilians and veterans gathered in cemeteries to honor those fallen in combat.

Today we revisit a conversation that Sheilah Kast had with amateur historian Peter Johnston about the origins of Memorial Day, how they were first celebrated in Baltimore, and its meaning today.

This segment originally aired on June 5, 2012

It’s a photo you’ve seen before – a sailor kissing a woman in a white nurse’s uniform in the middle of Times Square.  It was August 14, 1945 – V-J Day, moments just after Japan’s surrender had been announced. The picture was taken by Alfred Eisenstaedt, and it ended up on the cover of Life magazine.  It became one of the most famous photos of the 20th century.

 

The Rousuck Review: "Impossible! A Happenstance Circus" at the Theatre Project. 

We’re continuing our series of conversations with seniors who live in nursing homes and assisted living facilities in Maryland.

Today, we’ll hear from Chuck, a 62-year-old resident of HCR Manor Care in Adelphi, Maryland.

Maryland Morning theater critic J. Wynn Rousuck has been to Bucks County, PA, by way of Kansas City. And she did that by going to Center Stage in Baltimore.  Here’s her review of their current production, "Vanya and Sonya and Masha and Spike" which is up at Center Stage until May 25. 

This is a special podcast we’ve put together with all of our interviews with the candidates vying for the Democratic nomination for Attorney General. Each is about 12 minutes long. They’re in alphabetical order.

Maryland’s primary election is five weeks away, June 24. All this week we’ve been talking to the Democrats running for their party’s nomination for Attorney General. One of them could succeed the incumbent, Doug Gansler, who is running for Governor.  Today we’ll hear from State Senator Brian Frosh, who represents District 16 in Montgomery County.

  The 139th Preakness Stakes will run tomorrow afternoon at Pimlico Race Course. Chef Sascha Wolhandler tells Tom Hall how to craft a Preakness party menu that uses ingredients you can find this weekend at the 32nd Street Farmer’s Market and the Baltimore Farmer's Market & Bazaar. 

Maryland's primary election is June 24 and leading up to it, we've been talking to the major Democratic and Republican candidates for Governor and the Democratic candidates for Attorney General.

On Monday we heard from Delegate Aisha Braveboy and today we'll hear from Delegate Jon Cardin, a Democrat who represents Northwest Baltimore County's 11th District.