Community Calendar

Amanda Gunn grew up just at the edge of the woods in southern Connecticut with two older brothers. A former Stegner Fellow at Stanford, she is a doctoral candidate in English at Harvard where she studies Black poetry. Her recent work appears in Poetry, Los Angeles Review of Books Quarterly Journal, and Narrative Magazine. Her debut collection, Things I Didn’t Do With This Body, was published in 2023 by Copper Canyon Press.

Gwen E. Kirby‘s debut collection Shit Cassandra Saw is available from Penguin Books wherever books are sold. She has an MFA from Johns Hopkins University and a PhD from the University of Cincinnati. Currently, she is an assistant professor of English at Carleton College, where she teaches creative writing and literature. Kirby’s stories appear or are forthcoming in One Story, Tin House, Guernica, Mississippi Review, Ninth Letter, Blackbird, SmokeLong Quarterly, and elsewhere. Guest editor Aimee Bender selected her story “Shit Cassandra Saw . . .” for Best Small Fictions 2018. It also appears in the 2018 Wigleaf Top 50 and was anthologized in Flash Fiction America, out from Norton. Her story “Midwestern Girl Is Tired of Appearing in Your Short Stories” won the 2017 DISQUIET Literary Prize for Fiction. She has received two Pushcart Prize special mentions and has been awarded residencies at the Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, Vermont Studio Center, Rivendell Writers’ Colony, and Sundress Academy for the Arts. She was the 2018-2019 George Bennett Fellow at Phillips Exeter Academy and worked for many years at the Sewanee Writers’ Conference.

—
The Writing Seminars hosts a wide array of writers across literary disciplines, including poets, novelists, translators, and biographers. Our regular reading series connects acclaimed writers from around the world with Baltimore communities at Johns Hopkins and beyond.

Our events are always free and open to the public, and include lively Q&A, catered receptions, books signings, and sales in partnership with Greedy Reads. If you would like to receive email announcements about our events, please contact [email protected].

Ronnie Burrage, bandleader, drums, keys & voice
Yuto Kanazawa, guitar
Mike Boone, bass
Plus Special Guest!

Ronnie Burrage is considered to be a virtuoso, exceptionally skilled and regarded as one of the best in the business at his craft. He has toured all four continents from Siberia to South Africa to Japan. Ronnie is a well-respected educator whose biography is vibrant and dynamically diverse. He has graced stages with the who’s who of jazz such as Wayne Shorter, Sonny Rollins, Pat Metheny, Jaco Pastorius, Frank Morgan, Wallace Roney, Jackie & Rene McLean, James Moody, Gary Bartz, Archie Shepp, Reggie Workman, Joe Zawinul, Cedar Walton, Wood Shaw, McCoy Tyner, and Pepper Adams. Throughout his illustrious career he has been featured on over 100 recordings.

Burrage grew up in St. Louis and moved to New York in the late 1970s. He became a founding member of Defunkt, a downtown band fusing improvisation with free jazz, funk, and rock. Burrage left Defunkt to join McCoy Tyner’s band when he was 20. In the same period, he founded The Burrage Ensemble whose members were Kenny Kirkland, Marcus Miller, Wynton and Branford Marsalis, his uncle Rasul Siddik, Joe Ford, Avery Sharpe, and Wallace Roney.

In a single room, three women slip between fantasy and reality, acting out the moments they’re too afraid to live in real life. What begins as playful role-play becomes a raw excavation of longing, connection, and the emotional legacies passed between mothers, sisters, and lovers.

Blending the sharp wit of a romantic comedy with the searching depth of an existential drama, Trinity is a lyrical, layered portrait of womanhood that’s as funny as it is fearless. As NPR so aptly put it, “Waithe’s TV shows and films are powerful empathy engines”—and Trinity brings that same emotional truth to the stage. Directed by BCS Artistic Director Stevie Walker-Webb, you’ll want to see it more than once to catch every subtle shift, every emotional turn, and every truth just beneath the surface.

Vagabond Players Brings ARSENIC AND OLD LACE to the Stage
February 20 – March 15, 2026

Murder, mayhem, and impeccable farce take center stage as Vagabond Players brings Joseph Kesselring’s classic ARSENIC AND OLD LACE to the stage Feb. 20 through March 15, 2026. Directed by Katie Sheldon in her Vagabond Players directorial debut, the production marks the third offering of the company’s milestone 110th season.

Meet Aunt Abby and Aunt Martha Brewster—two of the sweetest homicidal maniacs you’ll ever encounter. Only please don’t let them talk you into a glass of their homemade elderberry wine, because you probably won’t live to regret it! As the corpses begin to pile up, so does nephew Mortimer Brewster’s panic—not just in trying to fend off the police, but also his prodigal brother, Jonathan, a murderous gangster with a scary new face and a body count that rivals his aunts’.
It may not seem hilarious that a dozen men succumb to one of the most unlikely murder plots ever perpetrated in Brooklyn, N.Y., but ARSENIC AND OLD LACE remains one of American theatre’s most enduring comedies, which exposes the insanity and dark secrets that lie hidden beneath the veneer of an ordinary, folksy all-American family.

ARSENIC AND OLD LACE runs Feb. 20 – March 15, 2026, with performances Fridays and Saturdays at 8 p.m. and Sundays at 2 p.m. And check out a special “Thursdays on Broadway” performance March 12 at 8 p.m. when all tickets are just $12.
For tickets, cast and show info visit www.vagabondplayers.org. Special discounts and group rates are available online.

Located in the heart of Baltimore’s historic Fells Point, Vagabond Players continues its tradition of bold, intimate theater that sparks conversation and celebrates artistic freedom. Now in its 110th season, the company remains a cornerstone of Baltimore’s performing arts scene.

Associate Professor of Jazz/Commercial Music, Saxophone, and Composition, Jason Rigby presents a special lecture-recital showcasing the original work completed during his sabbatical in Spring 2025. The featured project culminated in the release of Mayhem (Aug. 2025, Endectomorph Music), a collection of entirely original compositions and improvisations designed for audiophile-quality vinyl and worldwide digital streaming.
Mayhem is the result of a deep collaborative effort between Rigby and his longtime musical partner, Grammy-winning drummer Mark Guiliana. In addition to selections from Mayhem, this lecture-recital will include performances from a sister recording—produced during the same sessions—that is slated for release in conjunction with this TU event. Rigby will be joined in performance by Guiliana and electric bassist Chris Morrissey.

Stonewall Sports Baltimore will host a spring bocce league on Saturday afternoons from April 11 – May 16. Games will be played in Patterson Park from 12:00 – 2:00 p.m. each week and the season will end with a winner takes all tournament. Registration is from March 1 – March 20 and starts at $40 for the season. The league is geared towards beginners and is an opportunity to build community and lasting friendships.

Stonewall Sports Baltimore is a nonprofit, community-based sports organization for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies. We aim to create a low-cost, high-fun community where everyone can feel comfortable being themselves in organized sports.

Rob Cook - Take a Hike: Cook’s sculptures and drawings investigate recent scientific research indicating positive correlations between spending time in nature and well-being, primarily through a sustainable practice incorporating fallen trees, invasive species, and plant waste to express his ideas. Rob's mission is to inspire attendees to interact with nature and to take a hike.

Kari Miller - To Whom It May Concern: Miller explores the beauty, joy and complexities in parenting a child with a disability while working in collaboration with her daughter who has Down syndrome. To Whom It May Concern is an ongoing conversation surrounding the impact of the history of institutionalizing individuals with an intellectual and developmental disability. This immersive installation dives deeper into educational policy, practices and experiences with audio interviews from teachers, parents and former students that have a disability.

Electra Lowe - Made From Scratch: Lowe untangles the labor and rituals of home to reveal the hidden threads of gender, labor, and consumption. Using tactile materials, symbolic foods, and altered domestic objects, the installation critiques the patriarchal structures embedded in everyday rituals—specifically, who eats, who serves, and who is seen.

Towson University Department of Art + Design, Art History, and Art Education Faculty present examples of their recent aesthetic concerns in a broad range of media.

Big Bang Baby transforms ancestral divinity, folklore, and science into a radiant universe of light, color, and controlled chaos. At its center are fantastical feminine figures creating universes and experiencing their own divinity. Inspired by Afro-Dominican spiritual traditions of “carrying a mystery,” as well as Native Taíno Zemi goddesses, LUSMERLIN celebrates the gift of spiritual presence and creation in women. Across pastel, acrylic and LED-lit sculptural forms, the exhibition asks: What does it mean to be stardust, to be a source of divinity?

For thousands of years, East Asia’s cultures have viewed human life as part of a much larger system that encompasses the natural world. Drawn from the BMA’s collection, this exhibition boasts more than 40 objects—from magnificent ink drawings to beautifully crafted stoneware and poignant contemporary photographs and prints. They bring into the galleries the mountains and seas, wild and supernatural animals, and plant life that are extensive across East Asian imagery and often carry symbolic meaning.

Works on view include robust 13th-century ceramic vessels, delicate porcelain, carved jade, intricately sewn textiles, and large-scale photography; collectively, these artworks represent the impulse to fully understand the natural world as foundational to our existence, as shaped by human life, and as an enduring metaphor of survival.