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June 30, 2022

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

Arts Arts Top Story

David Goodrich: Climate Scientist on Two Wheels

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Next Wednesday, June 22nd at 6 pm, The Bookplate “Authors and Oysters” author series will continue with climate scientist David Goodrich, author of “A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean: A Bicycle Journey Through the Northern Dominion of Oil. The event will take place at The Retriever in Chestertown.

Goodrich, former head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s Climate Observations and Monitoring Program, will discuss his unique journeys across the country by bicycle as he observes the landscape through the lens of a climate scientist.

Goodrich says that bicycling lends to an immersive experience in the environment and gives him time daily—during his 60 miles a day—to reflect on critical environmental conditions that are a growing concern for all of us.

Seeking to understand how misinformation and politicization can distract us and perpetuate the denial of the emergency we face, one of his first bike trips took him from Delaware to Oregon. Along the way, he talked to countless people to understand what climate change meant to them.

The trip inspired him to write his first book, A Hole in the Wind, part travelogue, part history, and a lot of science. A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean continues his exploration through the Badlands of South Dakota and across the prairies to the tar sands and oil reserves of Alberta, Canada, the proposed and canceled Keystone XL Pipeline location.

Currently, Goodrich is working on a new book about his bicycling Harriet Tubman’s freedom path from Cambridge to St. Catherine’s.

This video is approximately seven minutes in length.

Come to the Retriever on Wednesday. He has some great stories about his travels and the people he met along the way. For more event details, contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or contact@thebookplate.net. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. Save the date for the next Authors & Oysters event with Brett Lewis on July 6th. The Retriever is located at 337 ½ High Street, in Chestertown, Maryland.

History finds Art: A Chat with Marlon Saunders on Isaac Mason

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The history of enslavement—and dramatic escapes—is part of the Eastern Shore’s DNA. Go no farther than Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass to recognize their celebrated quests for freedom and to understand subjugation on the 19th Shore, an inequality still a burning thread in the fabric of our lives.

Chestertown has its own chapters to add to the growing canon of great escapes. One of them is the story of Issac Mason, an enslaved man who fled his bondage in 1846, now told in a new musical as a reading.

The original musical “ISAAC: A Musical Journey,” written by Kent County native Marlon Saunders will premiere at Washington College’s Gibson Arts Center on June 24, 25, and 26 and promises to be one of the season’s most heartfelt and entertaining theatrical events.

KCA states, “This production will feature Paris Nesbit (Broadway: Book of Mormon) as ISAAC, Sue Matthews as Enslaver Hannah Woodward, and Kelly Sloan as the Ancestral Goddess. The reading will be supported by musicians Marlon Saunders (Composer), David Inniss and Eric Brown. The premiere is being directed by Biti Strauchn and produced by John Schratwieser.”

Commissioned by the Kent Cultural Alliance (KCA) for the Chesapeake Heartland Project at Washington College, “ISAAC” is based on the autobiography “Isaac Mason as a Slave.”

New School Jazz writes,” Marlon Saunders, former professor and alumnus of Berklee College of Music, is the founder and CEO of The Seamless Voice, a vocal and artist-coaching studio in New York City. As a vocal coach, Marlon works with artists from all major recording labels and has Broadway artists currently in Hadestown, Ain’t Too Proud, Frozen, Kinky Boots, Beautiful, The Lion King, and Book of Mormon. Marlon has toured with Stevie Wonder on The Songs In The Key of Life Tour. He was also the vocal contractor for Sam Smith and Bastille, Logic and Mondo Cozmo.”

In a recent interview with the Spy, Marlon Saunders talked about his youth in Chestertown, his early musical influences, life beyond Kent County and entering the professional world of musicians, and, of course, the composing of “ISSAC: A Musical Journey.”

For more about Kent Cultural Alliance and tickets go here. For more about the Chesapeake Heartland Project, go here.

 

Church Hill Theatre Goes “Into the Woods”

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Like so many events suspended by the pandemic over the last two years, Church Hill Theatre is catching up with its production schedule by offering Stephen Sondheim’s hit musical “Into the Woods.” The musical opens this Friday, June 10, and will run for three successive weekends.

Cast members from Columbia, Maryland, and Dover, Delaware have been drawn to the Sondheim production, which first opened on Broadway in 1987 to wide acclaim and three Tony Awards.

“I think some of the roles in this play were on actor’s bucket lists, so quickly did they respond to the casting call,” say CHT Board Director Tom Rhodes.

If you don’t know “Into the Woods” you might think it’s a showcase telling of Grimm fairy tales set to Sondheim’s musical and lyric genius. You’d be wrong by half. By intermission, when you think things are all wrapped up—Rapunzel gets her prince, Little Red Riding Hood and her grandmother survive—there’s a hint of dissonance in the air. The second act curtain rises on entirely new and dark terrain, what NYT critic Alexis Soloski called “the ethics of ambition,” and it’s nothing less than the questioning of life choices and the resulting consequences.

“Into the Woods,” based on the book by James Lapine, returns to our challenging American landscape when daily, the country weighs the consequences of choices and questions whether we have the moral aptitude to make the right choices, to begin with.

The Spy caught up with Director and Treasurer Sylvia Maloney and Board President Tom Rhodes to talk about how the pandemic affected their production schedules, the theatre’s renovations, and staging of “Into the Woods.”

It promises to be fun with an edge, and it’s pure Sondheim for all ages. The Spy looks forward to seeing it.

This video is approximately six minutes in length. For tickets and more about Church Hill Theatre, go here. Masks will be required.

Chestertown’s Tea Party Roars Back after Two Year Hiatus

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After a torrential rain Friday canceled the downtown block party, Chestertown Tea Party 2022 roared back to life after missing two years due to the pandemic shutdown. Once again, citizens of the royal port on the Chester River rallied to protest the British indignity of closing their harbor and tossed their tea!

The weekend-long celebration featuring five blocks of vendors, participating businesses, and crafts entertained thousands of visitors eager to return to one of the town’s signature festivals. 

After a 10 Mile/5k event at Wilmer Park, the day kicked off with a colonial parade of marching bands, colonial and British militia, floats showcasing the county’s nonprofits and businesses, dancers, craft demonstrations, food vendors, face painting, wandering performers and historical reenactors, festival goers thronged the High Street dock to watch the colonists reenact the legend of the Tea Party Resolves with Sultana cannons blasting in the background.

2022 Chestertown Tea Party Parade Results

First place overall and the mayor’s cup: Shore Rivers

Float:

First place float: Chestertown Christian Academy
Second place float: Kent School

Marching unit:

First place marching unit: 1st battalion of New Jersey and Maryland Loyalists
Second place marching unit: Chesapeake Caledonians Pipes and Drums
Third place marching unit: Sumner Hall

Band:

First place band: Largo High School Band
Second place band: Kent High School
Third place band: Queen Anne high School

Riding/walking unit:

First place riding / walking unit:  Rough Riders
Second place riding / walking unit: Fourth Company Brigade of Guards 

Saturday’s festivities ended with a spectacular firework display at dusk sponsored by Cross Street Realtor and Gillespie and Son, Inc.

The festival continued on Sunday at Wilmer Park with children-oriented games and puppet shows, officially ending with the annual Tea Party Raft Race.

The Spy was on hand to capture some of the weekends highlights.

This video is approximately six minutes in length.

 

Artist Marc Castelli Takes an Interesting Departure

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A special three-week exhibit by artist Marc Castelli will show at the MassoniArt Cross Street Gallery from May 27 through June 12 and run throughout Memorial Day weekend.

The Working Portraits/watermen.1, is collection of intimate portraits of Chesapeake waterman Castelli has known personally and followed for 2o years as they plied their trade on Eastern Shore rivers and the Bay.

A marked departure from the main body of Castelli’s work, the portraits go far beyond the iconic idea of independent fishermen toiling the Chesapeake Bay. Instead, they capture the essence of the individual as if you were next to him on the salt sprayed deadrise heading for the morning’s oyster bed. Each face is engraved by the fierce livelihood of harvesting Maryland’s greatest resources. Each expression is a signature of the individual person Castelli studied, respected, and befriended.

“Painting such personal images of them is unnerving. In some instances, the focus is solely on the face with the weathered lines of their lives streaming from the eyes. Some call those lines ‘crow’s feet’ I liken them to a map of every creek, river, gut, thurfer, cove, and bay these men have worked as they harvest crabs, fish, eels, oysters and turtles,” Castelli says. 

A reception will be held on June 3, 5-7 pm, Chestertown First Friday and Marc Castelli will give an Artist Talk Saturday, June 4, 12 noon.

The Spy met Castelli at MassioniArt Cross Street Gallery to talk to him about the how the series of portraits came about and what they mean to him.

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information about MassoniArt may be found here.

 

 

The Fight Against the Chestertown Mosquitoes: A Chat with Darran Tilghman

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Soon the droning hum of one of humanity’s most omnipresent predators and card-carrying dangerous nuisances will be wrecking outdoor activities everywhere a spoonful of standing water can sustain mosquito larvae. 

In other words, anytime we go outside we’ll likely become a blood host to a squadron of mosquitoes despite the industrial strength cloud recently left by pesticide laced fogging trucks.

And again, our perennial questions: Why does the mosquito population seem to grow each year after incessant pesticide use; is the pesticide safe and effective; and are there alternatives?

Chestertown Environmental Committee member Darran Tilghman recently presented the Chestertown Town Council with studies disputing the effectiveness and safety of mosquito fogging and offered a new approach to the problem, one she feels could make Chestertown a model for dealing with summer mosquito invasions.

Tilghman and the committee gathered data showing that the pesticides being sprayed in Chestertown—banned in the European Union—may be doing more harm than good and that there are more effective ways to deal with the seasonal mosquito onslaught than spraying residential areas with Permethrin, a neurotoxin “strongly linked to respiratory disease, ALS, cancers, and childhood brain damage.” 

The Chestertown Environmental Committee recommends that residents take ownership of the solution by maintaining healthy backyards. Eliminating mosquito habitats like standing water and also targeting mosquito larvae with the organic bacillus in “Mosquito Dunks” can keep a yard free of mosquitoes for the whole summer by targeting only the larvae of the mosquito, blackfly and fungus gnat. Mosquito Dunks are inexpensive and may be found locally.

Here, Darran Tilghman encapsulates her presentation to the town council. She encourages residents to email their ward councilmembers to support healthier and more effective alternatives to the fogging trucks. 

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.

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More highlights of the Chestertown Environmental Committee, Water & Habitat Work Group report:

Current strategy: Adulticide fogging with neurotoxin Permethrin

  • Ineffective: Kills ~10% of adult mosquitos in spray range (only the ones alive that day); does not affect larvae or prevent mosquito-borne disease. Only about 0.0000001% of spray hits a target mosquito.
  • Kills indiscriminately: Toxic to critically important pollinators including bees, bats, and butterflies, as well as birds & fish (many of these are mosquito predators).
  • Impacts human health: Strongly linked to respiratory disease, ALS, cancers, and childhood brain damage; banned in the EU; spraying is not permitted near schools or restaurants (but it is permitted on my front lawn). In addition to Permethrin, PFAs (forever chemicals) were found at dangerously toxic levels in three pesticides used for mosquito control by the Maryland Department of Agriculture (MDA).
  • Degrades water quality: Neurotoxins and PFAs stay in soils and groundwater, entering and damaging the Chester and the Chesapeake Bay ecosystem.
  • Expensive and creates dependence: Creates resistant “super skeeters”; the more mosquito predator population collapses, the more we pay to spray- $3,100 annually.

 

Election 2022 Profiles: Dave Harden for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District

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Today, the Spy continues its informal series on profiling candidates running for office in 2022. Over the next eight months, we will be offering long-form interviews with those running for Maryland’s Governor, Attorney General,  MD Congressional District 1, and several local elections in Dorchester, Kent, and Talbot Counties.

As per our educational, nonpartisan mission concerning all public affairs on the Mid-Shore, we believe these in-depth conversations offer a unique alternative to the traditional three-minute sound bite or quick quote. We will be talking to each candidate about their background, qualifications, and policy priorities as well as how they differentiate themselves from others running for the same office.

We continue with Dave Harden, candidate for Maryland’s 1st Congressional District. He is former assistant administrator for the U.S. Agency for International Development’s Bureau for Democracy, Conflict, and Humanitarian Assistance.

This video is approximately 15 minutes in length. For more information about Dave Harden for Congress please go here.

Writers Peter and Evan Osnos Come to Chestertown

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On May 7, the Bookplate bookstore and Retriever Bar will continue their Authors & Oysters series of author events as they host father and son journalists Peter and Evan Osnos.

For almost 20 years, Peter Osnos wrote for The Washington Post as a foreign correspondent in Vietnam, the Soviet Union, and the United Kingdom, joined Random House in 1984 as a senior editor, and founded PublicAffairs where he has edited or published countless authors from President Jimmy Carter to Russian President Boris Yeltsin. He is the editor of a recently released book of biographical essays: George Soros: A Life in Full.

Son Evan Osnos is a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and National Book Award Winner for his 2014 Age of Ambition: Chasing Fortune, Truth, and Faith based on his eight years in China. His Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury is a mirror held up to a fractured American landscape, a country that has become more unrecognizable the two decades between 9/11 and the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capital.

The Spy recently talked with Evan about Wildland and the craft of journalism reflected in his investigation into what happened to America in the last twenty years—by approaching it the way he observed China, as a foreign correspondent.

Wildland: The Making of America’s Fury offers an extraordinary gallery of individuals existing in the vacuum of their own American experience in Greenwich, Connecticut, Chicago, Illinois, and Clarksburg West Virginia, along with the legal and policy changes that have led to what sometimes feels like an intractable quagmire of polarized factions. But there is hope, Osnos says, and he’ll be talking about it with his father at the Retriever Bar on May 7.

The conversation starts with a reference to former Chestertown resident Richard Ben Cramer, Pulitzer Prize author of What It Takes: the Way to the Whitehouse, and the effort good journalism requires to accurately portray their subjects.

This video is approximately eight minutes in length.

The Retriever is located at 337 ½ High Street, in Chestertown, Maryland. For more event details contact The Bookplate at 410-778-4167 or contact@thebookplate.net. This event is free and open to the public. Reservations are not required. Save the date for the next Authors & Oysters event with Kate Albus on May 11th.

 

 

On the Boards: The Garfield brings The Laramie Project to Town

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Twenty-two years after the first performance of The Laramie Project, its message about bigotry and intolerance is needed more than ever and the Garfield Theatre is doing its part by offering the play three weekends starting this weekend on Friday May 22.

Based on the 1998 murder of 21-year-old gay University of Wyoming student Matthew Shepard, the play evolved out of six trips to Laramie, Wyoming by actors from New York’s Tectonic Theatre Group. Ten members of the acting group spent hundreds of hours interviewing the community hoping to understand the social environment that led to Shepard’s kidnapping, mutilation, and death.

The collection of interviews became a verbatim script for the play formed in the tradition of documentary theatre and requiring each of the ten actors to play multiple parts.

“I love the concept of it as something you don’t normally see on stage. In my production there are ten people and those ten people portray anywhere from five to seven people,” Director Michael Moore says. To help them prepare for multiple character portrayals, Moore had each actor write in a journal to help define their unique identities.

Moore believes in the power of the production and hopes that it will rekindle conversations about hate crimes, break down stereotypes and challenge our current political environment where in 2022 alone 240 anti-LGBT bills have already been filed.

The Spy recently dropped in on a Garfield rehearsal for The Laramie Project and talked with Director Michael Moore.

“The Laramie Project” by Moisés Kaufman and members of the Tectonic Theater Project. Directed by Michael Moore. Produced by special arrangement with Dramatists Play Service, Inc. Performance Dates: April 22, 23, 24, 29, 30, May 1, 6, 7, 8, 2022

This video is approximately minutes in length. For more information and tickets please go here.

 

 

 

 

Traveling while Black: A Chat with Author Mia Bay

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Sixty-four years before Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man during the 1955 Montgomery, Alabama bus boycott, another Black woman, activist Ida B. Wells resisted Tennessee train segregation laws and took her case to the State Supreme Court.

For historian Dr. Mia Bay, Well’s act of resistance during the dangerous Jim Crow era sparked further investigation into how defiance of 19th-century transportation segregation helped pave the way to the Civil Rights Movement.

It was an image that would stay with her for a decade since writing about it in her 2010 book To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells.

Bay says the story of Ida B. Wells being thrown out of the “Ladies Car” of the train because of her race stayed on the back burner as she continued to write other books, but that eventually she went down the research rabbit hole to sleuth out the wider story of how racial segregation on the “Jim Crow coaches,” trains, steamers, and planes became a structural component of white supremacy.

For her effort, Bay, Washington College’s 2021-2022 Patrick Henry History Fellow, and professor of American History at the University of Pennsylvania just received the prestigious Bancroft Prize in History for her book Traveling Black: A story of Race and Resistance.

Currently working on a book about Black perceptions of Thomas Jefferson, Bay recently sat down with the Spy to talk about how travel segregation began and how it was relentlessly challenged in the courts primarily by African American women.

The Patrick Henry History Fellowship is cosponsored by Washington College’s Starr Center for the Study of the American Experience and the Rose O’Neill Literary House.

This video is approximately minutes in length. More information may be found here.