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January 28, 2021

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

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Exit Interview: Discover Easton’s Ross Benincasa

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The Spy “Exit Interview” series is part journalism and part oral history. Over the last eleven years, we have interviewed dozens of local leaders at the moment of their departure to reflect on their work and some of the challenges they faced in their professional careers and the nonprofit organizations they have helped lead.

In this installment, Ross Benincasa has been asked to provide some perspective as he completes four years as director of Discover Easton and its partner organization, the Easton Business Alliance.

For Ross, the last four years have seen some great success in having the world “Discover” Easton. He has also overseen many experiments to help achieve that goal. And in his interview with the Spy, he outlines his observations on what works in attracting visitors from Washington or Baltimore.

Ross also talks candidly about the Easton Promenade concept that was embraced but then was quickly discarded by the Town of Easton Council early last summer. The promenade idea was to promote outdoor dining by closing off Washington Avenue in the historic downtown to encourage more customers. Unfortunately for many, there was major pushback from other downtown stakeholders, and the town council reversed their decision within a week.

Benincasa is the first to admit the project was fast-tracked in the attempt to help local restaurants. He also acknowledges that this kind of quick change is hard to implement. Still, it remains confusing and disappointing to him that the promenade conflict has led to the end of his organization and its mission by Easton’s mayor to merge Discover Easton into one budget center with the Easton Economic Development Corporation.

This video is approximately ten minutes in length. 

 

Art on Lockdown: Cassandra Kabler

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For the last ten years, the Spy has always said one of the best art galleries on the Mid-Shore masquerades as a restaurant. With the keen eye of Amy Haines, her Out of the Fire establishment in Easton has displayed some of the very best art found in the Mid-Atlantic region.

Out of the Fire continues this generous contribution (the restaurant takes no commission) even during these dark days with the dining room filled on both walls the work of Claiborne’s Cassandra Kabler.

With some of her canvases reaching over six feet in height (in memory of her deceased husband’s size), the artist boldly explores colors and images that celebrate life as only a practicing Buddhist can (she is one), which bring to her work hope but also the fluidity of existence.

This video is approximately two minutes in length. For more information about Out of the Fire hours of operation please go here. 

ESLC on Cambridge’s Packing House and Delmarva Oasis with Darius Johnson

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Like many other Mid-Shore organizations, the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy had quite a number of plans and programs to celebrate in 2020. In their case, the land conservation organization was eager to acknowledge their three decades of saving the great landscapes on the Eastern Shore.

Unfortunately, COVID-19 had other plans for the ELSC. With Maryland’s “stay at home” order in March, the organization’s staff had to abandon their headquarters at Easton’s Conservation Center, and had to postpone or freeze dozens of programs.

But, as ESLC’s communications director Darius Johnson points out in his interview the Spy last week, a remarkable amount of work still was accomplished in 2020. In fact, major progress was made with two of the their flagship projects, the restoration of the Packing House in Cambridge, and moving forward with their long range rollout of the Delmarva Oasis project.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about the Eastern Shore Land Conservancy please go here.

At the Academy: Finding the Next AAM Director with Lee Kappelman

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Lee Kappelman, the well-seasoned executive recruiter who will be working with the Academy Art Museum’s board to find a new museum director, is the first to acknowledge that finding a replacement for the recently departed Ben Simons won’t be easy. But in her candid conversation with the Spy about the challenges of finding his replacement and finding the right person for the right institution, Lee feels that Ben’s success will only make the position more appealing for quality candidates.

That is just one of several points that the AAM headhunter discusses, including the pandemic impact on museums, the essential need for diversity, and why institutions sometimes fail in their search for the  right leader.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about the Academy Art Museum please go here. 

Editor’s Chat: Talbot Spy’s John Griep on COVID, Talbot Boys and Town Promenade in 2020 Review

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While John Griep has been a journalist for his entire adult life, it is hard for him to think of any year that comes close to what Talbot County experienced in 2020. From the pandemic to the Talbot Boys controversy, his community (he’s a Mid-Shore native) has been challenged in ways never imagined before. Given these unique circumstances, while adding to the fact that the county turned “Blue” with Joe Biden’s victory and the controversy of a proposed downtown Easton promenade, the Spy thought it would be a good idea to chat via Zoom with its public affairs editor, to review the last twelve months.

This video is approximately sixteen minutes in length.

WHCP Radio’s Mike Starling on Cambridge Year in Review

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While WHCP’s Mike Starling might be a bit sore that his community radio station’s plans for its fifth anniversary had to be canceled in 2020, it wasn’t hard for him to see first hand the remarkable impact COVID-19 has had on his community. From the WHCP studios on Race Street, Mike and the station’s team of volunteers have witnessed an unforgettable moment in Cambridge’s history.

That was the reason the Spy turned to Mike to assess 2020 as Dorchester faced the genuine threat of the pandemic while at the same time also processing the full impact of the Black Lives Movement, and more recently, a significant change on the Cambridge council and mayor’s office. Mike also looks to a more promising year in 2021 for downtown merchants and keeping BLM’s spirit going as the city continues to discuss the evils of racism in the community.

This video is approximately twelve minutes in length. 

Chestertown Spy’s Jim Dissette on COVID and Racial Justice in 2020 Review

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It has been a year now since Jim Dissette returned to his role as the Chestertown Spy editor. And, as fate would have it, one of history’s most significant pandemics would emerge almost at the same time. With no guidebook in hand, Jim began his coverage of COVID-19’s impact on Chestertown and Kent County while the town was also processing in very raw terms the realities of the Black Lives Matter movement.

Given these monumental twelve months, we thought it might be a good idea to sit down with Jim via Zoom to talk about what can only be called one of the most extraordinary years in Chestertown’s three-century history.

This video is approximately fifteen minutes in length.

Honoring John Ford with a David Blight Lecture: A Chat with Chesapeake Forum’s John Miller

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It’s unlikely that the Mid-Shore, nor the town of Easton, will get over the premature death of that town’s council president John Ford last February any time soon.

The long-tenured senior staff member at the Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, Ford played a remarkable role in Easton’s life as a municipality while also volunteering to support the community’s most vulnerable newcomers with his board leadership at the Chesapeake Multicultural Resource Center. However, perhaps John Ford’s most lasting legacy may be his commitment to lifelong learning on the Mid-Shore.

As one of the early leaders of the Academy for Lifelong Learning at CBMM, he knew the importance of lifetime learning well before it had come into fashion. He also helped transition that vital part of Talbot County’s quality of life into the newly formed Chesapeake Forum as its founding president in 2019.

And while he was a guiding force in preserving lifelong learning in the region, it might be that his role as instructor was the most transformational for both John and his students. Starting with his co-teaching Moby Dick many years ago with his then-colleague and noted academic, John Miller, he would offer dozens of literature courses in the years that followed.

To honor John’s life, John Miller and the Chesapeake Forum board made a personal appeal to historian David Blight, the acclaimed biographer of Frederick Douglass, to present a virtual keynote lecture in Ford’s memory on January 21. Professor Blight didn’t hesitate to agree.

The Spy talked to John Miller a few days ago about his friend John Ford, their years of teaching together, and why Professor David Blight was the perfect person to celebrate Ford’s countless contributions to the community he loved.

Blight, the Sterling Professor of History and Director of the Gilder Lehrman Center for the Study of Slavery, Resistance, and Abolition at Yale University, will deliver his lecture, “Frederick Douglass in His Times and In Ours,” on Thursday, January 21 at 4 pm. The presentation will also be available as a video recording to watch on demand.

You may register for David Blight’s presentation, as well as for 2021 winter/spring classes, at chesapeakeforum.org beginning Tuesday, January 5, 2021. 

This video is approximately four minutes in length.

Profiles in Spirituality: Zen and l with Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher

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There were many good reasons for the Spy to want to interview Stephyn Butcher. One was to talk to the Johns Hopkins professor about his work in “swarm intelligence,” which is used with games programming, machine learning, software engineering, and statistics.

Another would have been his board member roles with the Dorchester Center for the Arts or Main Street Cambridge.

Or the more simple one was related to why Stephyn, and his husband, Michael Kingan, decided to leave their urban life for the slower-paced Eastern Shore a few years ago.

But in the end, and in keeping with our interest in spirituality as the Mid-Shore celebrates such holidays as Chanukah, Christmas, and Kwanzaa, we saw the need to talk to Stephyn about his role as an ordained Zen priest as Rev. Jushin Stephyn Butcher.

In our Spy chat, Stephyn talks about Buddhism’s general foundation, how its many forms differ from Western faiths, its relationship to evil, and the benefits of practice and patience in absorbing its benefits in one’s being.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.

Gathering Storm: MD’s Counties Prepare for Tough Year with MACo’s Michael Sanderson

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The good news for many this week is the anticipation that a $900 billion stimulus package will be signed into law. Beyond the continuation of unemployment benefits and direct paymentS of $600 for every American earning less than $75,000 a year, this relief bill adds critically needed funding for vaccine development and distribution, school and small business assistance, and rent help for many.

The bad news is that the bill lacks any support for state and local governments.

Mayors and governors have not been silent about their budget shortfalls nor the consequences of inaction. But in order for the December aid bill to pass, the estimated $1 trillion dollar need for local government was removed.

That news didn’t sit well with Michael Sanderson, the Maryland Association of Counties’ executive director. While he didn’t hesitate to praise lawmakers in approving this much-needed support, the lack of funding for the State’s counties he represents is troubling.

In his Spy interview yesterday, Sanderson outlines his major concerns, which center on anticipated tax increases, public-sector layoffs, and spending cuts to public programs if the federal government doesn’t take action in early 2021.

This video is approximately nine minutes in length. For more information about the Maryland Association of Counties please go here.