poetry

Through her autobiographies, poems, essays, lectures and work in front and behind the camera, as well as on stage, Angelou touched generations. Her poignant writings about her own pains, challenges and triumphs; and issues involving civil rights, poverty and racial and social injustices, were brutally honest and on point. But they were done with a finesse that pulled the reader or listener in and left them, if not with a sense of hope for the future, with at least something to think about..

When he went to bed on Tuesday night, Levi B. Watkins was looking forward to flying to North Carolina this week to visit a "close friend and soul mate," just as he'd done so often for years.

D. Watkins' unflinching portraits of the lives of poor, black Baltimoreans have gained him national recognition, a literary agent and talk of a book deal.

This couple's relationship took full bloom under the cherry blossoms

Timonium poet Ann Kolakowski writes about lost town of Warren where her grandmother grew up and which is now the site of Loch Raven Reservoir in new collection, "Persistence: Poems of Warren, Maryland."

When Lyric Opera Baltimore closes its season with Verdi's first hit, 'Nabucco,' the audience will not only get to hear an encore of a choral number, but sing along with it.

Stephen Costello, who was an up-and-coming tenor when he made his Baltimore Opera debut in 2008, is back to sing a concert with soprano Nicole Cabell for the company's successor.

Dyane Fancey, a prominent poet in Baltimore's arts community who also worked in the city school system and a popular Mt. Vernon restaurant, died April 13 of heart failure.

For more than 30 years, Shirley Johannesen Levine, a Columbia resident, has entertained audiences across the country and around the world with her puppetry skills and her company, Puppet Dance Productions. Using mime, music and her own hand-made puppets, Levine encourages everyone from young children to senior citizens to "stretch their imagination" as she brings poems and stories to life.

Anne Arundel County datebook

Photographs inspired by Ezra Pound's 'Cathay'

Iron Crow Theatre Co. applies gay perspective to master of macabre

Afaa Michael Weaver, a Baltimore native who once worked at Bethlehem Steel and Proctor & Gamble, has won one the country's most poetry prizes.

The Cavaliers, the three-time defending Class 2A champion out of Prince Frederick, overcame a halftime deficit and held on for a 53-50 victory at Towson University's SECU Arena. Calvert's Daijha Thomas — who was playing on her future home court — was dominant, finishing with 29 points and seven rebounds.

Previewing the girls basketball state semifinals.

Ballet Theatre of Maryland is starting its 2014 season in history-making fashion, offering its first full-length production of "Swan Lake," in three performances over the Feb. 21-23 weekend at Maryland Hall for the Creative Arts.

MK Asante has been nominated for an NAACP Image Award

Natalie Leveque is the spelling champion of Folly Quarter Middle School

National Symphony Orchestra will perform Hindemith's "When Lilacs Last in the Dooryard Bloom'd," a piece sometimes called an "American requiem."

John Weber, a tenor who sang in opera productions and was the music director of a Rodgers Forge church, died of an apparent heart attack Jan. 17. The Catonsville resident was 50.

Allen Costley scored six points in just over a minute to spark a 10-point run that gave No. 2 Milford Mill control, and the Millers went on to a 56-44 victory over No. 12 Dunbar Friday in the 18th Annual Basketball Academy tournament at Morgan State.