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April 1, 2023

The Talbot Spy

The nonprofit e-newspaper for the Talbot County Community

Arts Arts Notes

An Earth Day Eco-Poetry Reading

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An Earth Day Eco-Poetry Reading. Saturday April 22, 2023, 2:00-4:00 p.m., Talbot County Free Library-Easton Library.

In celebration of Earth Day 2023 and National Poetry Month, Talbot County Free Library, Shore Lit, and The Shore Poetry will be presenting a free eco-poetry reading.

The event will be held in the Easton Library’s Meeting Room and moderated by The Shore Poetry co-editors John Nieves, Caroline Chavatel, and Emma DePanise. They have selected fifteen regional poets to read original poems related to the themes of place, liminality, and human interaction with our environments.

Featured poets will include: Lindsay Lusby, Jane Satterfield, Ned Balbo, Christine Spillson, Sarah Brockhaus, Chris Cocca, Catherine Pierce, Summer Smith, Siobhan Murray, Cassandra Whitaker, Shannon Ryan, Gary Fox, Nancy Mitchell, Tara A. Elliott, and Terin Weinberg.

The event is free and open to the public. Light refreshments will follow the reading, giving attendees a chance to engage with the poets and editors and speak to them about their work. Reservations are not required.

A special Earth Day 2023 issue of The Shore Poetry featuring poems from the event will launch on Earth Day (4/22) at theshorepoetry.org.

This program is sponsored in part by funds from the Friends of the Talbot County Free Library, Talbot County Free Library, and by a grant from Talbot Arts, with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and the governments of Talbot County, Easton, Oxford, and St. Michaels.

About The Shore Poetry:

The Shore Poetry is an online poetry publication seeking cutting, strange, and daring work from new and established poets alike. The Shore Poetry publishes poems that explore the worlds of things and ideas, that recognize the liminality, the shifting of everything around us and our ability to name a thing whole—poems that press and push and ache and recede. The journal is published four times a year, once each season.

About The Shore Poetry’s editors:

John A. Nieves has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as: North American Review, Copper Nickel, American Poetry Review, 32 Poems, and Southern Review. He won the Indiana Review Poetry Contest and his first book, Curio, won the Elixir Press Annual Poetry Award Judge’s Prize. He is associate professor of English at Salisbury University and an editor of The Shore Poetry.

Caroline Chavatel is the author of White Noises (Greentower Press, 2019), which won The Laurel Review’s 2018 Midwest Chapbook Contest. Her work has appeared in AGNI, The Missouri Review, Foundry, and Poetry Northwest, among others. She is co-founding editor of The Shore Poetry, an editor at Madhouse Press, and currently a Ph.D. candidate at Georgia State University.

Emma DePanise has poems forthcoming or recently published in journals such as Poetry Northwest, The Minnesota Review, The Los Angeles Review, New York Quarterly and The National Poetry Review. She is a winner of a 2019 AWP Intro Journals Award and the 2018 winner of the Pablo Neruda Prize for Poetry from Nimrod International Journal. An editor of The Shore Poetry, she holds an MFA from Purdue University and is a current PhD student in English at the University of Missouri.

About Shore Lit

Shore Lit founder Kerry Folan is a reader, a writer, and a professor of writing and literature at George Mason University. She has been living in Easton since 2017 and aims to enhance local cultural offerings with regular, free book talks open to the public. Shore Lit events are designed to explore relevant ideas, foster literary conversation, and build inclusive community. Spring 2023 events feature novelist Jung Yun (in partnership with AAM); essayist and cultural critic Lawrence Weschler (in partnership with AAM); and an eco-poetry reading with The Shore Poetry (in partnership with TCFL). Sign up for our monthly newsletter at shorelit.org and follow us on Instagram @Shore_Lit.

About Talbot County Free Library

It is the mission of the Talbot County Free Library to enrich and renew the lives of the people it serves. There are two locations: The main library in Easton is located at 100 W. Dover St.; and the St. Michael branch is at 106 Fremont St. The Maryland Room in the Easton branch holds a voluminous collection of genealogical resources and historical documents. Services at both locations include the circulation of books, DVDs, and digital devices, as well as free Wi-Fi, public computers, exhibits, and programs for both children and adults. Many of the Talbot County Free Library’s programs are made possible by the generous support of the local community. For more information, please visit www.tcfl.org. Be sure to like the library on Facebook and follow us on Instagram @Talbotcountyfreelibrary.

Bay Country Chorus Welcomes New Members

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L to R: Joey Frankos (Baritone), Laverne Crabson (Tenor), Olivia Fleischfresser (Lead) and Sandy Ryder (Tenor). Back row Lesley Aaron (Director) and Bob Worsthorn (Lead).

The Bay Country Chorus is the Easton Maryland chapter of the Barbershop Harmony Society. Founded in 1995 the chorus has performed in the four mid-shore counties at senior living communities, and venues where folks are in rehab or dealing with dementia. Many of these special citizens cannot get out to enjoy live music. Quite simply we bring the music to them.

Starting in 1995 the chorus has been an all-male group. Recently the Barbershop Harmony Society invited ladies to become full-time members. The chorus grasped that opportunity, and we now have four new female singers and one new male singer as well. On the male side we could use a bass or two.

Ladies or men who would like to take a look at the chorus are invited to attend one of our rehearsals. We meet at the Talbot County Senior Center at 400 Brooklets Ave. in Easton beginning at 6 pm on Monday evenings For further information on the chorus or to book a performance please call John Crovo 410-820-4761.

New Local Piano Trio to Play in Easton and Chestertown

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The Oltre Ponte Piano Trio will offer concerts in Easton on May 6 and in Chestertown on May 7.

The concerts will feature selections spanning several centuries from Bach, Chopin, Elgar, Haydn, Mendelssohn, and Vaughan Williams. The program will close with Dvorak’s Dumky trio, based on the Ukrainian dumka tradition that punctuates a lament of captive people with cheerful upbeat melodies.

Nevin Dawson (violin/viola) formed the group in 2022 with Wonhee Kim (cello) and Amy Morgan (piano) to fulfill a long-time dream to play chamber music on the Eastern Shore. “I’ve been playing around with chamber music since grade school and it’s always been one of my favorite ways to make music,” said Dawson. “It’s about telling a musical story with dialogue between three characters, each with their own personality: the bright and shiny violin, the rich and brooding cello, and the powerfully orchestral piano.”

Dawson studied viola at Penn State University and has played with Pennsylvania Centre Orchestra, Canberra Symphony Orchestra, and the Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra. He currently teaches violin, viola, and cello at Music Life in Chestertown, MD. As a versatile player in many genres including classical, folk, and jazz, he also plays with Shore Strings, the Dover Symphony, Harp & Soul, Front Porch Orchestra, and is featured on eight studio albums. He also performs solo shows featuring original music for electric violin and looper pedal, including introductory programs for the National Music Festival’s Fiddlesticks grade school education program. He was a member of the Red Devil Moon ensemble, a new musical selected to participate in the 2017 NYC Fringe Festival. He also sings professionally with several local groups.

Kim, a native from Seoul, South Korea, made her debut at the age of 10, performing in a piano trio with her two sisters extending to 50 concert stages throughout major cities in Asia, Africa, and the United States. At thirteen, she performed with the Seoul National Symphony Orchestra. During her attendance at Seoul Art Middle & High School, she was the top-prize winner of the Ewha & Kyunghyang Competition and the Joongang Music Competition. As a freshman at the Seoul National University, Ms. Kim moved to Amsterdam, Holland to study with Dmitri Ferschtman at the Sweelinck Conservatory. Wonhee then moved to the United States and completed her B.A and M.A. at the New England Conservatory with Mr. Lawrence Lesser.

Ms. Kim served as a faculty member at the Peabody Preparatory Division of the Peabody Institute of Music at Johns Hopkins University until 2021. During that time, Wonhee was also a member of the Concert Artists of Baltimore, a chamber orchestra located in Baltimore, MD. Currently, Kim is a Co-Principal Cellist for the Washington Chamber Orchestra and a Chair member for the Maryland State Music Teachers Association Young Musicians Competition. She currently resides in Oxford, MD, where she continues to be a private instructor and an active performer in chamber orchestras in both the DC and Eastern Shore areas.

Morgan is an accomplished musician whose education includes a Bachelors degree in Piano Performance from Salisbury University and a Masters Degree in Choral Conducting from Messiah University. Amy is the founder and Artistic Director at Allegro Academy in Easton, MD where she is the conductor of the Allegra Women’s Chorus, Children’s Chorus, as well as piano and voice instructor.  She served as the Director of Music at Trinity Episcopal Cathedral from 2014 to 2022 and has also served as music director of Gilbert and Sullivan operettas, Heart and Music Theatre Review, and accompanied many stage productions and concerts. Amy is a member of the American Choral Directors Association and is an active musician the Talbot County Area.

Dawson added, “We will serve up a variety of samples from different eras and composition styles, so there’s something that will please every palate.”

The trio will perform on May 6 at 7:30 pm at Trinity Cathedral (315 Goldsborough St, Easton, MD 21601) and on May 7 at 2:00 pm at the Presbyterian Church of Chestertown (905 Gateway Dr, Chestertown, MD 21620). A donation of $20 is suggested for both concerts. Visit here for more information: https://bit.ly/OltrePonte0523

Washington College to Host Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound

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Mensun Bound

Marine Archaeologist Mensun Bound will speak at Washington College about his role as the director of exploration on the expedition that discovered Sir Ernest Shackleton’s lost ship, Endurance, near Antarctica in 2022. He will share his firsthand account of the historic discovery during the talk, his first appearance on the East Coast since the discovery and the release of his new book, The Ship Beneath the Ice: The Discovery of Shackleton’s Endurance.

Bound’s talk will occur April 12 at 7:00 p.m. in Decker Theatre at Washington College’s Daniel Z. Gibson Center for the Arts. Guests are invited to a book signing and reception with the speaker following his talk. Copies of Bound’s new book will be available for purchase.

Known as the “Indiana Jones of the Deep,” Bound has conducted wreck surveys and excavations all over the world in a career that has spanned more than 40 years. Twelve museums around the globe hold permanent displays of artifacts raised by Bound. His work has been the focus of numerous documentaries including a four-part series by the Discovery Channel entitled Lost Ships.

In 2019, Bound stunned the world with his discovery of Admiral von Spee’s flagship, Scharnhorst, which was lost in battle during World War I. That same year, Bound was director of exploration for the first expedition to find Shackleton’s Endurance, which ended in disaster when a remote operated vehicle imploded from pressure, and the principal search vehicle, an autonomous underwater vehicle, disappeared without a trace. In 2022, the search for Shackleton’s lost ship resumed under the auspices of the Falklands Maritime Heritage Trust with Bound in the same role. On March 5, 2022, the Endurance was found, and as predicted by Bound, it was upright, largely intact, not embedded in the seafloor and in an excellent state of preservation.

This event is the last in the Center for Environment and Society’s winter speaker series, “A Polar Expedition with Washington College,” which spotlights experts who have made recent discoveries in the polar regions. It is free and open to the public, but pre-registration is required, as seating is limited. Please visit washcoll.edu/mensun-bound for more information and to register.

This event is co-sponsored by the Rose O’Neill Literary House, the Washington College Department of Anthropology and Archaeology and the Archaeology Club of Washington College with generous support from the Phi Beta Kappa Chapter of Washington College.

Free Screening of Related Special April 5

Before Bound’s visit, the public is invited to Washington College on April 5 for a free showing of The History Channel special, “Endurance: The Hunt for Shackleton’s Ice Ship” at 2:00 p.m. in the Norman James Theatre in William Smith Hall. The show features Boundand chronicles the extraordinary conditions and efforts required of the expedition team to find the Endurance shipwreck. Complimentary refreshments will be provided.

Allegro Academy: Music for All Ages

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Allegro Academy, now in its new location in the heart of downtown Easton at 114 N. Washington Street, is pleased to offer expanded opportunities for music education.

The Allegro Children’s Chorus, for ages eight and up, will begin its second session of the year on April 5. During the seven-week session, students will learn melody, harmony, and musicianship through songs and activities. Rehearsals are on Wednesday evenings, 5:15-6:30 pm. In addition to the weekly rehearsals, choristers will participate in exciting community performances and sing with local artists during April and May. The program costs $50; need-based scholarships are available.

The Academy is excited to announce Dr. Robert Tennyson as brass instructor. Dr. Tennyson is a professional trombone and baritone player and conductor with over 40 years of private teaching experience. His teaching career has included positions at Montgomery College, American University, Columbia Union College, Tirolian State School of Music and the University of Innsbruck (Austria). Dr Tennyson has degrees from Indiana University and the University of Maryland with concentrations in performance, brass pedagogy, and conducting.

Allegro Academy also welcomes Gerry Devine as guitar instructor. Gerry is a graduate of Penn State and The Guitar Study Center in New York. Once a career musician in New York and Nashville, Gerry now performs locally and works at PRS Guitars. Gerry has expertise in multiple styles of popular guitar and tailors lessons to the specific interests and ability of the student.

Dr. Tennyson and Mr. Devine join a roster of private instructors that includes specialists in voice, piano, and violin. Allegro Academy instructors have a combined teaching experience of more than 100 years, with an assortment of advanced degrees from Indiana University, Ithaca College, Luther College, Messiah University, Penn State, Salisbury University, SUNY Potsdam, and the University of Maryland.

For more information about the Allegro Children’s Chorus and private lessons for all ages, please visit allegroacademyeaston.com or call 410-603-8361. The mission of Allegro Academy is to offer exceptional music education and performance experiences to the greater Talbot County Area and to make these offerings affordable to all. Its programs are partially funded by generous contributions from the community, Talbot Arts, and the Maryland State Arts Council.

Journey Into the Imagination with the 2023 Chesapeake Film Festival

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Save the dates! The 2023 Chesapeake Film Festival (CFF) will be LIVE Saturday, Sept. 30 and Sunday, Oct. 1 at two historic venues in Easton, MD.  The Festival goes VIRTUAL October 2 through 8, bringing you more fabulous films to watch anytime, anywhere.

As we roll out our new brand “This year’s theme, Journeys into the Imagination, captures the essence of our Festival.  While the films reflect the imagination of the filmmakers, they also fuel our own imagination with insights into ourselves and our world,” said Festival Director Cid Collins Walker.

The hybrid festival begins with a LIVE weekend (Sept. 30 and Oct. 1) featuring screenings, discussions and events at the Avalon Theatre and Ebenezer Theatre, as well as an Opening Day VIP Reception at the Academy Art Museum.  As viewers take their seats in these beautifully restored venues, they are transported into the glory days of theatre.

“We want people to come for an immersive experience,” explained CFF Executive Director Nancy Tabor. “The venues, the social functions, the discussions, and the beauty of the Eastern Shore all add to the pleasure of watching great films.”

The VIRTUAL Festival (Oct. 2-8), which follows the LIVE Festival, gives film lovers another week of outstanding films to watch at their convenience.  Viewers can screen films from a variety of genres including narratives, documentaries, shorts and animations.  Take five minutes to watch a pithy short film or grab some popcorn and treat yourself to a fabulous full-length feature!

Films for both the LIVE and VIRTUAL FESTIVALS are reviewed and selected by a distinguished panel of jurors.  The Chesapeake Film Festival favors independent films with exceptionally high production values that tell a great story; films that educate, entertain, and enlighten.

INVITING ALL FILMMAKERS TO SUBMIT THEIR WORK

Dozens of superb submissions are already in for the 2023 LIVE and VIRTUAL Chesapeake Film Festival! But there is still time for filmmakers to submit their best work via FilmFreeway.  To qualify, films must be submitted by May 15 and completed after June 1, 2019.

CFF showcases films from seasoned professionals, emerging filmmakers, and students. For the first time, the Chesapeake Film Festival will be awarding a $500 prize for the best student short film.  To qualify for that prize, filmmakers must be enrolled in undergraduate studies at a college or university.

A Passion for Oysters

Films are selected for their creativity and originality, story and direction. Generally, films that are not available online – or at least not until after the Chesapeake Film Festival – are given priority for the LIVE Festival.  Highly-rated films that can be shared universally are selected for the VIRTUAL Festival that provides filmmakers and our audience with a global reach.

“We want to give our LIVE audience the opportunity to see great films that can’t see anywhere else,” explained CFF Festival Director Cid Collins Walker. “But there are exceptions to that guideline. For example, last year, we screened Roman Holiday, a 1953 film that introduced Audrey Hepburn to the world.  But we had the honor of having producer Catherine Wyler, the daughter of the legendary director William Wyler discuss the film and her father’s other Oscar-winning classics.”

Collins Walker has invited many more award-winning filmmakers to participate in the 2023 LIVE Festival.  “Talking with the people behind the scenes – the directors, cinematographers, the musicians and other wizards of the industry – is a rare and special opportunity.”

The final deadline for submitting films to the 2023 Chesapeake Film Festival is May 15 either via our website at www.chesapeakefilmfestival.com or on our webpage at FilmFreeway.com Filmmakers will be notified of the jury’s decisions by June 15.

The Chesapeake Film Festival is sponsored by Enel North America, Bluepoint Hospitality, Shared Earth Foundation, Maryland State Arts Council, Artistic Insights Fund, Talbot Arts, the Maryland Film Office, Fairfield Inn & Suites Marriott, Porch, and Hire A Helper. We invite other organizations and individuals to join our team. Your funds help us raise the bar even higher on an already stellar series of events.

For more information about sponsorships or to donate, please visit chesapeakefilmfestival.com or contact Executive Director, Nancy Tabor at 443-955-9144.

Tidewater Camera Club April Speaker Meeting

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On April 3rd, 2023, at 7 PM, professional photographer Howard Clark will present a program to the Tidewater Camera Club entitled “Getting from Good to Great”. This program illustrates the numerous “elements” of photography that could either enhance or degrade images. Of course, the standard elements of good composition (leading lines, s-curves, repeating details, balance, et al.), are at the top of the list. However, the effects of weather, location, camera position, or time of day, can also be major contributors to image success. Our images can also benefit from subjective elements such as humor, mystery, or surprise. Howard’s lecture illustrates all of these and many more. It ends with a look at about 15 high-quality images – giving the audience an opportunity to consider which elements may have contributed to their success. Please note: the focus of this 200-slide lecture is on capturing, creating, or improving our images rather than processing them. The program will take place from 7 PM to 8:30 PM and will include time for questions, discussion and a couple of short breaks. This will be a two-part program with Howard critiquing images on May 1st submitted by club members by April 23rd. More information about the May event is on the TCC website: https://tidewatercameraclub.org

Howard Clark has over 55 years of experience with “enthusiast” and professional level gear. Landscapes and scenics account for most of his images, and water appears in about 80% of those. He participates in two camera clubs and two art associations and has exhibited photos in 35 different galleries around D.C. Solo exhibits account for 12 of the 35. In 2020, Howard began a new career as an Adjunct Professor of Photography at Frederick Community College.

Date: April 3, 2023

Time: 7-8:30 PM

Place: Universal Unitarian Church, 7401 Ocean Gateway, Easton, MD 21601

Topic: Getting from Good to Great

Elizabeth Song Shines in Her Orchestral Debut with the MSO

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Elizabeth Song

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is proud to announce the successful orchestral debut of Elizabeth Song, the winner of the MSO’s Elizabeth Loker Concerto Competition this past January. Ms. Song, as the winner of the concerto competition’s first prize, along with a $2,000 cash prize, was the featured soloist in the MSO’s recent March concert series, which took place on Thursday, March 9th in Easton, MD, Friday, March 10th in Ocean Pines, MD, and Saturday, March 11th in Rehoboth Beach, DE.

Ms. Song’s performance of Henri Vieuxtemps Violin Concerto no. 5 in A Minor was nothing short of breathtaking. With her virtuosic technique and musicality, she brought new life to this beloved work, earning thunderous applause and a standing ovation from the audience.

“Elizabeth Song’s performance was a true highlight of our March concerts,” said Michael Repper, Music Director of the MSO. “Her artistry and technical mastery were simply stunning, and it was a privilege to make music with her.”

In addition to Ms. Song’s performance, the MSO’s March concert series featured a diverse program of classical music, including Johannes Brahms’ Tragic Overture and Florence Price’s Symphony no. 1 in E Minor. The MSO was in top form, delivering powerful and nuanced performances under the baton of Maestro Repper.

“We are grateful to our audience for their support of the MSO and the arts in our community,” said Repper. “We are committed to bringing the highest quality classical music to the Delmarva peninsula, and we look forward to sharing more beautiful music with our audience in the future.”

ABOUT ELIZABETH SONG

Elizabeth Song is a thirteen-year-old fourth year Juilliard Pre-College Violin student, and she currently studies with Dr Masao Kawasaki. Previously, she studied with Dr I Hao Lee and Dr.Jiwon Kim. Elizabeth is the current concertmaster of the North Jersey Regions Middle School Orchestra. She is also a Laureate of the Chicago International Violin Competition (2022). As the winner of Juilliard Pre-College under 14 concerto competition, she will perform Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-Georges Violin Concerto in A major Opus 5 No2 with the Juilliard Pre College String Orchestra on May 13, 2023.

This summer, she will attend the Morningside Music Bridge Program, a full scholarship program at New England Conservatory in Boston.

ABOUT THE MID-ATLANTIC SYMPHONY ORCHESTRA

The Mid-Atlantic Symphony Orchestra (MSO) is the only professional symphony orchestra serving southern Delaware and Maryland’s Eastern Shore with a full season of programs. The MSO is supported in part by the Maryland State Arts Council; the Talbot County Arts Council; the Worcester County Arts Council; the Sussex County, Delaware Council; and the Community Foundation of the Eastern Shore, Inc.

A complete schedule of the 2022-2023 season’s Masterworks and Ensembles programs, venues, times, and other information is available at www.midatlanticsymphony.org.

Joe Holt with Scott Robinson at The Mainstay

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Scott Robinson

On Friday, April 7, The Mainstay in Rock Hall, Maryland presents another installment in its First Friday with Joe Holt concert presentations. Joe Holt, jazz pianist and accompanist, welcomes a different musical guest at each of his monthly programs. For his April show he welcomes Scott Robinson, one of the most versatile and wide-ranging instrumentalists on the jazz scene today.

Scott has been heard on tenor sax with Buck Clayton’s band, on trumpet with Lionel Hampton’s quintet, on alto clarinet with Paquito D’Rivera’s clarinet quartet, and on the formidable bass sax with the New York City Opera. On these and other instruments including theremin and ophicleide, he has performed with a cross-section of jazz’s greats. A respected performer in all areas of jazz, from traditional to avant-garde, Scott Robinson has arrived at his own unique musical voice which, as once described in a Northsea Jazz Festival program, “combines solid foundations with great daring”.

Scott has been heard numerous times on film, radio and television, and his discography now includes over 165 recordings. His four recording releases as a leader have garnered five-star reviews from Leonard Feather, Down Beat Magazine and other sources worldwide. The newest, Melody from the Sky (featuring the seldom-heard C-Melody saxophone), was recently the subject of a Wall Street Journal article by Nat Hentoff. A busy traveler, Scott has performed in some thirty nations, recently completing tours on five continents in a three-month period. He has performed at Carnegie Hall, at the Village Vanguard, at the Smithsonian Institution, and for the President of the United States. Scott’s group was selected to be the closing act at the Knitting Factory’s Sun Ra Festival in New York City. He was also an invited speaker at the Congressional Black Caucus Jazz Forum in Washington, D.C.

In 1981, he graduated from Boston’s Berklee College of Music, and a year later became, at 22, Berklee’s youngest faculty member.

Scott has been awarded four fellowships by the National Endowment for the Arts, and participated in a number of Grammy-nominated recordings.

Showtime for the live concert event is 8 pm. Tickets are $20 in advance of the show and can be purchased online at mainstayrockhall.org. Phone reservations are accepted by calling (410) 639-9133 (tickets reserved by phone are $25 when paid at the door). The Mainstay is located at 5753 N Main Street in Rock Hall, Maryland. Its regular calendar of local, regional, and nationally touring artists features a live performance every week of the year (February through December) in a variety of music genres.

The programs of the Mainstay are supported with funds from the Maryland State Arts Council and the Kent Cultural Alliance.

Authors & Oysters: David Goodrich

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The Bookplate is happily continuing their popular Authors & Oysters event series at The Retriever Bar in 2023. Author Brooks Yeager was featured in the most recent Authors & Oysters event on March 15th. Next up on Wednesday, April 5th at 6pm, all are invited to The Retriever to welcome back author and cyclist David Goodrich as he discusses his latest book, “On Freedom Road; Bicycle Explorations and Reckonings on The Underground Railroad”.

“The traces of the Underground Railroad hide in plain sight: a great church in Philadelphia; a humble old house backing up to the New Jersey Turnpike; an industrial outbuilding in Ohio. Over the course of four years, David Goodrich rode his bicycle 3,000 miles east of the Mississippi to travel the routes of the Underground Railroad and delve into the history and stories in the places where they happened. He followed the most famous of conductors, Harriet Tubman, from where she was enslaved in Maryland, on the eastern shore, all the way to her family sanctuary at a tiny chapel in Ontario, Canada. On Freedom Road: Bicycle Explorations and Reckonings on the Underground Railroad enables us to see familiar places—New York and Philadelphia, New Orleans and Buffalo—in a very different light: from the vantage point of desperate people seeking to outrun the reach of slavery. Join in this journey to find the heroes and stories, both known and hidden, of the Underground Railroad.”

David Goodrich worked at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and served as the Director of the UN Global Climate Observing System in Geneva, Switzerland. He retired as head of NOAA’s Climate Observations and Monitoring Program. In addition to his cross-country bicycle trip, he has ridden down the Appalachians and across Montana, South Dakota, France and Spain. His written works include A Hole in the Wind and A Voyage Across an Ancient Ocean. He lives in Maryland.

“On Freedom Road is a vital and accessible text for readers to understand the conditions enslaved people faced when attempting escape.”—Booklist

“Climate scientist Goodrich documents his bike rides along ‘routes of the Underground Railroad’ in this illuminating blend of history and travelog. Throughout, Goodrich reveals how slavery is remembered and misremembered in America, and makes a convincing case that ‘national trauma, like a wound, tends to heal when it’s exposed to air.’ It’s a harrowing yet inspirational ride.” —Publishers Weekly

“A heartfelt reminder of the importance of remembering our past in order to continue to learn from it.”—Kirkus Reviews

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. The next Authors & Oysters event is scheduled for 4/19 with National Book Award winner, Edward Ball. All events are held in the back room of The Retriever, located at 337 ½ High Street in Chestertown, Maryland.