Community Calendar

Come connect with KeraLink International and learn how we’re working to expand access to vision care and end avoidable blindness in our community and beyond. This happy hour is a chance to meet our team, hear about our mission, and join fellow supporters who share a passion for eye health and vision. Enjoy cocktails and hors d’oeuvres while mingling with others who care about making an impact — all while taking in breathtaking views of the city — plus, take part in a surprise interactive activity designed to bring our cause to life!

DIY PD @City Neighbors is an emergent professional development opportunity, driven by the community of practitioners in attendance. At our DIY PD Sessions, we gather and connect - and have four short breakout sessions for you to choose from, with participants sharing a great strategy, a great question, or a problem of practice.

Come together, build community, share practice, get a new idea, share a problem of practice, or just keep innovating, broadening, and thinking.

60 powerful and efficient minutes of learning, connecting, and collaborating, followed by free dinner!

Join us for a discussion with the composer to learn about the works programmed for the concert later that evening. Bring questions of your own to participate in the Q&A.
Sonia Morales-Matos was the 2016 recipient of the Dr. Herman Hudson Alumnus Award presented by the African American Arts Institute of Indiana University for her excellence as an educator, performer, and composer. She is the June 2019 recipient of recognitions from the City of Santa Ana, the House of Representatives of the United States Congress, and the Mexican Consulate in Santa Ana, CA, for her participation in the “Latino Masters Concert” as a composer, performer, and educator.

Mindfulness Meditation + Sports & Positive Psychology + Neuroscience + Group Coaching = mPEAK

mPEAK (Mindfulness, Performance Enhancement, Awareness & Knowledge) is a mindfulness training program for anyone seeking to achieve personal and professional goals, as well as attain new levels of performance and success. This cutting-edge training program is built around the latest brain research related to peak performance, resilience, focus, and “flow”.

The mPEAK program enhances the human capacity of mindfulness through established and empirically supported practices and exercises. Mindfulness is effective precisely because it is a way of being and relating to all aspects of life, rather than a specific technique or tool for a particular goal. As with physical training, this brain training program is based upon the understanding that optimal outcomes occur most often when participants continue to engage in the practices and exercises on a daily basis as a part of their training regimen.

This program was specially designed for athletes, first responders, leaders, entrepreneurs, executives, musicians, dancers, and busy professionals or parents who set big goals, face consistent challenges and stretch themselves towards excellence. mPEAK is appropriate for beginner and seasoned mindfulness practitioners alike. Previous meditation experience is not necessary to participate, but can facilitate a deeper learning experience.

Profs and Pints Baltimore presents: “Horror as Queer,” a look at the influence and depiction of queerness in horror films, with May Santiago, adjunct professor of film studies at George Mason University and producer of the podcast Horrorspiria.

[Doors open at 5. The talk starts at 6:30. The room is open seating.]

Horror was queer long before both Brad and Janet succumbed to the charms of Dr. Frank-N-Further in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. In fact, one could make the argument that, for both better and worse, the history of horror films is the history of queers on film. Film scholar May Santiago will do just that, with plenty of vivid examples, in a talk that has earned rave reviews.

You’ll learn how queer authors such as F.W. Murnau and James Whale were there at the very beginning. Murnau played a central role in the German expressionist movement that gave rise to films such as Nosferatu, while Whale left a body of work full of queer codes, including the films Frankenstein, The Old Dark House, and The Invisible Man.

From there, Santiago will discuss how the representational codes established by such queer filmmakers were appropriated throughout the celluloid century by non-queer authors who constructed cinematic horror language that used queerness as shorthand for the monstrous. The result was harmful stereotypes of queer people in films and society, with examples being the stoic psycho lesbian trope embodied by Mrs. Danvers in Rebecca, the transgender sex-obsessed serial murderer Norman Bates in Alfred Hitchcock’s Psycho, and the villains of Dressed to Kill and Silence of the Lambs.

Yet, even with these negative portrayals of explicit or implicit queerness, horror cinema’s relationship with queerness and queer audiences has grown stronger with each passing decade, with queer authors and queer audiences reclaiming the monstrosity that created the basis of the horror genre. Santiago will look at how the evolution of horror films coincided with that of queer stereotypes and how queer authors embedded queerness in films that aren’t explicitly queer. Among the questions she’ll tackle: How did we come around to thinking that the Babadook was gay? (Advance tickets: $13.50 plus sales tax and processing fees. Doors: $17, or $15 with a student ID.)

Image: A frame from the 1920 silent German horror film The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari (tint added).

In this hour-long lecture, Bahman Panahi delves into the unique concept of Musicalligraphy—an innovative exploration of the intersection between calligraphy and music. Drawing from years of research and practice, Panahi presents how these two disciplines, seemingly distinct, converge, through shared principles of rhythm, harmony, gesture, expression and history.
The lecture offers insights into the parallels between musical notation and the structure of calligraphic elements, highlighting the balance of silence and sound, as well as the synchronization of the ear and hand in both arts. Panahi demonstrates how calligraphic compositions can reflect musical dynamics and how musical rhythms can inspire visual creativity.
Through a combination of audio visuals, and an interactive Q&A session, participants will gain an understanding of how calligraphy and music transcend boundaries, becoming powerful tools for artistic expression. This lecture is suitable for art and music enthusiasts, professors, students, and professionals seeking new perspectives on interdisciplinary creativity and study.

Pianist Larry Brown leads one of the most accomplished straight-ahead jazz groups in the Mid-Atlantic area. Washingtonian magazine says, “Larry Brown is a pianist whose rendering of ballads is particularly moving”. The Washington Post calls him “an artist deserving of greater exposure” and says Brown “evokes the master touch”. A post be-bop jazz pianist, Larry lists his major influences as Bill Evans, Wynton Kelly, and Miles Davis. Recognized with Wammie Awards for Best Jazz Group for 2006, 2008, and again for 2009, Larry also received a Wammie for Best Jazz Recording in 2002 for his CD “The Long Goodbye”, recorded at National Public Radio, NPR.

Home-Recorded Halloween Horror-Thon transforms Peabody Heights into a retro Halloween haunt for Teen Wolf (1985). Expect immersive décor, a preshow vibe, and vintage Halloween commercial breaks woven into the film for that late-night TV energy. This screening is part of an all-1985 series across Baltimore-area breweries and wineries, including a two-day Checkerspot Weekend with double features and a Crypt Video Rentals pop-up. Tickets are General Admission. See the tickets page for exact times, seating, and the full lineup. Costumes encouraged.

The Towson University Music Ensembles will celebrate Latin American music by showcasing the compositions of guest composer Sonia Morales-Matos for chorus, symphony orchestra, symphonic band, and percussion ensemble.

In this captivating adaptation of Jane Austen's Persuasion by Sarah Rose Kearns, audiences are transported to a world of social intrigue, family drama, and enduring love. Anne Elliot's touching journey of resilience and second chances unfolds against the elegant and beloved backdrop of Regency-era England, laced with Austen's signature wit.

Persuasion will open September 26 with previews on September 24 and 25. The production will close on October 19. Thursday shows are only 10/9 and 10/16.
Visit www.chesapeakeshakespeare.com for more information or call the box office at 410-244-8570.