James Dissette

Chesapeake Arts: Artist Marcy Ramsey is Back at It

September 23, 2020 by James Dissette 1 Comment

Marcy Ramsey’s annual show is up at MassoniArt through October and, due to the pandemic, by appointment only.

While that may sound constrictive, for those of you who know Ramsey’s work, the “by appointment only” requirement will offer visitors time to enjoy the show without distraction. So far it has worked out well and, who knows, it could be the way of galleries going forward.

For fifteen years the Chestertown artist has been entranced by the limitless play of color and light along the rivers of the Eastern Shore and the woodlands nearby. Her trademark meditations on flotsam and jetsam, reeds, floating leaves, and light reflected off of water are widely collected.

These familiar themes are revisited in much of Ramsey’s new work, but the interpretations are fresh and her color palette continues to evolve into luminous canvasses of the natural world around us.

And she is exploring some new themes, but we won’t tell you about them—you have to go see for yourself!

This video is approximately five minutes in length. For more information about MassoniArt is at 203 High Street, Chestertown, Maryland. For an appointment, call 410-778- 7330. Masks are required. To find out more, visit their website here.

Going Purple: A Conversation with Kent County Sheriff John Price

September 14, 2020 by James Dissette Leave a Comment

Often buried beneath news of the global pandemic and political discord, the ongoing opioid crisis continues unabated. Isolation, loss of income, and treatment center closures due to the COVID-19 pandemic have contributed to the increase of fatal overdoses.

September’s National Recovery Month continues to spotlight this health emergency and promote the benefits of prevention, treatment, and recovery, especially during a pandemic that has seen an increase in overdose fatalities. According to the Association of American Medical Colleges (AAMC) studies, fatalities are trending upward by as much as 18%, following a year of 71,000 deaths.

Although too soon for definitive data, AAMC points out that alcohol sales have risen by 25%, and there is a worrisome trend of overdose from increased non prescribed fentanyl. The National Institute on Drug Reports that 90% of all drug fatalities in Maryland are from opioids (15,000 in 2018).

The Spy caught up with Kent County Sheriff John Price to find out how law enforcement is participating with National Recovery Month and how the pandemic has required alternative paths to reach out to the community.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For more information about International Recovery Day please go here.

John Winslow: Turning the World Purple One Day at a Time

September 7, 2020 by James Dissette

By September 30, John Winslow wants to celebrate recovery by turning the world purple from Niagara Falls to the Samuel Beckett Bridge in Dublin and your porchlight. He’s doing it one day at a time throughout September, leading up to International Recovery Day on September 30.

Winslow’s lifelong career in the addiction recovery movement has prepared him for this endeavor. He was former President of the Maryland Addiction Directors Council, former Founder and Director of Dri-Dock Recovery and Wellness Center, Former Director of Addictions and Co-Occurring Services at Dorchester Health Department, and former Coordinator; Recovery Leadership Program at the National Council on Alcoholism and Drug Dependence (NCADD-MD).

If that’s not enough, the life-long Eastern Shore resident founded International Recovery Day to seek worldwide awareness about addiction recovery no matter the pathway to recovery one might be taking.

Winslow cites the 2014 The Anonymous People movie and recovery movement as his inspiration to take the addiction recovery movement to an international level and specifically include all recovery pathways from 12-step programs to other individualized therapies. It’s a message of inclusion, what Winslow calls a “We” celebration of recovery that expands The Anonymous People’s mission to destigmatize addiction.

As Winslow formed his idea of an International Recovery Day, he reached out to Greg Williams, Founder of The Anonymous People, and the esteemed addiction historian William White, author of Slaying the Dragon: The History of Addiction Treatment and Recovery in America. Both saw the transformative value of international networking. Williams joined the Steering Committee along with 28 members from the United States, Scotland, Malaysia, Australia, Ireland, Nigeria, Ghana, and Canada to guide the non-profit through its inaugural year.

Signing up at The International Recovery Day website or Facebook page will let registrants participate in the online event on September 30. Recovery fireworks will go off in the digital globe, symbolizing worldwide interconnectivity.

In the meantime, each day, additional key worldwide monuments and structures will become purple.

The International Recovery Day Project couldn’t come at a better time. All of September is National Recovery Month, an annual observance” to educate Americans that substance use treatment and mental health services can enable those with mental and substance use disorders to live healthy and rewarding lives. Winslow wants to catapult recovery awareness into the community of the world.

And then there’s the global pandemic. Already, data reveals that US overdose deaths, which had begun to drop, are now up 5% from the 69,000+ recorded in 2019 as the consequences of isolation, treatment center closures and wide availability of fentanyl and heroin are playing out.

With the addition of purple-lighted awareness, however, the recovery movement and addiction awareness get an added boost as it become an annual celebration of addiction recovery.

International Recovery Day is a free online event launched globally during September and a special online event on September 30.

The Spy talked with John Winslow about it via Zoom. The conversation begins with how the Anonymous People movement moved the 12-step recovery programs into public recognition and how International Recovery Day will move the recovery movement forward and worldwide.

The video is approximately six minutes long.

Chesapeake Arts: The Mainstay is Not Missing a Beat

September 2, 2020 by James Dissette

When the world shuttered businesses and lives in March, it also hit the arts and entertainment world equally. Movie production halted, Broadway went dark, galleries closed their doors, live music venues went silent. Across the board, artists plunged into the riptide of the unemployed.

But creatives, by their very nature, are hard to keep down, and some have found ways to move forward by using online strategies. It may bring in a fraction of their pre-pandemic income, but it’s something that keeps the arts lifeline open to the community when sorely needed.

The Mainstay in Rock Hall is an excellent example of sustainability during hard times. Since 1997 when Charlie Byrd christened the venue with his jazz, The Mainstay has become a Maryland hub for international country and jazz artists. It is a significant economic and cultural engine for the Kent County area.

The pandemic hit just as they were planning the 25th Anniversary. The Board quickly organized to set up online presentations, and you will notice on their website and Facebook page that they offer a host of ongoing ticketed events. Also note that artists include online tip-jars to help underwrite their their shows.

Bets Durham, President of the Mainstay Board talked with Spy about what the Mainstay is up to online now and the future. Along with their music showcases, many of the streaming activities have included educational episodes to convey the rich history of music.

“Our streaming activities have also included educational episodes with Board Member Dave Robinson on Louis Armstrong and another on Traditional Jazz Styles. We will continue to offer afternoon educational sessions via our Facebook page as we head toward the end of the year,” Durham says.

Coming up: streamed live from The Mainstay Stage, on Friday 9/11 7PM will be Jeff Antoniuk and Helluvaband Band; Jeff will be joined by Max Murray on Bass, Frank Russo on drums, two of The Mainstay’s favorite artists, and John Lee on guitar. They will play from their new album, FLOW, and many of the jazz standards from their repertoire.

Also, during this time of BLM, John Thomas our Program Manager has been showcasing African-American artists in our streaming line-up, per the organization’s Statement on Racial Equity, as posted below.

This video is approximately seven minutes long. For more information about The Mainstay please go here.

The Mainstay’s statement on racial equity:

As an organization dedicated to presenting the diverse music of our culture, we must take a moment at this time to acknowledge the contributions of African Americans to the cultural fabric of America. There is little music in the public eye that is not uniquely shaped by African American artists and their experiences.

Blues, which is at the root of all American music, is a direct product of the black experience in America.
Jazz, built upon the foundation of the blues was elevated by men such as Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, and Miles Davis.

Folk and country music owe more than a little to the influence of artists like Leadbelly and Robert Johnson.

The attributed originator of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe claimed a black man, Arnold Shultz as his primary influence.

Anyone in the world today working as a professional jazz/pop/folk musician owes a debt to the work of Louis Armstrong.

These great Americans contributed immeasurable treasures to American culture, yet endured lifelong violence and indignities at the hands of law enforcement and other authority figures.

Many of us have lived in comfort believing that those experiences are of a bygone era in our country, but current events reinforce that this is reality today. As an organization that supports arts, artists and all humans, we repudiate this violence toward our fellow citizens. In whatever way that we are able, we intend to speak out to support our fellow Americans who have had, and continue to have, their rights trampled upon.

Racial diversity is embedded in our musical past, including a rich history right here in Kent County. We pledge to honor this heritage by acting to engage our entire community with performances by and for all people. During the coming months we will strengthen our programming by adding classes illuminating the rich contributions of African American artists who have shaped the music we all love and we are seeking to join with others in celebrating diversity in all our programming.

The Mainstay welcomes ideas and comments from the community on how to better advance our actions for diversity in programming. The Mainstay Board of Directors.

On Civil War Monuments with Kevin Hemstock

August 26, 2020 by James Dissette

The recent fight over the Talbot Boys memorial in front of the Talbot County Courthouse inspired the Spy to ask regional historian Kevin Hemstock about our own Civil War monument in Chestertown.

The 25-ton granite monument in Memorial Park commemorates Kent soldiers who held allegiance to both sides in the Civil War, and that’s a point Hemstock notes as an important difference from the Talbot Boys statue which honors only the names of Talbot Confederate soldiers.

Also, The Talbot Boys is a statue of a lone CSA soldier standing high on a plinth and holding the Confederate battle flag. Chestertown’s monument aspires to simply name the many losses from Kent County both sides of the war.

Hemstock does not feel that the 1917 Chestertown monument encourages controversy like the Talbot Boys, but he does ask interesting historical questions about the memorial’s inception and that man who orchestrated and paid for it: Judge James Alfred Pearce.

Why did the monument lack any notice of the 400 Black soldiers who fought and died for Union during the war?

The Spy reached out to talk with G. Kevin Hemstock, former Editor of The Kent County News and a lifelong history sleuth, archivist, and author. His books include “Injustice on the Eastern Shore,” “The Thirteen Most Sensational Murders of Kent County, MD,” “Freaks, Fables and Fires of Kent County, MD,” and “The History of Millington: Vol 1 and 2.”

This video is approximately nine minutes long.

Legacy Day Panel Describes Black Experience at Washington College

August 21, 2020 by James Dissette

If you missed the remarkable online Legacy Day events hosted by Sumner Hall and the Kohl Gallery at Washington College last weekend, one of the most enlightening moments was a panel of former Black Washington College students describing their experiences on a predominately white campus.

“Legacies of Education and the Black Experience at Washington College,” began as a Washington College project created by C.V Starr Center Frederick Douglas Visiting Fellow Jason Patterson. Patterson and WC students created a historical account of African American life in Chestertown and Kent County. Talbot County writer and Spy contributor Jaelon Moaney collaborated with Patterson the narrative for the exhibit.l

The Legacy Day panel included students from the class of 1970 to recent graduates, each describing their own on-campus and social life and the struggle for student equity.

Carolyn Erwin, class of 1970, recalled, “In 1966 the Civil Rights movement was making its mark, so when I came to Washington College I had a tremendous cross to bear, if I can describe it that way, because I was coming into a setting that was not prepared to support me and in fact did everything to discourage me.”

Washington College was segregated for 200 years and it wasn’t until the early 1960s that an African American was enrolled as a student.

This video is approximately 4 minutes long. For more information about Charles Sumner Post go here.

At Compass: A Different Kind of Daughter and Father Story

August 10, 2020 by James Dissette

Receiving a diagnosis for an incurable disease can be a frightening moment for the individual and family. For most of us, any end-of-life plan remains vague and lacks knowledge of options.

As much as the idea of dying can be fearful, making decisions and managing one’s end-of-life plan can maximize the quality of life for those who have been diagnosed with an incurable disease.

One of the great options is hospice, a service that focuses on the quality of life for people experiencing advanced, life-limiting illness.

That’s where hospice comes in, providing comfort, support, and a host of other care services provided by a team of health care professionals whose mission is to reduce pain and address physical, psychological, social and spiritual needs.

Compass Regional Hospice in Centreville is a shining example. Their spectrum of services offers “care on your terms” for the individual and the family, and have been serving Kent, Queen Anne’s and Caroline since 1985.

Depending on one’s needs, Compass can help families make decisions as soon as a person has been diagnosed. That may range from home care when curative treatment is no longer an option, to residential hospice care, a medically supportive alternative when staying at home is no longer possible. Other services include continuous care to address short-term crisis care in the home and general inpatient hospice care for short-term pain management and symptoms requiring 24-hour medical supervision.

The Spy was recently offered an opportunity to talk with Shelagh Grasso, whose father, Keith, decided on Compass as soon as he was diagnosed with congestive heart failure in June.

Both Shelagh and Keith were familiar and impressed with Compass. Some years ago, Shelagh’s mother was diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, and the family suddenly found themselves in need of a plan for her care. That’s when they discovered Compass Regional Hospice.

Keith’s second wife also succumbed to Alzheimer’s, and once again, Compass became part of the family’s life.

Keith wanted to remain home as long as he could and continue living on his own under the care of Compass’ Home Hospice Care team, who visits several times a week.

But it’s more than just health check-ups. Shelagh says that members of the Compass team have become “family.”

“Right now, he’s very happy comfortable, and I’m comfortable knowing that there’s someone other than me caring for him and making his life a little easier,” Shelagh says.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length. For more information about Compass Regional Hospice please go here.

The BLM Murals: A Different Perspective with Freedom of Speech Expert Jim Astrachan

August 8, 2020 by James Dissette

The Black Lives Matter and We Can’t Breathe street mural proposals will be presented to the Chestertown Town Council on Monday, August 10th, at 7:30 pm.

For several weeks the proposals have dominated discussions throughout the community and have garnered widespread support and criticism.

One concern especially has been brought to the fore: what are the legal ramifications of a painted mural on a town street, and does it open a Pandora’s box of claims for equal representation by other organizations?

As with most cases in Chestertown, an expert in first amendment rights was just around the corner.

The Spy has turned to attorney and Chestertown resident Jim Astrachan to frame the mural proposal in a town law and Constitutional context. He neither promotes nor dismisses the idea, but offers scenarios using the legal principle of government speech doctrine. In other words, the Free Speech Clause of the 1st Amendment does not restrict government speech.

Consequently, the Town could accept the mural proposals and make the BLM murals a government statement. But where does a street mural fit into legal precedents, and if the mural was to become government speech, what legal challenges could be presented?

During a more extended overview of Constitutional issues, Astrachan offers some insight into how the mural project might proceed, its potential challenges, and an interesting alternative.

Jim is a partner at Astrachan Gunst Thomas in Baltimore and professor of Law at Baltimore University and speaks nationwide on intellectual copyright, property topics, including advertising law, branding, trademark protection and copyright protection. He is the author of The Law of Advertising and Mass Communications.

This video is approximately six minutes in length

The BLM Murals: A Different Perspective with Freedom of Speech Expert Jim Astrachan

August 8, 2020 by James Dissette

The Black Lives Matter and We Can’t Breathe street mural proposals will be presented to the Chestertown Town Council on Monday, August 10th, at 7:30 pm.

For several weeks the proposals have dominated discussions throughout the community and have garnered widespread support and criticism.

As with most cases in Chestertown, an expert in first amendment rights was just around the corner.

During a more extended overview of Constitutional issues, Astrachan offers some insight into how the mural project might proceed, its potential challenges, and an interesting alternative.

This video is approximately six minutes in length

Memo to U.S.A.: COVID-19 is Global with Dr. Mark Dybul

July 27, 2020 by James Dissette

One of the wonders of the Chesapeake Bay region, be it Annapolis, Chestertown or Talbot County, is that it’s not unusual to find a leading expert in almost any field just around the block, so to speak. With close proximity to Washington, D.C. these communities have found themselves attracting the best and the brightest for decades.

So it wasn’t too surprising to find one of the country’s leading experts in infectious diseases who so happens to make his home just outside of Chestertown.

For more than thirty years, Dr. Mark Dybul has been in the forefront of some of the world’s most dangerous pandemics. Starting with his early work with AIDS in the 1980s, when he became a colleague and friend with Dr. Anthony Fauci, Dybul has helped lead global efforts to defeat such dangerous diseases, as SARE, Ebola, MERS, and H1N1, just to name a few.

He’s the former Executive Director of the Global Fund to Fight HIV, Tuberculosis and Malaria and is now Faculty Co-Director of the Center of Global Health Quality and Professor in the Department of Medicine, Georgetown Medical Center.

Earlier in his career, he joined the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and worked with Dr. Anthony Fauci on clinical studies on HIV virology, immunology, and treatment, which led the first controlled trials using antiviral therapies in Africa and effort that helped save 17 million lives. Dr. Fauci continues to be his mentor and colleague, and the two discuss weekly the implementation of a plan to control the virus worldwide.

“A global pandemic requires a global response; solidarity,” Dybul says. “When AIDS hit, no one knew what to do, but we became aware that we are a more connected world.”

Dybul has been interviewed widely and always expresses his mission to help create a global template to deal not only with COVID-19 but pandemics to come

In a recent interview in One— a global movement campaigning to end extreme poverty and preventable disease—he was asked about the US response to the global pandemic. “If the virus is lurking anywhere in the world, we are at risk. If we are not engaged and don’t know the patterns of transmission, we are in deep trouble; we are flying blind into a future we have no sense of. Flying blind is incredibly dangerous.”

But Dybul is not without optimism, despite the uncoordinated US effort to contain the virus. He says it’s not “rocket science.” If we look to European countries, we can see that it controlling the transmission of the virus can be accomplished within months if we follow the recommended protocols of wearing masks, social distancing, contact tracing, and quarantining. But it takes a unified effort, and the fortitude to carry through.

This video is approximately fourteen minutes in length. For more information about the Center of Global Health Quality please go here.

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