Like oppressed minorities throughout the centuries, gay Victorians used a coded language to communicate privately with one another, a code designed to be undetectable by members of mainstream society. In the hands of the sophisticated and witty Irish playwright Oscar Wilde, that secret cipher became...
The sumptuous new Romare Bearden exhibit at Maryland's largest African-American museum contains nearly five dozen collages, paintings and prints that any institution would be proud to display. Visitors to the Reginald F. Lewis Museum of Maryland African American History & Culture wander from one...
A Baltimore art historian offers a cautionary tale: Be careful what you cast out. From the middle 1870s through 1925, the annual art exhibition staged at the Peabody Institute on Mount Vernon Place contained celebrated works, many of them purchased through the benevolence of the wealthy merchant...
The man who shouted “Heil Hitler, heil Trump” at a Baltimore performance of “Fiddler on the Roof” apologized Friday for his outburst, saying he chose the wrong words when he was attempting to compare President Donald Trump to the Nazi leader. Anthony M. Derlunas II, 58, said the play, which tells...
A man shocked theatergoers and alarmed members of Baltimore’s Jewish community when he shouted a pro-Nazi and pro-Trump salute during a performance at the Hippodrome Theatre on Wednesday night. The incident, during which the man shouted “Heil Hitler, Heil Trump,” was especially notable because...
The Baltimore Symphony Orchestra announced late Tuesday that concertmaster Jonathan Carney’s suspension will continue through Sunday. In a statement, the BSO cited Carney’s “behaving in an unprofessional manner and exercising poor judgment.” The news came the same day a judge denied a peace order...
1. “Becoming” by Michelle Obama (Crown, $32.50) 2. “Gmorning, Gnight!: Little Pep Talks for Me & You” by Lin-Manuel Miranda (Random House, $22) 3. “Educated: A Memoir” by Tara Westover (Random House, $28) 4. “Kingdom of the Blind: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel” (Minotaur, $28.99) 5. “Diary of...
Author Octavia Butler is still sowing seeds, through her words on the page. Butler’s book, “Parable of the Sower,” the first in the Earthseed series wherein Lauren Oya Olamina tries to make a life in a world where society has fallen in on itself over issues like climate change, wealth inequality,...
Chicago’s literary scene continued to thrum in 2018, producing a bounty of worthy reads — a National Book Award nominee among them. Here’s a brief list of notable titles.
Welcome to the first installment of the Biblioracle Books of the Year Awards, in which I offer entirely idiosyncratic prizes to some of my favorite books of the year. The awards will be named in two, consecutive weekly columns, only because my editor says I’m not allowed to do seven parts. This...
“Somewhere in america/ the prison bus is running on time,” writes Tongo Eisen-Martin in “Heaven Is All Goodbyes” (City Lights, $15.95), the poetry collection I turned to most in 2018. (It came out in September 2017, but I got hip to it late — this isn’t science.) Eisen-Martin is singing in dark...